Consolidated Kansas

[Deerfield Acres]

Welcome to you newcomers!!!

Rob, just tilt the birds head back a bit and put one drop of the vet rx in each nostril. It really does help clear them up.

Tweety, I am SO glad to hear you're doing so great! Wonderful!

Checoukan and Hawkeye, so glad you had a great time together. Looking forward to the pics!

HEChicken, it's been challenging for us to keep the FF going while we're trying to get ready for Thanksgiving too. Our birds are eating dry food today but we'll be back on track tomorrow. I have a couple little heat mats I'm going to put under the feed buckets in the garage so I'll have the mess out of the kitchen. Tis the season to bake and cook!

So this a.m. the kids and I processed 3 ducks, 3 roosters and one turkey before I ran out of energy and had to quit for the day. Now my fever is back and I will be off to the Doctor tomorrow. I hate going to the Doctor, but oh well. I better snap out of this for Thanksgiving -- my brother is coming and I can't have this nonsense.

DH finished another breeder house, #3 and I'm using it for growing out some young birds. I have 3 pens with different age older chicks growing out. One is a pen of my Swedish Flowers -- they are doing great! They really seem to be much healthier than my Speckled Sussex were. The other two pens have chicks from my Aloha and Speckled Sussex roos. Right now I have one Speckled Sussex, Buff Rock and Isabel Orp. Soon as the chicks are larger, I'll keep the ones I want to breed and sell the others then I can set up the breeder pens again. I have one more week of incubating before I shut down for a month. I just have a few more duck eggs going from my Anconas and Cayugas. The brooder I set up in the unfinished part of the shop sure works great. Nice to have all that dust out of my craft room!

 

[PrairieChickens]

I would love to get cochins and my husband is really interested in them too, but I read they aren't very heat tolerant... How do you guys deal with your cochins in the Kansas summers? Do they handle it ok, or do they require extra care?

 

[ppimf]

u get some extra cayugas let know my little girl is all alone she needs a male and a few more girls to be with

 

[checoukan]

Rob, I just drop some in their nostrils then squirt a little in their drinking water. I don't worry about being super neat about it.
Seems I spent my whole afternoon feeding and watering again. No wonder I never get anything done. It's getting colder and cloudier out there by the minute.
Brining a turkey puts the flavor of the salt and spices into the meat. It also makes the meat more tender and juicy. I've always been proud of cooking a nice moist turkey but whatever I can do to make it better I will. My sons like to fry or smoke turkeys which is fine but it isn't the same as a good old roast turkey to me.
I normally put my turkeys in a bucket of cold water and put a weight in to hold it under water and a lid on the bucket to thaw. But I need to thaw this one in the fridge. Does anyone have any idea how long it will take to thaw out about a 14 pound bird? I feel so dumb when I decide to do things different than normal!

Oh, my Danz, that reminded me one time Ivy's DH told her to put 2 pats of butter under the skin on top of the breast meat, said would keep the breast meat moist. Poor Ivy, when she pulled the tin foil off the bird, where the pats of butter had been, under the breast skin, but on top of the meat where these 2 square area's of white skin. Where the butter had been the skin did not brown!!!

Ivy just about dropped the turkey!!

Could not figure out what happened, and then it dawned on her! It was so funny, we all had a good laugh, but that turkey looked like it had a bra on, and Boobies! I will have her send me apicture she took. Was a great dinner anyway, lots of laughter and good times with family!!!

 

[checoukan]

Hechicken~~

So the first thing I would need to know is "drum roll" What time is your dinner? Like Noon, or evening. That is how you determine when to start cooking the turkey. I mean if you are eating at noon, sure start cooking bird early, so you can have your oven for other things, like green bean casserole!!! YUM YUM!!

But, if you are going to eat in the evening, well gonna have to wait until morning some time to cook the bird.
Are you going to stuff the bird, or just bake some stuffing in the oven. Im not crazy about stuffing a bird. I rather have it cooked in a dish.
I like green bean casserole, but I prefer my Grandmothers Corn Casserole. YUM YUM YUM!!!!
So are you going to have sweet potatoes, or Irish potatoes or both? We had both today.
Bread, hot rolls or fresh baked loaf?
Salads, cranberries, celery, carrot, bread n butter pickles, dip, so many things.

Are you going to do all the desserts, or are your guests going to bring their favorite sweet? We like to do that, cause it usually brings a wide variety of desserts. So, here are a few things, and make you a list, and work from that. Once you know when your oven will be free of the bird, then you can plan the rest of your meal, and have everything come out at just about the same time.

 

[mommahen10]

That's so funny HEChicken about the realtor not noticing. My older dds sort of made a deal that when they are pg and a stranger asks if they are pregnant when they are that they're going to act offended and say of course not. Well, my oldest dd is pg and she said she felt like a failure because when a stranger asked she was too embarassed to say she wasn't because she feels so huge and she's not huge at all.

There are Twinkies on Craigslist, 2 boxes for $50. There are more on eBay, $26 for one box.

Josie, nope I didn't open the incubator until I knew I had already lost one. Remember, we were texting and you told me not to just in time. I ran a tube down the vent hole in the top of the incubator, and I taped it shut to help with temptation or the kids just opening it to see the chicks. That incubator was not opened at all until after I raised the humidity, I turned the egg that I suspected was not okay with a piece of wire my ds bent, I was going to try to help him out with the wire but he was already gone and all I did was turn it and the end practically just fell open but not off. There were the 5 that were pipped at this point, I still waited, hours, from morning until evening. That's when I gave up and helped those 5 out, gradually. After getting them out, I waited again to let them have some time to rest in the incubator before I opened it again to investigate the other eggs. I do think it was the change, I should have left it alone or maybe just added a tiny bit to the bottom channels and not the sponge too. There is no fan in my incubator. Okay, so I'm definitely only going to put the 5 BOs with my sweet wimpy boy. I will look for a few more though. The guys have been out working on their new coop all day long, they got the hard part done and it should go together fast now. He's in a bigger pen now, he has much more room to move but tomorrow I'm going to put his girls in there with him for sure. We had to have a way to separate the BOs from the others their age. I am a little worried about the BOs going without their light at night. They're close to 2 months and have beautiful thick feathers so they should be fine.

checoukan, congrats on your win. It does sound like you had lots of fun. That's so funny about the turkey and the butter, I thought that was a good idea tough.

She is bright white Danz! I would go ahead and put the turkey in fridge. Even if it thaws in 2 days it's not going to go bad for a while. I plan to take mine out tomorrow and put it in the fridge.

Karen, I'm so glad you are getting to the doctor. My dd had walking pneumonia, the ER dr said there is a lot of it right now. You got a lot done, but maybe you should take more time to rest for now.

Our Thanksgiving menu~ Serving at noon.
Ham & Turkey, midnight until morning.
Pie, Wednesday evening, we usually finish around midnight. Pumpkin, Lemon Meringue, Coconut Cream, Sweet Potato, Pecan, Cherry, Apple and anything else we think of.
Candied Sweet Potatoes and Baked Macaroni are prepared on Tuesday and kept in fridge.
Stuffing is almost completely prepared on Monday, I add the bread crumbs right before stuffing the turkey on Wednesday afternoon.
Stuff mushrooms Wednesday afternoon.
Mashed potatoes, peeled by DH Wednesday afternoon. Stored in water in the fridge until Thursday.
Gravy, made Thursday morning.
Bread rolls, dough made Wednesday morning, rolled Wednesday evening, baked Thursday morning.
We will also have brocolli dip, spinach artichoke dip, veggie tray, not sure when I'm making those.

We don't like the traditional cranberry sauce, I'm going to try a recipe from maidenwolf for orange cranberry bread instead.

When we get up on Thursday morning the meats are already done and the oven is then open to cook everything in pans and casserole dishes. This allows the meat to cool just enough that we can slice it and put on serving platters ready to go. The pans are cleaned up before we even eat. This is the only time I ever use oven bags too, that helps so much. I also cook extra when we do the big cooking so I don't have to cook for Christmas, I do double of some things and it just goes into the freezer. We always get home late on Christmas Eve so there is no way I could cook then too.

 

[cherwill]

Grrr. I lost my multi quotes. It was mostly about Thanksgiving anyway, so I'll try to remember the questions. I did want to comment on Danz's white chicken, though. She's gorgeous. I don't know how those white birds stay so white (I have a white bird and she never looks dirty) when they play in the dirt all day!

So, Thanksgiving turkeys. My favorite way is to roast them, but DH likes to smoke things and he's very good at it. I've had the fried turkeys and they're good, but I've never made one myself. and don't care to. Since my in-laws have all decided they're too busy to do the turkey, my FIL asked DH if he would smoke one for them because they've never had one that way. I figure if he's smoking one, he might as well smoke two.

Brining -- Brining allows you to infuse flavor into the turkey while at the same time making sure it will stay moist during the cooking. For my 14 pound turkey, I'll use about a pound of kosher salt along with the various spices. I'm also using 2 quarts of apple cider as part of the liquid, as well as however much water is required to submerge the turkey. It can be brined 6-20 hours, so I'll be brining mine overnight Tuesday. You have to be careful, though, because many turkeys are already injected with "solution" in order to keep them moist. Sometimes it's a saline-type solution. Mine this year are injected with broth. It's possible to find them without all that junk in them, but it's not easy and usually not cheap. I talked to the meat guy, who is friend of ours. He always sets a turkey back for me so I can pick it up later; that way it isn't taking up space in my fridge and I don't have to worry about defrosting. He said the nutrition label says there's 8% sodium, so he recommended using a little less than the full pound of salt, but definitely more than 1/2 a pound.

Defrosting -- Last night I was watching Food Network and Alton Brown says to allow a full day for every 4 pounds of turkey you need defrosted. If you don't defrost in the refrigerator, you can significantly speed up the process by submerging it in water and keeping the water moving. He had some elaborate contraption using a fish tank pump. You could leave the turkey in the sink or bathtub and keep the tap running but that sounds like a huge pain to me. You'd have to figure out how fast to keep the water flowing in order to keep up with the rate of water draining out, and it would use a lot of water because it will still take overnight to defrost the turkey.

Roasting -- I usually make a spiced or herbed butter and spread it under the skin of the turkey. I've always spread it around pretty good, so I've never had part of the skin stay pale. I can't wait to see that picture! Then I stuff the cavity with whatever sounds good at the time -- halved onions, lemons, oranges, apples, or a combination of any of those, and fresh herbs. I roast 12-14 pound turkeys at 350 and use a probe thermometer to know when they're done. I think it usually takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours. After you remove the turkey from the oven, you let it rest 20-30 minutes otherwise the juices will run out when you cut it. Most of the recipes I've seen don't say to cover the turkey, but I tent mine with foil because it seems like it cools off too fast otherwise.

When DH smokes a turkey, we can't eat it the same day because the smoking takes too long. I carve it and then refrigerate it. I reheat it in the oven at 350. I sometimes put a little broth in with it, and always cover it tightly while reheating. You kind of have to keep an eye on it because you can dry it out if it's in there too long. The kind of pan you reheat it in will affect how long it takes to heat it up. He'll be smoking the turkeys Wednesday. That will be fine for his family's celebration because it's on Thursday. Mine isn't until Saturday and I've never made a turkey that far in advance. On the other hand, I've eaten some fine leftovers that many days later, so maybe it won't be too bad or too dry.

Since I like to make the whole meal myself, I do a significant amount of planning ahead. Because I'm OCD, I even make a time line for myself to follow. Things like cranberry sauce are best if they're made ahead and most can be made a week in advance. I usually make it a day or two ahead. Vegetables that don't turn colors can be chopped ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Dressing/stuffing can be assembled the day before. Pies are often better if made a day ahead, at least the pumpkin pie. It's like soup, the flavors develop more overnight. Alton Brown says pecan pie can be made ahead and frozen, but I've never tried it. So my time line lists which things I will make on which day. For the actual day of Thanksgiving, I even have times listed -- what time to get something put together, what time it goes in the oven, what time it needs to come out of the oven. It sounds horrible, but I actually enjoy it. My SIL calls me Martha Stewart for a reason!

For those doing Thanksgiving for the first time, make it as easy on yourself as possible! Something it took me a while to learn is to balance how many dishes need to be baked and how many are prepared on the stovetop. When I'm planning the meal, I specifically try to make it so a number of things can be made or partially made in advance. I do it all myself because it's my favorite holiday and I like to experiment with the menu and not worry about what anyone else is doing. DH's family is huge and we all just bring several things. My SIL used to send out a sign up email listing what she wanted (sweet potatoes, potatoes, green beans, whatever) and let people sign up for what they wanted to bring. That system fell apart some years ago when people wouldn't commit to coming so they wouldn't sign up, then they'd show up. Sometimes they brought stuff, sometimes not. So now she assigns things to those of us she knows for sure will be there. Sometimes she's very specific, like the potatoes have to be mashed potatoes, and sometimes she just says bring it however you want. They love my cheesecake, so I'm assigned that for every holiday, along with whatever else she needs me to bring.

I do it differently every year except the pies. There's always some form of turkey and gravy, some form of potato, some form of dressing, some form of cranberries, some kind of orange food like sweet potato or winter squash, and another vegetable or two. Sometimes I make rolls, sometimes not. This year it's a bacon-wrapped smoked turkey and gravy, a very basic dressing with white bread and herbs, thinly sliced potatoes baked with a little thyme in muffin tins so they'll be individual little crispy potato cakes, relish made of uncooked cranberries with orange and mint, steamed winter squash with spiced butter and pomegranate seeds sprinkled over them, and brussels sprouts cooked with shallots. One year I canned some spiced pickled peaches and they were a big hit. I got peaches this year and canned some, so I'll have some of those on the table again. My family is used to being guinea pigs when it comes to my meals! The only thing that doesn't change, by request, is the pumpkin pie and coffee-toffee pecan pie for dessert.

And that's the end of the Thanksgiving lecture, I think. I know it was long, but those are the basics I really wish someone had passed along to me when I was first learning how to handle the holiday type meals. I know some of the other turkey veterans here will have their own knowledge and ways of doing things, and I look forward to learning about it. Even if it's something I'm not new at, I'm always learning things from the people here. I'm thankful for you!

 

[cherwill]

When we get up on Thursday morning the meats are already done and the oven is then open to cook everything in pans and casserole dishes. This allows the meat to cool just enough that we can slice it and put on serving platters ready to go. The pans are cleaned up before we even eat. This is the only time I ever use oven bags too, that helps so much. I also cook extra when we do the big cooking so I don't have to cook for Christmas, I do double of some things and it just goes into the freezer. We always get home late on Christmas Eve so there is no way I could cook then too.

How do you do that? Do you cook them overnight at a lower temperature? I've heard of cooking the turkey overnight, but I don't know how it works or what you need to do.

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken, it's been challenging for us to keep the FF going while we're trying to get ready for Thanksgiving too. Our birds are eating dry food today but we'll be back on track tomorrow. I have a couple little heat mats I'm going to put under the feed buckets in the garage so I'll have the mess out of the kitchen. Tis the season to bake and cook!

So this a.m. the kids and I processed 3 ducks, 3 roosters and one turkey before I ran out of energy and had to quit for the day. Now my fever is back and I will be off to the Doctor tomorrow. I hate going to the Doctor, but oh well. I better snap out of this for Thanksgiving -- my brother is coming and I can't have this nonsense.

That makes me feel better that you are finding it challenging too. I have mine in my DH's office right now since it is by far the warmest room in the house - not so good in summer but great this time of year. He hasn't said a word about it - what a champ.

Did you process your tom turkey? Will that be for Thanksgiving dinner? If you don't mind me asking, was that harder than the roosters? I am concerned about my ability to do the turkeys next year....

So sorry to hear your fever is back. I hope you are able to kick this thing for once and for all in the next couple of days. With your brother coming in and the kids out of school and Thanksgiving I hope you are feeling well enough to enjoy.

Hechicken~~

So the first thing I would need to know is "drum roll" What time is your dinner? Like Noon, or evening. That is how you determine when to start cooking the turkey. I mean if you are eating at noon, sure start cooking bird early, so you can have your oven for other things, like green bean casserole!!! YUM YUM!!

But, if you are going to eat in the evening, well gonna have to wait until morning some time to cook the bird.
Are you going to stuff the bird, or just bake some stuffing in the oven. Im not crazy about stuffing a bird. I rather have it cooked in a dish.
I like green bean casserole, but I prefer my Grandmothers Corn Casserole. YUM YUM YUM!!!!
So are you going to have sweet potatoes, or Irish potatoes or both? We had both today.
Bread, hot rolls or fresh baked loaf?
Salads, cranberries, celery, carrot, bread n butter pickles, dip, so many things.

Are you going to do all the desserts, or are your guests going to bring their favorite sweet? We like to do that, cause it usually brings a wide variety of desserts. So, here are a few things, and make you a list, and work from that. Once you know when your oven will be free of the bird, then you can plan the rest of your meal, and have everything come out at just about the same time.

Oh, thank you for asking all of these questions - many I have not even thought of myself. My SIL and I still need to get together to discuss specifics like time of day. I think since I am hosting I will have a lot of say-so in that and my preference would be for a mid-late afternoon dinner but if someone has to be somewhere early, we may need to move it up.

Our Thanksgiving menu~ Serving at noon.
Ham & Turkey, midnight until morning.
Pie, Wednesday evening, we usually finish around midnight. Pumpkin, Lemon Meringue, Coconut Cream, Sweet Potato, Pecan, Cherry, Apple and anything else we think of.
Candied Sweet Potatoes and Baked Macaroni are prepared on Tuesday and kept in fridge.
Stuffing is almost completely prepared on Monday, I add the bread crumbs right before stuffing the turkey on Wednesday afternoon.
Stuff mushrooms Wednesday afternoon.
Mashed potatoes, peeled by DH Wednesday afternoon. Stored in water in the fridge until Thursday.
Gravy, made Thursday morning.
Bread rolls, dough made Wednesday morning, rolled Wednesday evening, baked Thursday morning.
We will also have brocolli dip, spinach artichoke dip, veggie tray, not sure when I'm making those.

We don't like the traditional cranberry sauce, I'm going to try a recipe from maidenwolf for orange cranberry bread instead.

When we get up on Thursday morning the meats are already done and the oven is then open to cook everything in pans and casserole dishes. This allows the meat to cool just enough that we can slice it and put on serving platters ready to go. The pans are cleaned up before we even eat. This is the only time I ever use oven bags too, that helps so much. I also cook extra when we do the big cooking so I don't have to cook for Christmas, I do double of some things and it just goes into the freezer. We always get home late on Christmas Eve so there is no way I could cook then too.

Thank you for providing your menu - that will help a lot in figuring out what we're going to have!

Grrr. I lost my multi quotes. It was mostly about Thanksgiving anyway, so I'll try to remember the questions. I did want to comment on Danz's white chicken, though. She's gorgeous. I don't know how those white birds stay so white (I have a white bird and she never looks dirty) when they play in the dirt all day!

So, Thanksgiving turkeys. My favorite way is to roast them, but DH likes to smoke things and he's very good at it. I've had the fried turkeys and they're good, but I've never made one myself. and don't care to. Since my in-laws have all decided they're too busy to do the turkey, my FIL asked DH if he would smoke one for them because they've never had one that way. I figure if he's smoking one, he might as well smoke two.

Brining -- Brining allows you to infuse flavor into the turkey while at the same time making sure it will stay moist during the cooking. For my 14 pound turkey, I'll use about a pound of kosher salt along with the various spices. I'm also using 2 quarts of apple cider as part of the liquid, as well as however much water is required to submerge the turkey. It can be brined 6-20 hours, so I'll be brining mine overnight Tuesday. You have to be careful, though, because many turkeys are already injected with "solution" in order to keep them moist. Sometimes it's a saline-type solution. Mine this year are injected with broth. It's possible to find them without all that junk in them, but it's not easy and usually not cheap. I talked to the meat guy, who is friend of ours. He always sets a turkey back for me so I can pick it up later; that way it isn't taking up space in my fridge and I don't have to worry about defrosting. He said the nutrition label says there's 8% sodium, so he recommended using a little less than the full pound of salt, but definitely more than 1/2 a pound.

Defrosting -- Last night I was watching Food Network and Alton Brown says to allow a full day for every 4 pounds of turkey you need defrosted. If you don't defrost in the refrigerator, you can significantly speed up the process by submerging it in water and keeping the water moving. He had some elaborate contraption using a fish tank pump. You could leave the turkey in the sink or bathtub and keep the tap running but that sounds like a huge pain to me. You'd have to figure out how fast to keep the water flowing in order to keep up with the rate of water draining out, and it would use a lot of water because it will still take overnight to defrost the turkey.

Roasting -- I usually make a spiced or herbed butter and spread it under the skin of the turkey. I've always spread it around pretty good, so I've never had part of the skin stay pale. I can't wait to see that picture! Then I stuff the cavity with whatever sounds good at the time -- halved onions, lemons, oranges, apples, or a combination of any of those, and fresh herbs. I roast 12-14 pound turkeys at 350 and use a probe thermometer to know when they're done. I think it usually takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours. After you remove the turkey from the oven, you let it rest 20-30 minutes otherwise the juices will run out when you cut it. Most of the recipes I've seen don't say to cover the turkey, but I tent mine with foil because it seems like it cools off too fast otherwise.

When DH smokes a turkey, we can't eat it the same day because the smoking takes too long. I carve it and then refrigerate it. I reheat it in the oven at 350. I sometimes put a little broth in with it, and always cover it tightly while reheating. You kind of have to keep an eye on it because you can dry it out if it's in there too long. The kind of pan you reheat it in will affect how long it takes to heat it up. He'll be smoking the turkeys Wednesday. That will be fine for his family's celebration because it's on Thursday. Mine isn't until Saturday and I've never made a turkey that far in advance. On the other hand, I've eaten some fine leftovers that many days later, so maybe it won't be too bad or too dry.

Since I like to make the whole meal myself, I do a significant amount of planning ahead. Because I'm OCD, I even make a time line for myself to follow. Things like cranberry sauce are best if they're made ahead and most can be made a week in advance. I usually make it a day or two ahead. Vegetables that don't turn colors can be chopped ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Dressing/stuffing can be assembled the day before. Pies are often better if made a day ahead, at least the pumpkin pie. It's like soup, the flavors develop more overnight. Alton Brown says pecan pie can be made ahead and frozen, but I've never tried it. So my time line lists which things I will make on which day. For the actual day of Thanksgiving, I even have times listed -- what time to get something put together, what time it goes in the oven, what time it needs to come out of the oven. It sounds horrible, but I actually enjoy it. My SIL calls me Martha Stewart for a reason!

For those doing Thanksgiving for the first time, make it as easy on yourself as possible! Something it took me a while to learn is to balance how many dishes need to be baked and how many are prepared on the stovetop. When I'm planning the meal, I specifically try to make it so a number of things can be made or partially made in advance. I do it all myself because it's my favorite holiday and I like to experiment with the menu and not worry about what anyone else is doing. DH's family is huge and we all just bring several things. My SIL used to send out a sign up email listing what she wanted (sweet potatoes, potatoes, green beans, whatever) and let people sign up for what they wanted to bring. That system fell apart some years ago when people wouldn't commit to coming so they wouldn't sign up, then they'd show up. Sometimes they brought stuff, sometimes not. So now she assigns things to those of us she knows for sure will be there. Sometimes she's very specific, like the potatoes have to be mashed potatoes, and sometimes she just says bring it however you want. They love my cheesecake, so I'm assigned that for every holiday, along with whatever else she needs me to bring.

I do it differently every year except the pies. There's always some form of turkey and gravy, some form of potato, some form of dressing, some form of cranberries, some kind of orange food like sweet potato or winter squash, and another vegetable or two. Sometimes I make rolls, sometimes not. This year it's a bacon-wrapped smoked turkey and gravy, a very basic dressing with white bread and herbs, thinly sliced potatoes baked with a little thyme in muffin tins so they'll be individual little crispy potato cakes, relish made of uncooked cranberries with orange and mint, steamed winter squash with spiced butter and pomegranate seeds sprinkled over them, and brussels sprouts cooked with shallots. One year I canned some spiced pickled peaches and they were a big hit. I got peaches this year and canned some, so I'll have some of those on the table again. My family is used to being guinea pigs when it comes to my meals! The only thing that doesn't change, by request, is the pumpkin pie and coffee-toffee pecan pie for dessert.

And that's the end of the Thanksgiving lecture, I think. I know it was long, but those are the basics I really wish someone had passed along to me when I was first learning how to handle the holiday type meals. I know some of the other turkey veterans here will have their own knowledge and ways of doing things, and I look forward to learning about it. Even if it's something I'm not new at, I'm always learning things from the people here. I'm thankful for you!

Okay, so I copied and posted all of your info to a Word document so I won't have to go back pages and pages to find it again a few days from now. Thank you for taking the time to document all of that!

 

[sharol]

I used to cook the turkey all night. I would be sure it was completely thawed, prepare it the night before (salt on the inside and outside), stuff it, and stick it in the oven at 225 at about midnight and leave it there until about noon the next day. I did that for at least 15 years. I learned later that it really isn't safe to cook turkey at that low a temp because the inside of the turkey is at too low/high a temp for too long. We never got sick, though. That was the best turkey I every cooked. Of course we could have all gotten sick if there had been salmonella bacteria in the turkey when I bought it. Not sure I would do it that way again.

How do you do that? Do you cook them overnight at a lower temperature? I've heard of cooking the turkey overnight, but I don't know how it works or what you need to do.