My first turkey

gwenn

Ok Its my first time hosting thanksgiving. I have a 19 lb turkey. I sure good use advice on how to cook this thing. I have a turkey bag to cook it in and a giant roasting pan. My BF's mom does this great thing with a turkey bag and red wine but she is in Mexico and is hard to get a hold of at the moment. Thanks for you help!

AlaskaDeb

Hey Gwen-

I have never used a turkey bag, but I can tell you how I cook my turkey....

Make sure the bird it totally thawed. Remove all the giblets and rinse the bird inside and out. I put the turkey in a roasting pan with a cover. Put the bird on a rack in the pan, if it has one. If it doesn't you can put 4 or 5 celery ribs in the bottom pan to act as a rack. I don't do stuffing in the bird, so I just season the inside of the bird with salt and pepper. Take the tip of the wing and bend it back under the bird's shoulder, or you can cover the tips of the wings later so they don't over brown. Add about a cup of water to the pan. Baste the whole turkey with melted butter. Put the lid on the pan and cook at 325 for about an hour and a half. Remove the lid and cook uncovered, basting every half an hour or so until done. It should take 4 to 4.5 hours at 325 degrees, but every oven is different. You can always add wine or broth to the basting liquid. Good luck.
Deb C.

Mr__Tinkerbell

It will take about 6 hours for this bird. So take your time and drink the bottle of wine. If the bird doesn't come out right spare yourself the ridicule and put the bag over your head till it's over.

LuAnnH

Here is how I do mine:

I make sure the bird it thawed well, hopefully you have pulled it out of the freezer already. I remove all the junk inside the bird and clean it out with hot water.

I mix stuffing to throw inside the bird (I know this is supposed dangerous, but I have been eating this way for 44 years and family has passed it down generations with no one getting sick from it). I put bread, celery, onion, egg, water, pepper and celery salt in my roaster and mix it up. You can toast some of the bread if you want. I take this mixture and stuff the bird. If any is leftover I put butter on aluminum foil and wrap it in that to cook with my bird.

I put my stuffed bird in the disposable roasting pan. Add water and cover it with foil. I then put this on a cookie sheet (helps catch drips that overflow) in my oven Wednesday night before I go to bed. Turn the oven on about 250 to 275. I cook this all night while I sleep. I usually wake up a couple times a night to use the restroom and baste it when I wake up.

When I get out of bed in the AM it is usually pretty close to done and the house smells wonderful! We eat our dinner early around noonish so I turn the oven up to 325 to finish off the bird and then keep it on warm til we eat. I do baste frequently to keep the bird moist.

Good luck on however you fix it. I am sure it will be wonderful!

LuAnn

dash

Look up Thanksgiving menu mailer in a search engine and you will find complete instructions on cooking your turkey and gravy and even veggies and dessert. ok- here's the link instead-- http://www.flylady.net/pages/Thmm1.asp
You can also call the butterball hotline at 1 800 butterball or go to butterball.com
When I cook something new, I generally read lots of recipes and then when I have a good idea of seasoning and times etc, I 'wing' it---pun intended...you'll do fine...good luck!

MargaretB

Gwenn, last week's SF Chronicle or SJ Mercury (think it was the Chronicle though) had a turkey dinner 101 in the food section. Go online to SFGate.com and you can probably find it. Have fun - my sister does Thanksgiving and I do Christmas.

Margaret

ADK

I just want to add if you are using a disposable pan for the turkey, make certain you use a cookie sheet underneath it. I almost had a disaster when I tried to take the finished bird out of the oven one year - the pan gets soft and flexible and I came so close to dropping it, I was shaking like a leaf when I got it out. I was alone because DH had gone to pick up a relative. It was really scary because I would have had grease all over my kitchen and possibly burns.

Good Luck and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

newvickie

Excellent point Anne...I had that happen the year before last...the pan folded in half and the grease ended up down my leg into my shoes!! Ouch and NOT fun...did some fancy dancing and saved the bird though.
My mom taught me to actually cook the turkey upside down...with the breast down...stays really juicy that way.
Have a wonderful, peaceful, stressfree Thanksgiving all.
Hugs
Vickie

LuAnnH

Vickie,

That is a really cool idea.....I might have to try that one!

LuAnn

Sandra1957

FYI: There are a couple of "cute", well maybe not so cute, recipes on the how 'bout drinking thread.