What's cooking? (2 Viewers)

[Lord Dalek]

I want to do a spatchcock turkey for Thanksgiving. What do I need to know?

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/...-thanksgiving-fast-easy-way-spatchcocked.html

This is both the way I learned about and how I do spatchcocked turkeys.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks. Good info. I’ve put the thermoworks & seriouseats links in my new bookmarks folder for thanksgiving

 

[Johnny Angell]

Seems like you could ask the butcher to spatchcock it for you. We do it for chickens.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What's cooking tonight? Nothing. I went to the store, had a menu planned, and as I'm beginning to shop an announcement is posted that they're not able to take credit cards today. I didn't have any cash, and the ATM is further than the store, so...nada.

Frozen food or delivery instead. But I tried!

 

[Malcolm R]

What's cooking tonight? Nothing. I went to the store, had a menu planned, and as I'm beginning to shop an announcement is posted that they're not able to take credit cards today. I didn't have any cash, and the ATM is further than the store, so...nada.

Frozen food or delivery instead. But I tried!

That's the only grocery store in your area? I live in a relatively small town, but we have three large supermarkets within a few miles, plus assorted neighborhood markets and quick stops.

Though it does make a good excuse to be creative with your pantry and fridge/freezer.

Pulls frost-encrusted package from freezer. "Gee, wonder what this is?"

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Pulls frost-encrusted package from freezer. "Gee, wonder what this is?"

"Gee, I thought that species was now extinct."

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I'm ready to try something different in red clam sauce. Generally I saute onions and diced zucchini then throw in the clams and marinara sauce. I separate the clams from their juice into a small glass, then add in slowly to prevent getting too much liquid. Good but getting old.

I have the large jar of small pimento stuffed green olives, so I thought I'd sub those for the zucchini and some petite diced tomatoes instead of the marinara sauce. The briny olives should be less soggy than the diced zucchini.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Has anyone been using an Instant Pot?

Peg is curious about getting one.

 

[Radioman970]

I'm a veggie. Tried some Gardein's sweet & sour meatless pork chunks. Used their sauce with some good slices of sweet onion, red/green bells chopped up. A bit of butter, salt, pepper. I lost track of time and it cooked a little long burning the sauce a little but was fantastic anyway. I was wondering what to put beside my Thanksgiving mac and cheese...goody!! I made some pretty good fried rice with some slightly overcooked egg chopped up and leftover veggie stir fry from Friday and PF Chang's Teriyaki sauce. Also some slightly burned garlic french bread. I've been busy with a home movie backup project and forgetting every damn thing! Was lucky nothing really got ruined.

 

[Malcolm R]

Has anyone been using an Instant Pot?

Peg is curious about getting one.

I'd be interested too. I've been thinking about getting one for my Mom. She has an old-fashioned pressure cooker that she uses occasionally. It must be 40 years old at least. I'd like to get her something more modern.

 

[NeatStuff]

I'm ready to try something different in red clam sauce. Generally I saute onions and diced zucchini then throw in the clams and marinara sauce. I separate the clams from their juice into a small glass, then add in slowly to prevent getting too much liquid. Good but getting old.

I have the large jar of small pimento stuffed green olives, so I thought I'd sub those for the zucchini and some petite diced tomatoes instead of the marinara sauce. The briny olives should be less soggy than the diced zucchini.

I would happily trade you 2 ribeyes for 1 good plate of clams. (I live in the deserts/plains of West Texas)

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

That doesn't help me much. Idaho has a much higher cattle to human ratio than Texas: 1.36 cattle/human vs. 0.41 cattle/human.
http://beef2live.com/story-cattle-inventory-vs-human-population-state-0-114255

My experiment was a failure. The unsliced olives weren't fork friendly and the clam juice diced tomatoes showed poorly in appearance.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'd be interested too. I've been thinking about getting one for my Mom. She has an old-fashioned pressure cooker that she uses occasionally. It must be 40 years old at least. I'd like to get her something more modern.

The instant pot was mentioned on CBS Sunday Morning today. They spent more time talking about old-style pressure cookers. So I checked out Amazon. It’s getting 4.5 stars out of over 30,000 reviews. Sounds like a success to me. I did notice several reviews mentioned that the manufacture runs the consumer thru hoops trying not to honor the warranty.

 

[Sam Posten]

Has anyone been using an Instant Pot?

Peg is curious about getting one.

Me. Love it. Use more water than what the net recommends is my general advice unless you are sure it’s right. My first few batches of rice came out as cakes.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I'll try the spatchcock turkey but will continue on to actually separating the halves. I'm single and a turkey is too big, but they want a real premium price for just a turkey breast. So I will cook the halves separately - maybe freeze half for much later. A local store had fresh turkeys for $0.97/lb which is less than half the price of a turkey breast. Martha Stewart has a time/temp listing for spatchcock turkey which should also apply to each half. Since the time is shorter I'll forgo brining so I can make gravy.

 

[DaveF]

Brining doesn’t exclude gravy. Scroll down to the “Meanwhile” section. Basically, use the spine and giblets to prep the gravy.

“Gallery: How to Cook a Spatchcocked Turkey: The Fastest, Easiest Thanksgiving Turkey | Serious Eats”

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/...ing-fast-easy-way-spatchcocked-slideshow.html

 

[DaveF]

Best. Timer. Ever. https://itunes.apple.com/us/story/id1313547779

I think this just made my Thanksgiving prep even easier!

 

[Lord Dalek]

What ever you do, DO NOT THROW AWAY THE BACKBONE OF YOUR SPATCHCOCKED TURKEY! It'll make some of the best gravy you've ever had.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Well that was fun. I feel I've been an actor in a Quentin Tarantino flick. But I bravely hacked and chopped a turkey into spatchcocked halves. Since I'm by myself I'll cook half today and the other half later. I'll roast on a bed of vegetables, mostly onions since I bought a 25 lb sack of onions on sale for $4 a few weeks ago. Maybe later I'll experiment with the gas grill on the other half, now cooling in the freezer.

I don't have a pair of poultry sheers so I used my kitchen scissors and a pair of tin snips, first wire brushing then scrubbing the snips. They look like this and cut through anything.

 

[DaveF]

Poultry shears are a must, I think for this work. A friend used scissors and said it was messy, difficult, and took a long time. I used a pair of oxo poultry shears and was done after and easy ten minutes.

Spatchcocking is super fast and easy compared to normal oven roasting or grill rotisserie. The dry brine is also super easy compared to wet brine. I think a wet brine tastes a little better than dry brine. But dry was still good. And it’s so much easier I’d do it again without reservation.