Tales of turkey woe: share your Thanksgiving disasters

11-18-2005 @12:28AM Brad said... Not a major disaster, but the night before the big feast I was brining a turkey for the big feast. Got the Turkey thawed, big huge cooler to stick it in, go to find the salt . . . no salt. I was completely out of salt at 1 in the morning.

Out of total panic and desperation, I ran to my local 24hr convenience store. I was stunned to find that they actually carried salt! Iodized of course, but I wasn't complaining.
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11-18-2005 @10:07AM Reese said... My story involves a failed attempt at deep frying a turkey.

We dutifully set up the turkey fryer, making sure everything was set up correctly, the oil was at the right level, we had plenty or propane, etc. At this point having concluded that we were all set we cranked on the burner, put in the thermometer, and promptly went inside the house, being 20 degrees outside we weren't so keen on chilling next to the fryer.

About every ten minutes or so someone would look out the window and check the temp on the thermometer. After about 30 minutes of the thermometer not moving past 200 degrees and the flames still pouring out of the burner we began to suspect something had gone wrong. So my stepfather went outside to check on the cooker.

During the heating process we had kept the lid on the fryer to keep errant snow flakes out of the oil and prevent oil splattering on our deck. So my stepfather grabbed the lid of fryer and quickly removed it. Upon doing so the smoke eminating from the oil immediately lit on fire creating a pillar of flame about 8-10 feet high. Acting quickly we got the burner turned off so as to not heat the oil any more and remove any extra sources of flame. My stepfather slowly moved the lid up the side of the fryer, over the top and securely back in place, thus putting out the flames.

As we stood around wondering what the heck could have gone wrong we noticed something interesting with the thermometer as the oil cooled. The thermometer moved down from 200 degrees slowly until it reached 0, then continued moving around the dial. Aparently the oil had heated up much faster than we expected and had quickly moved past the end of the dial before we took notice.

Luckily no one was hurt, a bit of singed arm hair builds character any way. The deck now has a large oil spot from when we were shoveling the oil out of the cooker. Funny thing, after cooling peanut oil that has gotten way to hot actually turns in to a sludge the consistency of shampoo. Oh and it smells like you deep fried death.

Happy Turkey Cooking All.
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11-18-2005 @10:54AM michelle said... Not a huge disaster but last year (the first year I had cooked Thanksgiving), I got up at 5 am on Thanksgiving morning to put the turkey on the brine for 8 hours.

It was still frozen. I had moved it into the fridge three days earlier and it was supposed to be defrosted. Nope.

It wasn't frozen completely solid but it was not unfrozen by any means. So, at 5:15 I am frantically trying to unfreeze it enough to at least get it in the brine mostly defrosted and with a clear conscience, by running water over it in the sink and letting it sit in cold water. I think I finally managed to get it in the brine by 6:15 AM.

Maybe it would have been okay to just let it defrost the rest of the way in the brine but I didn't think I was supposed to do that. Hell, I still don't know if that’s okay.

All I know is, this year, when I pick up the turkey on Saturday, that baby is going right into the fridge. No more freezer time for it!

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12-08-2005 @8:39AM SW said... My first thanksgiving turkey.
I was so nervous that a wekk prior I cooked a turkey to make sure I knew what I was doing.
It was beautiful! nicely browned, juicy and well cooked. I was set. I knew what I was doing.
Thanksgiving day, I placed my turkey in the oven and repeated the procedure.
It looked so nice coming out of the oven, just as practiced. Went to make the gravy, dropped the pan of drippings all over the kitchen floor. arg!!
Dressed the turkey up with some pretty green stuff. Everyone sat down, and my new husband of less than a year started carving.
After the first slice, we noticed that not only was this turkey rare, it was still practically frozen around the bone!!
That was embarrasing, but thank goodness, one of our guests had brought a ham, so at least we had some meat.
Happy turkey day!
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