Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss So, who does the cookin'...

...on Thanksgiving Day?
I'm in between sauteing the onions/celery/garlic and cleaning da bird. This is, for the most part, Donna-ski's day off from the kitchen. (Except, of course, all the prep that she did yesterday...like baking fresh bread and the pie...oh yeah, let's not forget she went shopping for all this stuff too)
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Menu = standard turkey dinner with hot sausage stuffing. All from recipes my Ma gave me many years ago.
I bet guys like Heybud and Gator are already smokin' up the neighborhood with the outdoor grill.

I could do all the T-Day cooking, but no one here knows how to properly carve roast Spam. Therefore, I'm trying to limit my intrusions into the kitchen to just getting breakfast. Leave the chef undisturbed.

With family over it is a group deal for us. This year especially with my wife recuperating from an emergency appendectomy Tues. Its a real good thing she did a lot of it in advance ( like D'ski following the scout moto - be prepared).

I'm in charge of opening beers and bottles of wine. The libations I guess you could say.

Here's a proven way to cook a turkey outdoors that is simple & easy.

1) Put a 2'x2' square of aluminum foil on the ground.
2) Drive a metal stake into the center of the square
3) Season the turkey anyway you like, and place the turkey on the stake (through the body cavity)
4) Cover the turkey with an upside down large steel soup/stew pot
5) Put charcoal all around the outer base of the stew pot and on the top (really the bottom) of the pot
6) Light the charcoal
7) Once the coals are red-hot, set timer for exactly one hour.

I've done this many times and it works every time. Juicy & cooked all the way through.

Disclaimer: For our friends in the north country where it gets science fiction cold, this may not work at all.

I always am asked to cook the cornbread dressing, whether at our house or either son's place. As Ewest's wife is, mine is recouping(from knee replacement). My oldest son's wife did a bang up job intertaining in their new home today. The boys fried a turkey.

I'm sorry I missed this post. Ewest is your wife OK? Give her our prayers and best regards.

I usually put the bird in and out of the oven, because I'm nervous about the wife doing it. I carve the bird, and sometimes help with the dressing. I also make sure the NFL games are on all the TV's in the house.

Sunil, that sounds like a great, carefree way to bake a turkey. It nearly sounds impossible to bake a 10-12lb bird in an hour, so I guess it's the steam that makes it bake so fast. I'll have to give it a try, first practicing on a minor holiday. Should the soup pot be a little larger than the turkey, or a lot larger?

Here's a way that has worked pretty good for me: After 9PM on the night before the holiday meal, Pre-heat the oven to 500F. bake turkey for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, leaving the turkey in. Next day, all you have to do is warm up the bird a few minutes before meal time.

Al, next time I do it, I'll get a few pictures.

Bobad, we normally do it with 10-12 lb. birds, so no worries there. The pot should give about 2" clearance on every side of the bird.

Also, I forgot to mention that you can wrap the legs in foil.

I like that idea of baking the bird the night before.

I would love to see you show up at one of the cowboy cooking contests here. Everybody has their expensive cast iron pots and handlebar moustaches. It's a big show emulating Lonesome Dove. You may have reinvented Dutch Oven cooking. Think about it. An Indian guy showing up in Dockers with an upside down aluminum pan showing them how it is done. They would all stroke out and Lodge Corp would probably pay you to not show.

I'm the pecan pie/dressing specialist with my Mother and Grandmothers recipes. If I don't make them, they just ain't right.

Cowboy cooking and Indians .... hmmmm.

We have a burn ban in Mills county. I had to cook the ol' bird the old fashion way, it was a bummer. Made tamale dressing though and man was it good. For a price I would share the recipe.
Didn't anyone deep fry this year?

No, didn't fry this year, but did brine the bird for 24hrs prior to roasting and it was the juiciest we've ever tasted.

I do the brine too Baro. I saw the Good Eats guy brine before deep frying, probably did well. Brining and not overcooking is the key. Throw out the pop up thermometer and get an $8 digital probe with alarm. The thermometer is also handy for checking pond surface temps!

Sunil, I've heard about a guy on the beach in Florida cooking like you described using a trash can...he called it trash can turkey. I couldn't get past the idea of eating something cooked in a partially burned galvanized container. You method sounds much safer. How much charcoal do you use to cook the turkey? What size turkey will cook in an hour?

Ryan, a 10-12 lb. turkey will cook in an hour. All you need is a full sized bag of charcoal briquettes (sp?).

First time in a long time I didnt deep fry.I usually fry 8-10 birds for family and friends.This year the boss took the grandkids to biloxi Miss to visit family and left me home alone.I had to work.
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I got cereal for breakfast...
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I got a sandwich for lunch...
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.I got a sandwich for supper...
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dont yall feel sorry for poor little ole me...
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I didnt bother to tell HER that a bigger BLT has never been built and the ham sandwich was a whole ham steak I picked up at the grocery!!!
As I type this Im eating the jumbo fried shrimp & osters she picked up off the boat for me.Shes also gonna be mad all 3 packages of bacon dissappeared while she was gone.
Tom aint hungry no mo