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| My finished Butterball turkey breast yesterday |
Longtime followers of this blog know I like turkey.
Not all the time but around "The Holidays" I do like a good slice of dry (yes, "dry") white meat turkey.
You all know we don't do holiday dinners here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. Bill doesn't have any teeth and I'm not going to cook up a big meal just for moi.
Each year I look in askance when I see those turkey dinners being served from aluminum pans to the homeless by local politicians doing their goodwill thing during "The Holidays". Mostly those people they're serving turkey with all the fixings are homeless or older poor people who have no family. Well, I do qualify in the latter category. Dare I say I'm to the only one who experiences these feelings during "The Holidays." Even some of the readers of this blog may experience similar feelings. Maybe one years I'll show up at the local feel good charity feeding station and get my turkey dinner, with all the fixings. But this year I tried to make my own turkey dinner.
I wasn't planning on making a Thanksgiving turkey. I actually stumbled into roasting a turkey. I happened to be at my local fav supermarket and I saw fresh turkeys drastically marked down. And I mean DRASTIC. The price of turkeys and all that turkey always dissuaded me from actually buying a real turkey to cook. But this time I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
I saw a bin of fresh, not frozen turkey breasts. I'm a white meat kind of guy, no dark meat for me, thank you. I grew up only allowed to eat drumsticks and wings and backs and even the tail; my father got a real kick out of that. My father was a cruel, sadistic man who loved to humiliate me but that's another story for another time.
The price of these turkey breasts was marked down from $30 plus to $5.00! I got a five pound turkey for $5.35! That's cheaper than a McDonald hamburger and vastly better for me. And the turkey was a Butterball. All I had to do was unwrap it and put that bird in the oven and bake a couple hours at 325 degrees.
I snatched up that turkey and brought it home. I calculated I could make at least eight meals out of this turkey, and all white meat. My father would probably turn over in his grave if he knew that.
Yesterday I read the instructions. The instructions said to "rub the outside with olive oil." I'm a butter kind of guy but olive oil it is. I found out later that was a BIG MISTAKE.
I roasted the turkey. The finished product came out great. Nicely browned (as you can see from the photo) and tasty. I cooked a little longer than recommended because I like DRY turkey meat. You can have your juicy meat, I prefer dry.
I didn't salt or pepper the turkey because the instructions told me the Butterball was already seasoned. Well, I could have seasoned it. I like salt and pepper. Not too much mind you but just enough to give the meat a boost in flavor. I will next time.
I didn't have much in the way of "fixings" except Stove Top Turkey Stuffing which is enough for me. I had homemade cranberry sauce that's been sitting in my refrigerator since last year (yes, since LAST YEAR). I had to throw out that cranberry sauce. Didn't taste too good even though there was no green fuzz on it. An abundance of sugar can go just so far in maintaining flavor.
The turkey meat was very tasty though. I got my annual Turkey Fix which is what I was after.
Now came time to deconstruct the turkey and freeze the leftover in individual freezer bags for future meals. That I did quite successfully. I now have eight more meals. Pretty good for $5.35 eh?
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| Deconstructed turkey |
Now I had this grand idea to make turkey soup out of the remaining stripped turkey carcass. After all there was still some meat on the bones of this poor sacrificial bird. Bad idea.
This morning I took the turkey carcass and placed it in the biggest pot I have here at Casa Tipton-Kelly.
I covered the carcass in water, turned the heat up and proceeded to boil off the remaining meat and make some turkey broth for soup. Bad idea.
It was the smell. A strange and other worldly smell.
It was the look of the water. Murkey and frothy.
I decided to give it awhile and continued to boil that turkey carcass another forty-five minutes or so. Now our whole open area of kitchen/sun room/living room was stinking pretty bad. If I kept "cooking" this turkey carcass THAT smell was going to seep into my bedroom which is right around the corner from our kitchen.
That's it! I took the pot off the stove with the murkey frothy water and the now gray turkey carcass and tossed this whole mess out in our back yard for the local vultures. They're not as picky as I am and they haven't had a treat from me since I stopped tossing out the BJ's rotisserie chicken carcasses that I used to buy with regularity.
Never again will I cook a turkey (or chicken) carcass. It's going to take several days for THAT smell of boiling a dead bird's bones out of this house.
Oh and don't let me forget to tell you what a mess my oven was after roasting an olive oil smeared turkey without a covering. The instructions said "Don't cover". I didn't. I got a nicely browned turkey but I don't eat the skin anyway. What I also got was a baked on grease oven.
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| Oven backing soda cleaning solution |
Last night I made up my homemade solution to clean that baked on grease from my previously almost pristine oven. That solution is baking soda, Dawn dishwashing liquid and apple cider vinegar. No chemical smell of Easy Off for me, thank you.
I applied that foam last night and let it sit over night in my oven. I cleaned it out this morning. Took a long time. A.LONG.TIME.
In the future folks I will bake my Butterball covered.
I hate cleaning ovens.
But I do like white meat turkey. Dry.
9 comments:
Look at you getting all fancy.
I, like you, love a good Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. I can cook!! I used to manage a group of folks and we would have potlucks all the time. My job was the main course. They would tell me what they wanted-turkey, ham, spaghetti, chile... and I would bring it in for my group of 20. I used to go to Whole Foods and fight the folks for all the fixings. But that got to be expensive to do it piecemeal. This Thanksgiving I did a cornish game, mashed potatoes, biscuits, vegetables, and pecan pie with ice cream for dessert. I made another two meals for the week. I just plated everything covered it and placed it in the fridge. When ready, I stuck the plate in the over-covered to heat things up.
By the way Ron, they do have Easy Off with no fumes. I have a self-cleaning oven but I have never used the thing. I am old-fashioned.
I may do a ham for Christmas. I do a nice glaze with cloves poked in.
Have a great rest of the week dear.
PS-I just got back from my first-ever dermatology appointment. I was checked from head to toe. I had a growth in the middle of my back that started growing and itching and spreading. I believe the term he used is keratosis. The growth was frozen-couple of hits- and it should fall off. I also had a spot on my bald head that has been there forever and he checked that as well. He had no concerns. I thought of you.
Ron, I enjoyed your adventure in the kitchen. It gave me a really good chuckle. I am a "grease it up with butter" man and I tent with extra heavy duty foil. I like white meat chicken and turkey. I also LOVE wings! When the grocery has buy 1 get 1 free on those great big meaty wings I stock up. I like the wings broiled with lots of salt and pepper. Now that is good eating. I usually eat 4 wings at a time so I get lots of meals for little money. Now as far as turkey goes, well you give me a roasted turkey wing and you'd think I was dying and on my way to heaven gnawing away on that wing. Now, back to the white meat. I like it dry, There just something about it that appeals to me. My favorite is a sliced white meat turkey, lettuce and mayo on Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread. I do like to add a slice or two of crispy bacon to change it up a bit. I like chicken the same way. Once or twice a year I do like to like to make good old fashioned onion, sage, and celery dressing. I do mean old fashioned using stale white bread torn up into pieces, lots of chopped up onion, celery and ground sage, salt and pepper, broth and butter, and an egg as a binder. The dressing is a little bit of this and that sort of recipe but I follow it pretty close as was written down by great grandma. Back in the day when we had the big old wood fired range with the huge oven and we would roast a 30 pound tom turkey and stuff it with this fantastic stuffing. You could smell it roasting all the way out in the barn yard. That stuffing was moist and tasted so frigging good. The turkey was dry but the gallons of gravy took care of that problem. Another favorite was big old sweet potatos that had been boiled the day before and left to cool in the larder over night. The next day while the turkey roasted those sweet potatos were peeled and sliced in half length-wise and placed on top of melted butter and brown sugar in a big old cast iron skillet and carmalized. The skillet was placed over a special spot on top of the range and left to alone to allow the brown sugar and butter to slowly form a crust on the sweet potatos. G-grandma would carefully turn them once and near the end of the cooking pour a little maple syrup over them. Now this was a Real Candied Sweet Potato! I try to duplicate them but seldom get the same effect as she did. Now that dressing was good cold the next day as a "sandwich". The stuffing was sliced into slabs like bread for a sandwich. Then some left over candied sweet potato was placed on it and some sliced turkey and covered in cranberries. We would eatit cold but some liked it warmed up in the oven with gravy on the side. It was good eating. No mac and cheese at g-grandma house! We did have mashed potatos, parsnips, creamed corn and homemade white and rye breads. Gallons of sweet tea with lots of lemon slices in it. We had the good old pumpkin pies but in later years everyone preferred the baked apple dumplings with the homemade vanilla sauce poured over them. My oh my what a wonderful day(s) that was. Oh, the turkey was roasted in a BIG blue granite ware turkey roaster, the kind with the big tall lid that was made to fit in those old wood fired ranges. I had not given much thought to those old days and ways of cooking until you mentioned dry white meat turkey. LOL! My meal was a roasted hen, tented in foil, mashed sweet potatos with cinnamon and brown sugar, roasted glazed carrots, and homemade gravy. Then to finish it all off for the night a baked apple dumpling and vanilla sauce. I put a few red hots-the candy into the cored apple along with the cinnamon and sugar before I baked it. Gave it my own personal touch doing it that way. Made broth from the carcass of the hen and today made chicken vegetable soup using up all the last of the leftovers I had frozen. Ron, I am wishing you a good rest of your week and give Bill a big warm smile from me. Smiles like that are contagious, you know and lower blood pressure. Be safe, be very careful, and be happy. So says Woody in Ohio
Woody,
What a wonderful raft of memories you shared with me on this blog! I like all the food you described. Sweet potatoes, Pepperridge Farm celery, onion and sage dressing (stuffing), and gravy (my Mom made the best gravy), all the vegetables although fresh frozen white sweet corn from my father's summer garden was also served. But you left out the homemade biscuits! We had biscuits with every meal; Thanksgiving and on regular days. I have never been able to match my Mother's biscuits. She was instructed by my father's mother on how to made homemade southern biscuits.
Thanks again for sharing your memories Woody. Always interesting and fun.
Ron
Vic,
First time for keratosis? I've been dealing with removing those non cancerous lesions for over forty years now. Last year was the first time one of them actually turned into cancer (on my right ear). Who know all those warnings about skin cancer that bombarded us when we were young were actually true? I wish now I had stayed out of the sun. I do now.
I bet you make a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner Vic. Maybe someday Pat and I wills top out to Denver and check out one of your meals.
Ron
What on earth would have caused that foul stench just by boiling a turkey carcass? Yikes! Well, I'm a vegetarian, so Thanksgiving doesn't do a lot for me in terms of turkey. I used to eat it when I was a kid and remember preferring the white meat....dry! Sorry about your oven. Cleaning ovens is a bitch...period! I like your recipe for cleaning it. I rarely ever use mine but have had a few God-awful messes. I'm down to crock pots and microwaves these days.
Paranormal John
Yes, Ron the first time!! I have had great forutune in not being a regular in doctor's offices. No major health issues and I take no medication on a regular bases.
The dermatologist states that after 40 things start to appear. I am pretty good with sunscreen and a hat if I am going out in the sun for long periods of time.
You are always welcome in Denver. Just give me a heads-up to get the marching band together.
Paranormal John,
The smell coming from the turkey carcass that I was boiling in water wasn't really a "stench" smell but an oddly chemical smell. I think it had something to do with the carcass being a butterball turkey. They add some kind of chemical ingredients to keep it juicy and for seasoning. Overall, it was just too much trouble to cook the turkey carcass, natural or chemical induced like the butterball turkey probably is.
I didn't know you were a vegetarian. You're like Pat, he never uses his oven. He sometimes uses his microwave. I usually use my microwave and crock pot. Much easier to cook and I don't like to "grease" up my living area by frying foods on the stove, that way my Mother made almost all her meals. Overtime that grease seeps into the curtains, furniture upholstery not to mention your veins.
My father ate greasy foods his whole life and ended up having quadruple bypass surgery before he was 80 years old. He died of lung cancer shortly after that surgery. Yes, he smoke his whole life. Paid the price.
Ron
Thanks for clarifying what the smell was caused by. That makes sense. Yes, cleaning up 'grease' on and around a stove is a royal pain. Since I don't do that kind of cooking anymore, I sure don't miss the mess. My crock pot can be popped into the dishwasher and it's a done deal. My Dad ate like yours and smoked, too. He died of COPD. The smoking got to him before the clogged arteries.
Paranormal John
Well if there are any turkeys left at the market freeze one. Reynold's of aluminum wrap fame makes turkey clear plastic oven bags and stores often have their own brand, Easy way to make a turkey with no mess and no need to baste. It makes for a slightly less dry Turkey but white turkey meat is always a bit dry anyway.
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