The Official Thanksgiving Extravaganza Thread

[e34john]

Soaking a meat (any meat) in any sort of salty solution leads to dehydration. Thats why marinades are very low in sodium.

Dude this works, I'm serious and I dont ever baste it either. I guess someone got scientific about it and I remember something in biology when we filled fille plant cells with regular water and salt water but I don't remember any of it, I just like that turkey and have been making it for 4 years. And I got it off Alton Brown, for my bird, I change some of the herbs a little and use half chicken stock or whatever I have available.

All I know is I wake up at 5 in the morning and put on an apron, get the final prep stuff ready, write down the instructions for final cooking incase I come back with a concussion. strap on the cleats and go down to the park for a tackle football (Its hard to clutch in those) and during one of the kickoffs I get reminded I still have balls. Come home and finish cooking while finishing a bottle of argentinian red.


Who has an awesome Mac and Cheese recipie? I want to try something new.

[e34john]

Oh yea and on the Mac and cheese none of that fancy crap either. Even though shaved truffle mac and cheese is awesome. I need something for the kids cheesy and easy to make that dosen't come out of a blue box or reheated from an orange box.

[Optimator]

Basically, roux + milk + cheese. Look up a recipe for a Bechamel sauce. You just add cheese and mac to that. It will result in a creamy, heavenly mouthful, sort of like when I busted into Mr. blunt's mouth after rawdogging his trachea. The chancres that developed later were well worth it.

[quikveedb2]

turkey day is my girl & my 3 year anniversary, we're going down towards aspen to chill with family & friends. i'm not much of a recipe guy, after 12 years of cooking professionally i can fend for myself. however, my most recent, favorite mashers consisted of skin on red potatoes, heavy cream, sour cream, brie, garlic, and s&p. be sure to bring the water to a boil with the potatoes in it to keep good consistency, and let them steam out a bit (a few minutes) before you begin mashing to get most of the water out, then just add brie first, sour cream, and cream to desired consistency & flavor. add garlic, you can roast whole cloves in evoo, s&p, inside aluminum foil & peel & mince afterwards (mmm, garlic). mix, s&p to taste. enjoy, have heart attack, die happy.

[femme325is]

turkey day is my girl & my 3 year anniversary, we're going down towards aspen to chill with family & friends. i'm not much of a recipe guy, after 12 years of cooking professionally i can fend for myself. however, my most recent, favorite mashers consisted of skin on red potatoes, heavy cream, sour cream, brie, garlic, and s&p. be sure to bring the water to a boil with the potatoes in it to keep good consistency, and let them steam out a bit (a few minutes) before you begin mashing to get most of the water out, then just add brie first, sour cream, and cream to desired consistency & flavor. add garlic, you can roast whole cloves in evoo, s&p, inside aluminum foil & peel & mince afterwards (mmm, garlic). mix, s&p to taste. enjoy, have heart attack, die happy.

oh geez. Anything with brie, cream cheese, and cream is GOOOOD in my book. This makes me hungry

[eric (^__^)]

so far I'm making femme's stuffing and quikv's mashed potatoes

[jflip2002]

Dude this works, I'm serious and I dont ever baste it either. I guess someone got scientific about it and I remember something in biology when we filled fille plant cells with regular water and salt water but I don't remember any of it, I just like that turkey and have been making it for 4 years. And I got it off Alton Brown, for my bird, I change some of the herbs a little and use half chicken stock or whatever I have available.

All I know is I wake up at 5 in the morning and put on an apron, get the final prep stuff ready, write down the instructions for final cooking incase I come back with a concussion. strap on the cleats and go down to the park for a tackle football (Its hard to clutch in those) and during one of the kickoffs I get reminded I still have balls. Come home and finish cooking while finishing a bottle of argentinian red.


Who has an awesome Mac and Cheese recipie? I want to try something new.

I will try that. I guess it makes sense. If a saltwater fish is put into a freshwater environment, it dies because its salt within its body is dilluted into the fresh water until an equilibrium is met. And vise-versa with a freshwater fish... makes sense.

[benetton]

turkey in brine overnight is key and doesnt dehydrate the bird. Rosemary under the skin on the breast. olive oil on the outside, salt pepper. Stuff cavity with lemon, more rosemary and 2 onions. a couple cups of good chicken stock. then its all about cook times roast hot first then depending on weight cook until necessary temp is reached.

oh a proper roasting pan is key too and if you can cook the bird breast side down you will have some juicy breast meat to chew on.

potatoes are more my thing. If you go with standard russet baking potatoes you are going to have to peel each potato and if you notice when you make mashed potatoes with russet potatoes you can over boil the potatoes to the point where they fall apart when you stick a fork in them. This is why you do not use russet potatoes in chowders and the like. Now what i prefer and what will save you some time is buy good yukon gold potatoes. You dont have to peel them and and they dont fall apart like the russets when boiled.


Yukon Gold Potatoes boiled
Butter
heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
Nutmeg (i add this because this is how i was taught to make mp's and it adds a nice flavor)
you can add sour cream if you like too but i dont.
then mash the shit out of em.


now for something more involved that will make you look like you know how to cook(or if you need to impress the ladies) and for the PNW touch homemade tagliatelle noodles made in to agnolotti stuffed with crab or something of that nature for a seafood appetizer.

[jflip2002]

Maybe thats where I f up my MP's.... I use whole milk, and not cream. Maybe THATS why they are watery lol. I may just use that to make my own potatoes this year. I usually just used premade, and add roasted garlic to em. I throw a whole button of garlic in the oven with the turkey, in some foil and olive oil. It makes it nice and sweet. I may try your method, though.

[benetton]

Maybe thats where I f up my MP's.... I use whole milk, and not cream. Maybe THATS why they are watery lol. I may just use that to make my own potatoes this year. I usually just used premade, and add roasted garlic to em. I throw a whole button of garlic in the oven with the turkey, in some foil and olive oil. It makes it nice and sweet. I may try your method, though.

something i do as well to make them less watery is after i strain the potatoes i put them back in the pot on the stove to dry out the potatoes and evaporate any water left. this will help improve the creaminess and you could still use whole milk and they wont be as watery.

[jflip2002]

Yeah, thatd work too. Either way, I gotta buy the whole milk, since we drink non fat in my house. May as well buy heavy cream. For some reason I just automatically associate cream with sweetness, so I never get it.

[benetton]

Yeah, thatd work too. Either way, I gotta buy the whole milk, since we drink non fat in my house. May as well buy heavy cream. For some reason I just automatically associate cream with sweetness, so I never get it.

for less calories you can go with half and half but then again it is thanksgiving

[femme325is]

oh a tip on the taters... warm the cream or milk up before you add it. Avoids cooling them down before serving. I added cold cream for years and by the time everyone was at the table they were lukewarm. Warm/hot cream did the trick the next year ;)

[h0lmes]

This is going to be kind of a sad Thanksgiving for my family and I. It will be the first without my Grandmother whom has put together the meal for years.

[blunttech]

This is going to be kind of a sad Thanksgiving for my family and I. It will be the first without my Grandmother whom has put together the meal for years.

sorry dude, my dads been gone 2 years now but i remember how hard it was that first xmas. it does get better. just hang in there