Food & Drink

Small Turkey in Toronto?

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Sep 1, 2005
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If you want a delicious turkey, spatchcock it. Because the breast sits at around the same height as the legs, it cooks more evenly vs having turkey breast sitting up where all the heat is and the legs down below.
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DJ Trance AZ wrote: I will be roasting my 2nd turkey this Saturday using Urban Poet's method while adding more beer, and to turn the turkey when it's 50% done so it gets more juice for the meat on top.
bonterra wrote: I've done the turning over thing a few times and it hasn't worked for me. It just gives you ugly flabby skin (kind of boiled looking) on the breast, the second half of the cooking doesn't brown it enough. The key to more juiciness is not to overcook.
I agree with that one. I just cook it on one side. I don't bother flipping. I leave the back down b/c no one really eats back meat. (I only eat those random bits for turkey sandwiches which I eat for weeks after holiday dinners... lol).
Everyone goes straight for the breast or legs. :lol:

With the brine... The meat will be pretty forgiving already. I just put a 8lb turkey into a brine last night. Going to dump the water out tonight, add my dry rub, then let it sit in the fridge till Saturday morning.

I'm going to throw the turkey into my smoker around 11am and let it slow cook @ 225 till about 5pm.
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Aug 22, 2006
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gr8dlr wrote: If you want a delicious turkey, spatchcock it. Because the breast sits at around the same height as the legs, it cooks more evenly vs having turkey breast sitting up where all the heat is and the legs down below.
This.
The problem is that you don't get a nice turkey to present before carving. But if you can hide in the kitchen and present a perfectly plated platter of turkey you can get away with it.

Also if you want turkey flavored stuffing, make 2 turkeys. One regular one and one spatchcocked one over a pan of stuffing. This way you can have a giant pan of turkey flavored stuffing and a turkey for either extra dinner or more leftovers after turkey day.
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May 2, 2009
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death_hawk wrote: This.

Also if you want turkey flavored stuffing, make 2 turkeys. One regular one and one spatchcocked one over a pan of stuffing. This way you can have a giant pan of turkey flavored stuffing and a turkey for either extra dinner or more leftovers after turkey day.
Two smallish turkeys are so much more efficient to cook than a huge one.
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Nov 4, 2006
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I think the reason people are having trouble with turning the Turkey over resulting in Flabby skin is cause their not cooking their bird on a rack. So the skin is in contact with the liquid from the vegetables and pan drippings, making it soggy and not crisp. If you turn your bird over while on top of a rack, you shouldn't have this problem.

As others have mentioned, you could also spatchcock your Turkey to promote even and efficient cooking. Another method is to buy a whole bird and separate the legs from the body and remove the back bone. Basically resulting in 4 parts, 1 crown (bone-in breast meat), 2 whole legs (thighs and drumsticks), and 1 carcass. I would recommend this method for individuals who bought a fairly large turkey and can't fit it in the oven as it reduces the amount of oven space required to roast the bird, as well as roasting time.
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Aug 22, 2006
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bonterra wrote: Two smallish turkeys are so much more efficient to cook than a huge one.
Presentation though. Nothing looks quite as cool as whipping out a giant turkey that's whole and perfect.
I'm not usually one for aesthetics but this is really the wow factor here.
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Asagiri wrote: I think the reason people are having trouble with turning the Turkey over resulting in Flabby skin is cause their not cooking their bird on a rack. So the skin is in contact with the liquid from the vegetables and pan drippings, making it soggy and not crisp. If you turn your bird over while on top of a rack, you shouldn't have this problem.

As others have mentioned, you could also spatchcock your Turkey to promote even and efficient cooking. Another method is to buy a whole bird and separate the legs from the body and remove the back bone. Basically resulting in 4 parts, 1 crown (bone-in breast meat), 2 whole legs (thighs and drumsticks), and 1 carcass. I would recommend this method for individuals who bought a fairly large turkey and can't fit it in the oven as it reduces the amount of oven space required to roast the bird, as well as roasting time.
I use a rack and still get this result. I should try a really high rack and see what happens. The rack I've used lifts the turkey about 3 inches up off the pan. It might be fun to try putting the turkey right on the oven rack with the roasting pan underneath it.

But I haven't oven roasted a turkey since we started deep frying them, But that's a whole other discussion involving types of oil and seasonings etc. Lucked into a peanut oil clearance at WalMart, going to see how that goes.
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Mar 11, 2005
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UrbanPoet wrote: On a day time show... I saw them making a turkey confit style.
They just chopped the turkey to peices and cooked it in a dish full of oil 0_o
I've confit'ed turkey thughs before - absolutely delicious. DRy rubbed overnight with salt, orange zest, thyme, garlic, and a little juniper berry. Then slowly confit in the oven for about 5 hours. I let them cool and then seared them in my 10" Lodge. Amazingly tender. The only way better might be to sous vide them.
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Dec 14, 2011
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Ya'll be making me hungry!

I JUST picked up a free run bird at Farmboy. The guy was helpful and went to the back and found me a 5kg one.

After I brine it, about one hour per pound, I give it a good rinse and dry it as best as I can. Then sit it in front of a fan for an hour or leave it in the fridge uncovered overnight. This dries the skin so it get super crisp. Sometimes I make a bacon paste and slide under the skin prior to drying. Truss that bird, rub some oil and herbs on it. Slide it on the rotisserie and spine that bird.

I really like brining. I find the bird cooks faster and is much more forgiving if dinner starts later. Make sure you let it rest for quite a while.
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Apr 30, 2004
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I did a dry rub with a lot of Dijon Honey Mustard and hopefully it will turn out good!
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I just shredded all the left over turkey my family had this weekend...
I have about 30 snack size zip lock bags full. lol. I'm going to freeze these and eat one a day for lunch @ work...
At work I just make a wrap for lunch. This will provide me with enough turkey to last at least 1.5 months worth of lunch. :-0
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Aug 22, 2006
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How much turkey did you make?
A medium sized turkey only lasts me like a week tops.
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death_hawk wrote: How much turkey did you make?
A medium sized turkey only lasts me like a week tops.
Each zip lock is portioned out to be about 5oz of meat...
There were two turkeys and big 3 lb salmon filet @ the dinner.
one turkey was 8lbs
second was 15 lbs.
So a total of about 23 lbs of turkey + fixings for 8 adults and 2 toddlers. lol

so I guess I had about 9lbs left over...
Plus my bro took a big dinner plate full of turkey home which was at least 2lbs of meat.
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Aug 22, 2006
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I'm sad to say that 9lbs of turkey would still last me about a week...
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Aug 22, 2006
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Just me.
Then again... I love turkey.
Some turkey holidays I cook off 3 birds. One a week or so before (when fresh birds show up), one close to the turkey day, and another one after when everyone is clearing out the fresh ones.
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Jul 28, 2014
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UrbanPoet wrote: Assuming an 8-10 lb turkey

-Find a big bucket or pot. fill it up with a few inches of water.

-1 or 2 cups of salt (I honestly just eyeball this one. But don't worry about the not enough salt... you just need some in there to break down the meat fibres b/c you'll season it afterwards anyways)

-dump that salt into the few inches of water. Swirl it around. It helps dissolve this way.

-1 can of beer. Yep... thats right. Pour a beer in there

-add in WHATEVER you want in the brine. It'll help flavor the meat. Here are some things that I use
whole onion cut in half, bay leaves, whole pepper corns, garlic, dehydrated onion, dehydrated garlic

-throw in the turkey

-fill it up with water so that its submerged. Swirl it around a bit so it gets mixed up.

-a 6 hour brine is good enough. But I like to leave this over night.

-in the morning take it out and dump out all the water (say 9am)

-season with whatever you like for taste. I have a home made dry rub I use... But you could just use any generic all purpose seasoning for the outside. If you aren't lazy and can plan well... I like to have the dry rub on there over night. IT'll make this a 2 night process. But if you're looking for a quick fix... Just season it in the morning... and throw it in the oven around mid afternoon and you'll have a nice turkey for dinner.

I like to throw mine into my electric smoker w\hickory wood chips... IT goes up to 275 degrees. So it'll take me a good 6 hours to cook up a 8-10 lb turkey.
Thanks for this! I tried this and the turkey turned out great, everyone loved it. It was sooo moist. We put the turkey in the cooler packed with ice/water overnight. Will definitely brine the turkeys everytime now.
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milhouse611 wrote: Thanks for this! I tried this and the turkey turned out great, everyone loved it. It was sooo moist. We put the turkey in the cooler packed with ice/water overnight. Will definitely brine the turkeys everytime now.
That is a great idea. During thanks giving we were discussing how to brine a BIG turkey... Since my mom roasted one that was 15lbs... Bigger than any pot we have, and any clean bucket we have wouldn't fit in the fridge.

so we thought... water, brine, ice in a cooler and toss the turkey in there. That way it'll brine while still staying at a safe temperature for storing poultry. The cooler will do a good job of keeping the ice mostly solid over night.

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