Christmas Turkey Roasting and Grilling Discuss Christmas Turkey in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; Dave, You beat me to it by an eyelash. That's the gizmo, although mine is somewhat different in appearance. I ...

[CanuckJim]

Dave,

You beat me to it by an eyelash. That's the gizmo, although mine is somewhat different in appearance. I used mine this morning to defat some ham stock before making the split pea soup. Works a charm.

Also working on the stiff starter we talked about. I want it to be very active before sending, so it will take a few days.

Cheers,
Jim

[Frances]

Ok, this is more in the way of being a note to myself on how to do the turkey next year. Or maybe on how not to do it...

Dear Frances, next time please work out the oven times etc sometime before Christmas day and perferably set an alarm clock to get yourself out of bed before midday. That way the turkey might have enough time to be done through before your poor family dies of starvation.

So this is how it worked out: Oven fire up around midday, heat up as fast as possible, and following cool down as fast as possible, too. The turkey went in at something past 4 o'clock at 290 C. It came out at 7.

The good news is, the outside of the bird was done enough for everyone to get a first helping, and by the time they came round for seconds, it had been back in the oven for a fair while again and was fine. It also tasted very good.

The other point I would like to remember is that if needs be, 290 C is not too high a temp to start at. Ideal in fact, the turkey starts sizzling away, and no way does it get burnt. Good to know, that.

But it would have been a LOT BETTER if I had started at least an hour earlier!!!
Oh, well, we had a great day, and I'll know better next time....

[heliman]

Thanks for the inspiration Frances - will definitely give a turkey a try around Xmas!!!

[papavino]

Isn't putting bacon on things a little bit like doping in professional sports? I mean, you could put it on cardboard and it would taste amazing. I wouldn't have thought of tossing a couple strips of bacon around the bird, but it sounds like a great idea. I'm going to be attempting this sometime in the near future, once I know how well my oven retains heat.

[dmun]

Isn't putting bacon on things a little bit like doping in professional sports?

The term of art is "larding".
It has a long history, as does, I suppose, doping.

[Frances]

Originally Posted by heliman

Thanks for the inspiration Frances - will definitely give a turkey a try around Xmas!!!

Oh hey, I missed this one! You're very welcome heliman... I'm glad to hear my experiences will benefit someone else (and also glad that I posted, should make things easier this year... )

Doping? I don't know about that, but it certainly tastes good! Interesting info on larding btw. Hmm, got me thinking...

[wlively]

"PORK FAT RULES"!

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f12/...rkey-5826.html (Perfect Christmas Turkey)