She had had problems thawing the turkey, so decided it was a good idea to stick it in a roasting pan and leave it out.....for 3 days.
By the time she asked me to open it and yank out the gizzards, the bag was swollen up like a balloon, and the smell that came out of there was enough to inspire a trip to the bathroom sink.
So much for THAT bird.....Aw, well. She wont ever be doing THAT again. AND, it seems canned ham makes a perfectly acceptable substitute in a pinch.
I'll always take ham over turkey anyway. Sure, you can make turkey palatable but put the same effort into a ham and it's on another level.
Wife loves ham. I like meat. Turkey was $.48/lb this year so I have close 2 dozen in my freezers. I make about 1 every 2 weeks. We eat turkey the first night and then I make something with the leftovers. Turkey chili. Turkey noodle soup. Turkey and dumplings. Turkey gumbo. That has been what I've made so far. The dumplings were Jenny's favorite. I love gumbo. The chili and soup are just an all around hit. I too defrost mine in the roaster, but it takes hardly a day in my experience. Sounds yucky.
There was a recipe that called for a thawed bird. Kinda hard to inject marinade into a frozen hunk of flesh, I guess. I dunno, I'm thinking a crossbow from across the kitchen would have made injection holes just fine.
I'm doing the new years eve feast and have a small (as small as they get) Turducken on order to pick up tomorrow. THAT goes in the oven straight from the freezer.
Frozen just takes about 1/3 longer to cook. You take it out after about 2.5-3 hrs and do the injection thing, season the inside cavity and remove the pack of giblets at the same time, then put the turkey back in the oven to finish cooking. I have a 13lb turkey in the freezer right now that came from the store with instructions to cook it unthawed straight from freezer--inside a special bag.
Plenty of tried and proven instructions on internet from reliable chefs on how to cook one right from the freezer.
Frozen just takes about 1/3 longer to cook. You take it out after about 2.5-3 hrs and do the injection thing, season the inside cavity and remove the pack of giblets at the same time, then put the turkey back in the oven to finish cooking. I have a 13lb turkey in the freezer right now that came from the store with instructions to cook it unthawed straight from freezer--inside a special bag.
Plenty of tried and proven instructions on internet from reliable chefs on how to cook one right from the freezer.
I've never cooked one from the freezer. I could see it being juicier. Might give that a try this week.
(I haven't stuffed a turkey in years and in spite of what some of these instructions say, I don't recommend it for any frozen or partially frozen bird)
By the time she asked me to open it and yank out the gizzards, the bag was swollen up like a balloon, and the smell that came out of there was enough to inspire a trip to the bathroom sink.
At one of our jobsites, the contractor hosts a pre-Thanksgiving lunch where everyone goes home afterward with a frozen turkey. This is maybe a week or a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. So our employee comes back with a turkey in his trunk... And forgets about it. Several days later, he leaves for a vacation. A week of really nice, warm weather follows. When he returns, his car stinks like a dead body. Trunk is full of rotting meat! The turkey thawed out and leached blood and putrid juices all over the interior of his trunk. The only thing missing from this story is if there were millions of maggots!
(I haven't stuffed a turkey in years and in spite of what some of these instructions say, I don't recommend it for any frozen or partially frozen bird)
Thanks for the heads up Don. After reading these I am just going to thaw the damn thing. I don't have space issues for letting it thaw naturally and I make turkey often enough that I can wait a day if need be.
I cook my turkeys in a roaster too. No need to tie up my oven or heat up the house. I do enjoy a deep fried turkey, but oil is $30 and really can't be stored that I have tried. I haven't done one in a decade and unless I was doing a few, likely won't be doing it again anytime soon.
[This message has been edited by ls3mach (edited 12-28-2017).]