Maybe I’m just getting old, but this year’s turkey was a gigantic pain in the ass.
Clocking in at more than 25 pounds, it was a huge and unwieldy bird that was challenging every step of the way. Next time, I think I’d be better off cooking two smaller turkeys. It would be more work in some regards, but after wrestling with the mega-brid, it’s worth considering.
Did I mention the stuffing incident?
When I was taking the turkey out of the stove, the roasting pan slipped and dropped onto the oven rack. It didn’t fall more than a couple of inches, but the impact was enough to launch a load of stuffing straight into the air. Some of it ended up in my hair, some on the floor, and some was on the cabinet doors.
My son walked into the kitchen. “What’s that up there?â€
Holy crap — several clumps of stuffing were clinging to the ceiling.
Overall, it was not the easiest day, but the trouble was worth it. The turkey was spectacular — probably the best I’ve ever cooked — but more importantly, it was a great crowd of friends and family and everyone had a wonderful time. Spirits were soaring on our all-American holiday, soaring almost as high as the stuffing.
That’s a BIG bird!
Surely it was a fierce presence when it roamed the earth.
You answered the first question that came to mind, which was ‘how did it taste?’ I did a 15 lb bird, stuffing out, and it cooked quickly and tasted fine. A 25 lb bird, then the 10 lb pan and 1-2 lbs of stuffing would have been way more than I could handle. Can’t believe you had a pan for a bird that size!
It just barely fit in a big roasting pan on a v-shaped rack. All that went on a sheet pan just in case. It dropped a lot of drippings, which sputtered and splattered so much, I had to wear safety goggles when checking the temp.