The Thanksgiving Turkey

Yesterday was the United States holiday, Thanksgiving. It is a time when our thoughts turn more overtly to how to spend some quality time with family and close friends and be thankful for the bounty in our lives. The traditional method of doing so is to gather together as many people as the house will hold and prepare and share in a huge meal. The typical main dish is turkey, though ham runs a close second.

This year I didn't host the meal at my house, but was in charge of making the turkey. If you know anything about cooking turkey, you know that it can turn out a bit dry. It may be the nature of the meat, but HOW a turkey is prepared can make a difference. Okay, this blog entry is NOT going to be about all the ways to cook a turkey, just about how I cooked mine.

I bought a 20.88 pound Butterball turkey. I thawed it in the refrigerator for four days. When it was time to prepare for cooking the roasting pan was lined with heavy duty aluminum foil. The turkey was washed and patted dry and placed in the roasting pan. Olive oil was brushed over the turkey breast, wings, thighs and legs. Then I raided the seasoning pantry. Garlic powder, thyme, mustard, basil and a little steak seasoning mixture--basically whatever I thought would be appropriate on a turkey plus a little pizzaz. I used foil to make a tent to cover the seasoned turkey.

Now to bake that turkey. The bird slow roasted all night at a temperature of 250 degrees beginning at 8:30 p.m. At 6:00 a.m. I bumped the temperature up to 350 degrees and baked for three more hours. My oh my how the house did fill with the mouth watering aroma.

The bird came out of the oven looking SO beautiful I just had to photograph it. And how did it taste? All the comments from the family were very complimentary. What was the number one comment second to saying how delicious it was--"Wow, this turkey is SO moist!!!"