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Cook your turkey upside down! No, seriously!
Nov. 17, 2006
The
year was 1997. My daughter was 5 months old, my son just over 3
years. My father was ill with an inoperable brain tumor and
cancer that had spread throughout his body. We knew this was
going to be his last Thanksgiving and we wanted it to be "extra"
special. Family flew in from all over the country and on
Thanksgiving morning I arose from bed, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep
and stress, stumbled to the kitchen and got the turkey into the roaster
and into the oven. Later, after breakfast, I went to check on our
bird and discovered that I'd put it in the roaster breast-side
down! For several minutes I was unable to do anything because my
sister (who was in the kitchen washing dishes) and I were laughing so
hard we couldn't even speak. I'm not sure why exactly, but we
decided to leave it that way, basting as usual, just - well, upside
down! Because it didn't turn out Martha Stewart, picture-worthy
perfect, for obvious reasons, we carved it in the kitchen and placed
slices on our turkey platter to carry to the table. And then the
remarkable happened. Everyone raved about the turkey! It
was the "best"; it was "fabulous"; it was "delicious & tender &
not at all dry." People came back for seconds and thirds, and we
didn't have our usual left-overs.
A few days later, I mentioned
this to my neighbor, the owner of a local BBQ restaurant. He
laughed and told me I'd discovered the secret restaurants have long
used. They intentionally cook turkeys breast-side down because
then all the juices flow down to the bulk of the meat.
D'oh! It makes perfect sense. I'd just never thought about
it. Before that day, I had always been concerned with a "pretty"
table-ready turkey. Since that time though, I have never cooked a
turkey breast-side up, and I'm sure I never will.
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Nov. 17, 2006 - Untitled Comment |
| Posted by WagsWife |
Thanks for the laugh :) My mother has always cooked her turkeys upside down. Everyone has always thought she was a nut...until they tried it.
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