When I lived on my own and worked in the restaurant industry, I took it as a point of pride to figure out how to do it well.
I tried brines, but found that simple salting and leaving it on the bottom shelf overnight was easier and just as effective.
And that cutting it up and cooking each part via sous vide was a more reliable way to cook the meat to an even tenderness.
And that I could still brown the skin on a cast iron pan on high heat afterwards.
And then experiment with sauces and dressing and spices because that’s where a lot of the flavor and fun came from (for me).
And then decided it just wasn’t worth it. Not when I can cook a chicken, a duck, and a Cornish hen for half the effort.
If you want to go through the effort and expense of doing it because that makes it special to you and you enjoy it, more power to you.
But Thanksgiving seems more like ritual torture for the vast majority of people who do it because we collectively accepted that it’s “what you’re supposed to do”.
Years ago when we still met up, we used to eat pularda (badly written poulard from French, I think). It’s basically an old chicken, right before it produces eggs, at 137 days old give or take.
It’s bigger and has stronger flavour than regular chicken, but not as dry as a turkey.
We pick a different dish every year for our main. This year was tomahawk steak. We have the normal sides, all made from scratch, and some main dish. Cause turkey sucks. I’ve done it once in like the last 15 years. It was fantasticly cooked, nice and moist, buttery and boring.
I can and have cooked turkey for myself.
I have "won" at turkey.
When I lived on my own and worked in the restaurant industry, I took it as a point of pride to figure out how to do it well.
I tried brines, but found that simple salting and leaving it on the bottom shelf overnight was easier and just as effective.
And that cutting it up and cooking each part via sous vide was a more reliable way to cook the meat to an even tenderness.
And that I could still brown the skin on a cast iron pan on high heat afterwards.
And then experiment with sauces and dressing and spices because that’s where a lot of the flavor and fun came from (for me).
And then decided it just wasn’t worth it. Not when I can cook a chicken, a duck, and a Cornish hen for half the effort.
If you want to go through the effort and expense of doing it because that makes it special to you and you enjoy it, more power to you.
But Thanksgiving seems more like ritual torture for the vast majority of people who do it because we collectively accepted that it’s “what you’re supposed to do”.
Years ago when we still met up, we used to eat pularda (badly written poulard from French, I think). It’s basically an old chicken, right before it produces eggs, at 137 days old give or take.
It’s bigger and has stronger flavour than regular chicken, but not as dry as a turkey.
We pick a different dish every year for our main. This year was tomahawk steak. We have the normal sides, all made from scratch, and some main dish. Cause turkey sucks. I’ve done it once in like the last 15 years. It was fantasticly cooked, nice and moist, buttery and boring.
That sounds actually awesome.
I have no idea what that means, but it still sounds pretty good.