Sunday, 29 November 2009

• Our IRLF Intern's Thanksgiving Chaos: Part 1

  
  

  
  I only wish it came out this way...
  

  This is my first time make the turkey. Let me tell you, it stressed the heck out of me, and that's only the beginning of my story. 

  My mom was getting too old for planning big family gatherings like this, so this year I had decided to take over the Thanksgiving dinner duty. I prepped for a good two months, doing research, picking out a good recipe, planning a menu, and organizing a plan when certain foods had to be done. Here's how it went down.

  Sunday, Nov 22.

  
  I went to get the turkey with my father, in fear of crazy people fighting with me for a bird. I was lucky that there were plenty of them. However, the supermarket was packed and almost all the essential ingredients were missing from the aisles. 
  

  My family got a free turkey after spending $300 from September to November. Thinking I would only cook a small turkey, my father decided to get the biggest one – a 21.5 pounder. He said wanted everyone know I was able to handle the cooking. Yeah... not too sure about that.
  

  When we got home we let the turkey defrost on the counter for a few hours since I wanted to brine it on Tuesday night. The pros say we're supposed to thaw the bird in the refrigerator however, I was afraid the thing couldn't thaw in time.  By Monday morning it was thawed and we put the turkey in the fridge.
  

  
  

  Tuesday, Nov 24
  

   

  This my friends was the monster.
  

  Tuesday night I dragged the turkey out and into the sink to clean it, there was still ice all over the bird. The part that freaked me out the most was taking out the insides of the turkey. Even though I was wearing gloves, I couldn't help but to squirm and scream a little. And this happened...

   

  The side was torn apart!!! I was upset that the turkey wouldn't look presentable anymore, and tying up won't make it look any better. The only thing left to do was covering it up when it's cooked.
  

  
  

  My recipe was from Epicurious, a cider-brined glazed turkey. After cleaning, I made my brine with mostly apple cider and salt.

  
  

  Once the cider was cooled, I put the turkey in a pot for it to brine. I had some trouble with it since the turkey made the pot over flow and I had to clean up the mess. I couldn't put the pot in the fridge since it didn't even fit.
  

  There are a lot of "rules" I broke following the brining process, but I figure that there was so much salt in it, that the bacteria would stray away from the bird (reference: Good Eats - Romancing the Bird). Plus, I'm going to be cooking it so most of the germs will killed in the process.

  To be continued...
  

  
  

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