Friday, December 4, 2009

More Turkey Talk....

Here is one of the birds I purchased locally from Run Dog Run Farm.  The cavity was stuffed with rosemary and sage fresh from the garden, apples, onion, and carrot.  A butter, lemon juice, and herb mixture was applied to the top and underside of the skin.  Next came a soaking of Pinot Grigio.  This bird was officially ready to hit the heat.



I started it off in the oven since the smoker still needed to be cured.  After an hour the transfer was made, and the applewood was a smokin'!!  (A little too much I might add, the heat was left on high about ten minutes too long thanks to my daughter peeing on the rug, a book, and her blanket.  Operation Clean Pee resulted in the chips catching fire in the wood pan....hoping this hiccup did not ruin the bird!)  Here is the insane smoke that resulted:



Now for a shot of the appropriate smoking of the applewood chips:



I was very disappointed to find there were no innards & neck in the cavity.  This was not an inexpensive turkey, I expected all standard parts to be included!  Besides, the neck meat is one of my favorite parts of a roasted turkey......and everybody wants gravy right?

Everyone keep your turkey toes crossed that this bird will not only be edible, but enjoyable.  I will report in tomorrow with the outcome.   I am thinking smoked salmon will be the next experiment.

3 comments:

Erin said...

Holy Moly, girl, is that the new countertop? It is GORGEOUS!!! I understand about being upset that all the turkey parts were not included - I don't even eat any of them, but you would expect they would be there especially since most people make gravy with them! I passed on our local farm's bird pre-order when I saw the price, and it's a good thing since we ended up traveling for the holiday! I am thinking we'll try it next year but I will ask the farm if "batteries are included" lol! My hubby was looking at your post over my shoulder and is wanting to smoke some salmon now, too!

Kelly said...

I think these birds were $4 or $5 a pound. Pricey when you consider they can get as low as 99 cents/lb before the holidays at the grocerery store, but not costly in the whole scheme of things, a naturally raised bird is going to cost more.

Those ARE the new counters, I kept a huge piece unsealed to use as a work surface (which is what the turkey was on). We never reversed the template before cutting out the sink so that portion of the countertop is now installed upside down until IKEA gets more in stock for us to try again. So stupid...we had the template the right way at one point but some how managed to not trace it that way.

But, I do love them, they feel so nice sealed and look pretty too, yet I will have 2 HUGE 'cutting boards' to prep on sealed with spoon oil only...best of both worlds!

Thomas said...

Oh yay! I'm so happy that you finally got the chance to do some smokin. I can't wait to read about how it turns out. The turkey looks looks really fresh natural.

You'll have to explain the inside of that smoker. It looks kind of complicated.