I realized after trying to talk myself into cooking a turkey next Thursday that I just really don't care much for the things. I'd rather eat a Costco chicken any day. Prolly do a ham, as the leftovers are just so useful for so many things.

But turkey is actually priced lower than chicken in the stores right now. I just bought a couple of turkeys to pressure can the white meat. I will smoke the dark meat for fresh eating make stock and can that. Can't wait! Mmm, smoked turkey!

BTW- I am butchering 8 cockerels next week once it warms up here. Will pressure can the meat and make stock/broth out of the carcasses and can that too.

Ann, you're amazing. You need a Youtube channel on growing and processing your own food. I don't believe I have ever had home-canned meat of any kind, but I remember reading a story a while back about a family that would make a big trip to South Dakota every fall to shoot and can as many pheasants as possible. This might even have been during the Depression. Don't know why that image of canned pheasant has stuck with me for so long.

We used to bottle fish, bottle venison, rabbit etc. etc., using a pressure cooker. Loved it! By the way, with a fresh Costco chicken we occasionally have, throughout the entire year, what we affectionately call, a "Little Thanksgiving", doing stuffing, potatoes, gravy, rolls, etc. with the Costco chicken. We usually enjoy this on a Sunday. I guess you could also call it the poor man's Thanksgiving. With inflation, it makes a lot of sense more and more, especially if you are not feeding the hordes.

UEG, I think that is a fine tradition. I wish there were a Costco within an hour of here, but no luck.
I thought about it and decided I will just brine and spatchcock a nice fat chicken on the Traeger.

To each their own but Thanksgiving without turkey is like Christmas without Jesus.

My kids and their kids all demand my deep fried turkey now. The wife's feelings are a bit hurt because they don't care for her roasted turkey as much ....yet it's delicious too!

Admittedly, if it were just the wife and I, we would not do a turkey at all.. but I suppose that contradicts what I said at the top. haha

Zeke

quote:

My kids and their kids all demand my deep fried turkey now. The wife's feelings are a bit hurt because they don't care for her roasted turkey as much ....yet it's delicious too!

Damn, we always have an air fried turkey, a roasted turkey and a Poyeye's Cajun turkey, all at the same time on thanksgiving, with a small ham thrown in for good measure! Everyone gets their turkey wish! And plenty left over for sandwiches, casseroles, etc, etc. We feed the hordes!

I do a turkey several times a summer.
15-16# bird. Pound a hardwood stake in the ground the size of your wrist. Set the turkey on the stake. Set a 15 gallon drum over the turkey, don't let it touch the sides. A bag of charcoal lighted and ready to go is shoveled on top and around the base of the drum.
An hour and 15-20 min later, lift the drum off and you have a beautiful golden brown turkey to eat.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I do a turkey several times a summer.
15-16# bird. Pound a hardwood stake in the ground the size of your wrist. Set the turkey on the stake. Set a 15 gallon drum over the turkey, don't let it touch the sides. A bag of charcoal lighted and ready to go is shoveled on top and around the base of the drum.
An hour and 15-20 min later, lift the drum off and you have a beautiful golden brown turkey to eat.

That sounds really good and 'easy'! I had wanted to do a ham but they are very spendy this year. Maybe the price will be better at Christmas? I like the 'Frick's' brand of ham. I always make several baked potatoes with it. Rub them with lard and garlic salt the skins good, let 'em bake. Ooo!

Looked at hams and turkeys this afternoon, and decided that my original plan -- a nice, fat young fryer, brined, spatchcocked and smoked/grilled on my Traeger -- would be all that I need.

The local HEB grocery store usually has a deal at Thanksgiving that if you buy a ham, you get a free turkey. I used to do that + cook the turkey for Thanksgiving + save the ham for Christmas, but I don't have enough folks to eat that much these days. My mother is still alive + all will be going to her house + everyone bringing something. Should be a nice day of family.I'll be bringing my famous buttermilk pies.

Randy, the local Brookshire's is doing the buy-a-ham-get-a-turkey offer this week. I don't have room in the freezer ...

Bill, that's a good problem to have!

Yes -- food security, as long as ERCOT does its job ...

I wasn't a big fan of turkey until I did the Cajun fried thing. Now that's good.

I did that one year + it was pretty good; however, I think my favorite way is using the brown-in-plastic bag. It keeps it all super moist + just falls off the bone.

I cannot recommend this gal's recipe more highly. The dry-brined and spatchcocked chicken took about an hour on the Traeger at 375 to come up to 165 internal temp. So juicy and flavorful! I dry-brined for about 30 hours and added a pinch of rosemary to the rub. House still smells wonderful this morning.

https://www.thatzestlife.com/d...spatchcocked-smoked/

I ended up also doing a whole chicken. Started smoking it (cold smoked) just after noon. Put the heat on the grill around 1630. Made garden grown mashed potatoes, gravy and wax beans from the garden. Dessert was a cherry crisp.

Gonna have a lot of soup coming up. It was a 6.5 pound chicken.