Happy Thanksgiving America! (1 Viewer)

The_Doc_Man

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I give thanks to my dear wife for putting up with me for another year (since our anniversary is also in November). Being atheist, I don't worry about other issues that much. What counts for me is that we can gather family and friends and chat about insubstantial issues instead of the insanity that is currently going on in the world - like Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Hamas. Plus the whackadoodle shooting incidents, a car exploding on the USA/Canada border, ... my heart can do without the turmoil.

Here in south Louisiana, some people will have deep-fried turkey. For the gathering at our house, it will be roasted turkey, stuffing made with Cajun sausage, various veggie dishes, mac and cheese, and more than one dessert offering. Two friends who would otherwise be alone today are coming with an offering of dessert and both of them are EXCELLENT bakers. I sense an afternoon nap in my future, feet (and recliners) up, TV sound on low so I can watch a play if I wasn't resting my eyes at the moment. <wink><wink>
 

Uncle Gizmo

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Here in south Louisiana, some people will have deep-fried turkey

I just don't understand this! I have never heard of this being done in the UK.

I have seen some YouTube disaster videos of the oil overflowing and catching light. I just don't understand why anyone would cook this way instead of in the oven? Is there any reason for it, or is it just an alternative way of cooking?
 
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The_Doc_Man

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Alternative way of cooking. Have you ever eaten fried chicken? Same thing except turkeys are bigger and you don't usually have a breaded or floured coating. Just bird and skin.

Those that have the cooking fire USUALLY violated the cardinal rule of frying a turkey. They don't dry it off. So what happens is that if there is enough water, you get a steam "bump" and the oil jumps out of the frying pot... but the frying pot is usually over an open flame and the oil IS flammable, so... "woosh!"

A Navy friend of mine originally from Indiana came to south Louisiana while on duty. Liked it enough to stay when he retired and got a civil service job with Navy Enterprise Data Center New Orleans (where I worked as contractor.) Bill heard about frying turkeys and thought "how hard can it be?" We already have deep-pot setups for crab, shrimp, and crayfish boils, just the right size for a turkey fry, right? So he set up the typical rig on the lawn of his daughter's sorority house. Dropped in the bird carefully to avoid splatter. But it was still frozen and had a few large chunks of ice here and there. Given how hot the oil gets, it doesn't take long for the steam explosion. As Bill put it, "the girls didn't kick his daughter out of the sorority but he can't ever go back again until the burned grass grows back to normal."
 

Isaac

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Of course you realise you are all white supremacists, celebrating a white supremacist holiday.

The following clip from clown world on Twitter:-


Oh yes, absolutely.
Anyone who takes land from a band of people claiming to own all of it and populated at one person per million square miles is an absolute genocidal maniac!:p.
And of course all of the native Americans who are full citizens like everyone else and have the same opportunities as everyone else are so much worse off now than they were under their Chiefs and on their horses. Umm hmmm..

And Happy Thanksgiving and thank you it was great and I had turkey. Had an extra day off on Friday too. Facing up to Monday morning at the present. Good luck everybody!
 

NauticalGent

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I just don't understand why anyone would cook this way instead of in the oven? Is there any reason for it, or is it just an alternative way of cooking?
It is simply fantastic. The meat stays moist and juicy, and I can cook a 13lb bird in 45 min.

Clean up is a bit of a hassle and it has to be done outside, so if it is cold or misting, you get cold and wet. Small trade offs...it's a yank thing...
 

NauticalGent

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Could be, but you know our history regarding adopting other's culture and claiming it as ours...
 

ebs17

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In Germany the largest edible bird is a goose.
Some ostriches are now kept, but they are not fried in one piece in a pan.
 

NauticalGent

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In Germany the largest edible bird is a goose.
Some ostriches are now kept, but they are not fried in one piece in a pan.
I have never had goose. I have had a few variations of duck, but no goose, unless Grey Goose vodka counts...
 

Mike Krailo

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The last time I had fried turkey was at a crawfish boil in Virginia Beach at my friends house. Actually had multiple boils there previously, but in addition to the regular food in the boil, we would drop in an injected turkey (one of three) that would be fully cooked in about 45-55 minutes since the turkeys were dry and room temperature. When that turkey was set out on the table full of news papers and carved up, I never seen a bird disappear so quickly as people gathered around just picking pieces off the bird directly or from the carved portion. It was nothing but a carcass in less than 5 minutes and it's hard to compare the taste to any oven baked turkey. It's absolutely delicious done in peanut oil. There was an enormous amount of food that kept appearing on that table at regular intervals so that all the early goers and late comers all got fed really well. I miss those days a lot.

This year my wife and I went to someone else's place that smoked their turkey on the Traeger Grill. It was outstanding, but still not up to par with one of those fried turkeys. The funny thing was while we were eating dinner in the dining room, our dog (female German shorthair pointer) had access to the kitchen where the turkey was. You can guess what happened. She surgically removed the bottom part of one side of that turkey without making a sound. We hand no idea that she had done this until well after it happened. She never did anything like that before, but I guess the smell was irresistible.
 

Isaac

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Could be, but you know our history regarding adopting other's culture and claiming it as ours...
Silly NG! Every culture has assimilated other cultures from before, during and around it in order to make its unique mix.
Current opinion on the subject is astonishingly limited to seeing the spectrum of time based only on the last few hundred years.

500 years from now, if US exists, people will finally acknowledge a legitimate US "culture". but we got it from elsewhere, of course.

500 years after 500 years before the US colonized north america, people are making the opposite mistake. Seeing the most recently developing cultures as illegitimate, while seeing the older cultures (who are about equally a mixture of taking and mixing) as legitimate.

Same thing I say about climate change. If only we knew where we were on the spectrum or in the cycles........we could speak more authoritatively.
But I find no excuse for failing to understand we ARE somewhere on that spectrum. It exists, and the bigger we fail to measure the whole spectrum, the more off-base our conclusions will be. (said in general, not to you NG).

The only cultures that have a bit more claim to cultural legitimacy are the first ones to ever exist.
 

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