Inevitably it happens, you go to your grandmother's house for Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever and you share a meal.

You all get dished up and do your thing, then dig in-only to find that the white meat is dry, and the dark meat isnt much better. Many times i've had this problem, but we can learn to adapt.

First of all, dont expect the meat to be juicy and delicious when you bite in, expect it to be beef jerky. I say [I]expect because when you lower your standards, what you get is far superior. It really is a psychological thing in the end. Cliche i know, 'lol lower the standards!!1!!' but it does work.

Second, cranberries. Almost everyone agrees that cranberries go with anything, because noone eats them with anything besides holiday meals. If you get a very dry piece of meat on your plate, scoop up some cranberries (whole, not the jelly) and continue to chew with the meat. It really does taste good, or at least different, from what you are doing.

Note; if your family is against the awesomeness that is cranberries, high fat nasty gravy is your backup.

Third, water. I know this seems obvious, and you're wondering why i even posted it, but think of it this way; This stuff was cooked for hours and all its moisture was removed very very slowly. If you have a bit of moisture in your mouth and are willing to actually CHEW your food all is well, it's a bit more tolerable.

Have any survival stories, when it comes to family meals?

im glad my mom cooks some mean holiday meals, never had this problem :)

Thankfully my family seems to do pretty well when it comes to holiday cooking. Had a girl over yesterday for the great meal and I was pretty fucking worried the turkey, among other things I'd cooked, wasn't going to come out great. Worries begone! Everything was perfect.

People make dry turkeys because they cook them for like 6 hours. It really doesn't take that long.

*ObZ

People make dry turkeys because they cook them for like 6 hours. It really doesn't take that long.
Add the dedicated avoidance it must take to not baste your turkey every one in a while, and we might as well be eating dehydrated meat!

EFF the white meat on a turkey. It's never moist enough for me, ever. And the flavor is bland as hell. Dark meat is where it's at, luckily I get whatever pickin's I want of the dark meat, because everyone else is crazy and doesn't like it.... Why does no one like dark meat? WTF is wrong with people. If you don't like it, tell me why, I guess I just can't fathom it due to my bias.

Breast meat will always be somewhat dry if you're cooking a whole Turkey(it's a fact that the legs and thighs take longer to cook than the Breasts).

The key is to cook it to take into account carry over cooking(the meat will cook another 5-10 degrees after you take it out of the oven and cover it).

I think Turkey breast is pretty bland to begin with, so there's really no reason not to have some cranberry sauce/gravy on it.

I thought this thread would be something sexual

It's for this reason I've always found Thanksgiving to be a most depressing holiday.

Gravy. Just use gravy.

Turkey sucks, Thanksgiving sucks, gravy sucks, cranberries suck. There are no solutions.

Turkey sucks, Thanksgiving sucks, gravy sucks, cranberries suck. There are no solutions.
All you do is bitch.

Bitching, hopelessly searching for solutions to problems that cannot be solved in the name of optimism and having "direction in life"; what's the difference.

my grandma always makes delicious turkey which is not dry at all. i still put cranberry sauce on the white meat though. and gravy on the dark. well, just thought you might like to know. Bye.

i ran into this problem, kinda sucks when the nitwit making the gravy puts too much flour in it...

some people just shouldn't cook. if your cooking, theres no reason to be sitting on the couch having a beer...

if your cooking, theres no reason to be sitting on the couch having a beer
Agreed.

When I've got something going in the kitchen I generally don't leave the room.

Though I might be having a beer in there. :cool:

foolish mortals,... juicy delicous turkey is easy:

BRINE! soak your (fresh, not a butterball or self-basting) turkey overnight in a salt solution. im not going to go into a full recipe, but basically you are looking for 1 cup kosher salt per gallon of water.

after soaking for ~ 12 hours, remove bird and rinse off.

massage with oil

cook in preheated oven for 500 degrees for ~ 1 hour

cover breast with aluminum foil and drop temp to 350

it cooks really fast and is super moist. alton brown's show taught me how, and it has worked every time ive done it

foolish mortals,... juicy delicous turkey is easy:

BRINE! soak your (fresh, not a butterball or self-basting) turkey overnight in a salt solution. im not going to go into a full recipe, but basically you are looking for 1 cup kosher salt per gallon of water.

after soaking for ~ 12 hours, remove bird and rinse off.

massage with oil

cook in preheated oven for 500 degrees for ~ 1 hour

cover breast with aluminum foil and drop temp to 350

it cooks really fast and is super moist. alton brown's show taught me how, and it has worked every time ive done it

You get no gravy if you brine it. Best way is to just cook it low and slow, almost like a pork shoulder or Brisket.

Though I might be having a beer in there. :cool:

i find those that burn one while they cook care more about the end result..

i find those that burn one while they cook care more about the end result..
That too.

Trust me I've had many nights of herb consumption in the kitchen. :cool:

'pot pies' anyone?

Lol, i've never had to worry about this thankfully. This year my girlfriend ended up doing all the cooking, and the turkey was juicy to the point where it practically jizzed all over the plate upon the first cut. Then again, she used some sort of white wine on it as she was cooking it, not quite sure what it was but much better than the conventional - 'get a turkey, stuff it with stuffing mix out of a box, cook it for 9001 hours"

That too.

Trust me I've had many nights of herb consumption in the kitchen. :cool:

'pot pies' anyone?

Pun time is Fun time!

Left over turkey meat is much, much worse than the thanksgiving day meal. Something about turkey just seems to magically transform into sand paper after anytime in the fridge. I was actually fairly surprised, the cranberry thing tasted quite delicious. Although I improved on your method and just drenched a piece of turkey in sauce.

I prefer my way...

It's not boil-in-the-bag army food. Now whilst the BITB food kicks arse, it doesn't compare to fresh cooked food. But once you have eaten that stuff followed by biscuits brown for afters, any lump of meat is fucking great!

Moist or dry...I'm fucking eating it!

Inject that mother fucker with crab boil and deep fry it. It's fucking juicy.:cool:

This is a quick and simple sauce to toss on if you don't want a ton of gravy.

1 cup of drippings
1 cup of balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp of brown sugar

It's easy enough to whip some up and put it on the table for whoever wants some.

Pun time is Fun time!

Left over turkey meat is much, much worse than the thanksgiving day meal. Something about turkey just seems to magically transform into sand paper after anytime in the fridge.

:mad: Blasphemy!

I look forward to the days after Thanksgiving when I can make myself a turkey sandwich with extra mayo!

Sammiches are always good. . .


Newho, as far as eating dry meat is concerned- A fair-sized glass of hard liquor always helps--- helps you to salivate, and dry turkey encourages more drinking :D

I thought this thread would be something sexual

I think you might've just ruined my Thanksgiving 2009.

i feel sorry for all of you who have to sit through dry turkey. my protip is to cover the breast section with slices of thick bacon half way through the cooking process. this helps retain moisture.

We make a good motherfucking turkey round my thanksgiving, and gravy too for that fact. However, if you have to cook it for longer than 2 hours, that fucker is going to be dryer than Hilary Clinton's vagina. Fact.

First of all, dont expect the meat to be juicy and delicious when you bite in, expect it to be beef jerky. I say expect because when you lower your standards, what you get is far superior. It really is a psychological thing in the end.

Beef jerky is way better than turkey.

Inject that mother fucker with crab boil and deep fry it. It's fucking juicy.:cool:
Now thats what I'm talkin ablout! Delish