(OT) - Turkey Sizing for Thanksgiving

[flere-imsaho]

This year, the wife & I are hosting Thanksgiving. It's going to be a real treat as not only are my folks flying out for the week, but my brother & his wife are driving down from Minnesota. Between them, us, my in-laws, and my wife's brother & his wife, we're looking at 10 people.

We going to do turkey on the grill. I'm not looking for advice on that, because last weekend we did a "trial-run" and it turned out FANTASTIC.

However, the trial run raised some questions. Originally, I had ordered a 12-pound bird, because the Butterball site recommended 12 pounds if you had 10 people and didn't want leftovers, and I wanted to see how a 12-pound bird would fit on the grill.

Amusingly, when I went to pick up the bird, they had basically lost my order, and only had a 17-pound bird, which they offered to sell me for the same price as a 12-pound bird. So, I said yes, and we cooked a 17-pound bird for the trial run, at which we had 7 people.

With 7 people eating a 17-pound bird (and with some sides), we ate, I'm going to guess, about half of the turkey. Yes, it was good, but it also makes me think that maybe 12 pounds won't be enough for 10 people, especially as my brother and his wife have big appetites.

So, after all of that exposition, what are people's thoughts on how much turkey one should have per person for Thanksgiving. For us, having leftovers isn't a big deal as the next day I'm grilling a leg of lamb.

[albionmoonlight]

Isn't Turkey, like, $2 a pound? Why not just go big?

[Mustang]

About 1 1/2 lbs per person so, looking at a 18 lb turkey.

Also depends how much other 'stuff' you are going to have...

[stevew]

I'd go in that same range again(17ish), figure a slightly bigger turkey should theoretically have more breast meat. And also more dark meat if you are into that.

[bbor]

I would think 1 pound per person.Turkey with all the fixin's is filling as all hell.

[Wolfy]

1.5lb person gives you a great meal with some left overs. You dont want to run out of turkey, ever. I've had to cook a pair of birds due to lack of size selection and even that isnt so bad.

[stevew]

I'd suggest making a ham as well, but I would guess with the last name that you're jewish?

[jbmagic]

When getting a turkey you should count how many guest ou going to have.

Its usually a 1 pound per person estimate.

[Eaglesfan27]

Nothing to add, but wanted to say thanks for a timely thread. We are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever, and despite my wife being a chef we have been having a "discussion" about how big of a turkey to get for our guests.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Wolfy

1.5lb person gives you a great meal with some left overs.

You just hit on a major component of my bird selection process: the leftovers.

The turkey sandwiches on Friday is usually the best part of the meal to me, so I always lean toward the 1.5 lb/per benchmark in an effort to ensure I don't have any skimping the next day.

[rkmsuf]

Breast meat.

LOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IT!

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Isn't Turkey, like, $2 a pound? Why not just go big?

Takes longer to cook.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Takes longer to cook.

and not as tight for...stuffing

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Takes longer to cook.

Fry the turkey. It takes like 20 mins and it taste so good.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Fry the turkey. It takes like 20 mins and it taste so good.

Deep fried turkey is one of the best things I've ever tasted. Just make sure you take the proper safety precautions.

[Pumpy Tudors]

The company I work for is giving each employee either a 6-pound ham or a 16-to-20-pound turkey. I've heard that the ham is terrible, so I've chosen the turkey. I don't know the first thing about cooking, but now I see that a big turkey like that is going to be waaaaaay too much for my wife and me to eat. Ughie.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

The company I work for is giving each employee either a 6-pound ham or a 16-to-20-pound turkey. I've heard that the ham is terrible, so I've chosen the turkey. I don't know the first thing about cooking, but now I see that a big turkey like that is going to be waaaaaay too much for my wife and me to eat. Ughie.

Give it to the homeless and just buy a smaller size for you guys.

[B & B]

Id go like 3 per person to be on the safe side.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by jbmagic

Give it to the homeless and just buy a smaller size for you guys.

This may sound funny, but I don't know where to go to give it to the homeless.

[jbmagic]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

This may sound funny, but I don't know where to go to give it to the homeless.

At the homeless shelters in your area.

[jbmagic]

dola

or just donate it to a church.

[flere-imsaho]

Thanks for all the input, folks. We're going to go with the 15-pounder.

[DaddyTorgo]

yeah, seriously pumpy...donate it to a shelter/church and buy a smaller one for you two. no sense in wasting, especially this time of year.


also, can we get a "turkey recipe" thread? how would one grill a turkey to maximum effect?

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Grilled Turkey eh.....never heard of that. I heard the deep fried Turkey is good, but Ive only had the baked and basted variety.

[flere-imsaho]

Recipe/Directions

There are basically four major steps:

1. Clean the Turkey
2. Brine the Turkey (24-48 hours)
3. Wash/Dry the Turkey (24 hours)
4. Grill the Turkey

Clean the Turkey

Pretty straightforward. Take out the giblets/neck/whatever else is in the cavity, and wash thoroughly. Just as a FYI - this recipe doesn't call for stuffing the turkey.

Brine the Turkey

Most people think you should brine a turkey before cooking it, even if you're cooking it in the oven. Brining is basically soaking the turkey for 24-48 hours in a saltwater solution, the idea being that this will bring much more moisture to the cooking process, and leave you with a more juicy turkey. In my experience (though limited), this works.

Before brining, you need to ask yourself this question: Do I have a large, non-reactive stockpot big enough to fit this turkey? If the answer is no, then you're going to want to get a big-enough food-safe plastic container for brining the bird, or, do what I did and get a brining bag. Brining bags are basically very large, very strong, Ziploc bags.

The first step of brining is to dissolve about 1 & 1/4 cups of salt (preferably Kosher, since it will have no additives) in 1 quart of hot water. Use a whisk to dissolve. Once that's done you whisk in the rest of your brining ingredients (basically the flavors). In my case, the ingredient list looked like this:

1 & 1/4 cups salt
1 quart hot water
4 quarts cold water
1 cup maple syrup
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
10 peppercorns
5 bay leaves
4 strips lemon zest
2 cloves

This recipe specifically ends up giving you a basically maple-hickory tasting turkey, but there are plenty of other brining recipes out there.

Anyway, if you're brining in the pot in which you dissolved the salt, all you need to do is add the rest of the brining ingredients (except maybe only half of the cold water), drop the turkey in, and add cold water until the turkey is covered. If you're using a food-safe plastic container or a brining bag, then put the turkey in there first, pour the brining solution over it, and then pour cold water over it until the turkey is covered.

NOTE: If you're using a brining bag, be careful, as it's a bit unwieldy during this part.

The next brining step is to get it into a refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Obviously if you only have 1 refrigerator (like us), this is going to be a problem. There are a number of options here, but you have to be creative. You could force an in-law to let you use their refrigerator, for instance. What we did was to put the turkey and bag into a cooler, cover it with ice, and put it outside for the night. Luckily for us, the ambient temperature outside was 36 fahrenheit, so the turkey stayed below 40 fahrenheit, which is where you need to keep it. If you put it outside, and you have native animals, you might want to duct-tape that cooler shut.

Wash/Dry the Turkey

Take the turkey out of the brining solution, give it a rinse, pat it dry, and then let it dry (back in the fridge) for 24 hours. The drying for 24 hours is probably optional, but what I've been told is that it makes the skin more likely to be crispy, rather than soggy.

Grill the Turkey

Here's the fun part. First of all, you're going to use indirect heat. So, if you're using gas, then you turn the two side burners on, and leave the middle one (where the turkey is) off. If you're using charcoal (my method), you'll want to have the coals to each side, and the turkey over the middle. In either case you'll want to have a drip pan below the turkey to catch the fatty goodness, which will then recirculate in the cooking environment.

You're also (for this recipe), going to want to hickory-smoke the turkey. For gas grills, you'll create a foil pouch, and put the soaked hickory chips in it, poke some holes in it, and place it near the flames. For charcoal, you toss the hickory chips on the coals just after they reach temperature and just before you put the turkey on.

In either case, you're looking for a grill environment temperature of 350 fahrenheit for the cooking process, and aiming to get the turkey temperature (taken with a meat probe in the deepest part of the thigh) of roughly 175/180. Many gas grills come with a built-in thermometer which will tell the grill environment temperature, and then you could use an instant-read thermometer on the turkey. However, one gadget I've used which I can't recommend highly enough is this remote dual-probe thermometer, which gives you (via wireless) the current temps of both the environment and the turkey: http://www.thegadgetsource.com/Merch...e=011502013733

Best $40 you'll ever spend, if you're a hard-core griller.

So basically, if you know how to grill, then you know how to get the environment temp to 350 and keep it there, while waiting for the meat to get to 175/180. On gas, it's easy. On charcoal, it's just a matter of adding coals when the environment temperature starts dipping. If you haven't done a multi-hour indirect grill with charcoal before, I wouldn't really recommend having a turkey be your first time, as it can be tricky to get the timings right. Also, you'll want to get your additional coals going in a chimney prior to adding them to the fire.

The only other thing you have to know is to baste the turkey every hour with melted butter. Once it gets to temperature (11-13 minutes per pounds, figure), take it off the grill (carefully - avoiding ravenous dogs, for instance), let it sit for about 20-30 minutes, carve, and serve.

Grilling is somewhat of an inexact science, of course, so here are solutions to the two most common problems:

Problem #1: After a couple of hours, the turkey isn't done, but the skin has started to brown too much. Solution: "tent" the turkey with tin foil.

Problem #2: The turkey gets to temperature waaaaaaaaay too early (like an hour or more - it can happen, especially if you let your fire get too hot on you). Solution: Put the turkey in the oven at 200 fahrenheit, and keep it there until you're ready to carve (but, let's be honest, not for more than 2 hours).

Enjoy!