Last year, my oldest son Martin and my daughter-in-law Cheryl decided it was time to take the plunge and host their first Thanksgiving feast for our family. I happened to be over when the turkey came home from the store and Martin asked me what they should do with it. I explained to them that they needed to:
1. Defrost it in the fridge in it’s original wrap in a pan for 2-3 days to thaw.
2. Take out the bag of giblets (liver, heart, kidneys) out of the large cavity of the turkey and (reserve for stock) before roasting.
3. Take out the neck in the opposite smaller cavity of the turkey (reserve for stock) before roasting.
4. To make it easier, I recommended that they not put the stuffing in the turkey, but rather bake it in a separate casserole dish.
5. I told them to refer to the “My First Thanksgiving” chapter of my book, Easy Entertaining for Beginners for further simple instructions and a detailed step-by-step checklist.
They thought that sounded easy enough. I got a call from Martin the night before Thanksgiving and he sounded a bit confused. He said, “Mom, I know you said the turkey neck would be inside the turkey, but ours is still on. Do I just rip it off?”
I knew immediately what he was talking about. I gently told him that the body part he was referring to was not the neck, but rather the tail of the turkey! He was a little embarrassed, but I told him not to be. Think about it. When the bird is alive, he is not laying on his back as he is in the neat packaging he arrives in from the store. He is the other end up. It can get confusing if you have never prepared a turkey and I thought it was a perfectly understandable mistake. I waited till I hung up to have a good laugh.
The next day as we were in the final 30 minute countdown before the meal, I showed them how to use an instant-read thermometer to see if the turkey was finished roasting. It was no where near ready and I could feel the doubting look in my turkey roasting abilities cross Martin’s face. Hmmm… follow the checklist in your chapter and everything will be finished on time?? I admit I was stumped. The stuffing was in the casserole, not in the turkey which can typically increase the roasting time. What in the heck was going on?
It ended up taking another full hour to roast. As Martin was readying to carve it for the meal, my daughter-in-law said, “Oh, by the way, I stuffed the turkey with some leftover ham I had in the refrigerator. I thought it might be good.” Ham! Now, that was original and my shaken confidence was restored.
Ah-Ha, there was a perfectly sensible reason the turkey took an extra hour to roast. There was about 4 cups of chopped up ham tightly squeezed into the cavity so the turkey took much longer to fully roast! I wasn’t going crazy after all. And you want to know the really funny part? The turkey AND the ham tasted pretty darn good. They did a great job and we had lots of fun.
Happy Entertaining!
Patricia Mendez
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