When I was at my daughter's home (taking care of the aforementioned grandson) we decided to roast a HUGE turkey she had in the freezer. We didn't want to wait until it had several days to thaw in the refrigerator, so for several hours the first day we put it in a sink full of cold water and transferred it to the refrigerator overnight.
Needless to say, it was still pretty frozen the next morning, but we decided to go for it anyway. Here is what we did:
Remove bird from packaging and rinse it off.
Rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and basil.
Place it into a brown paper grocery bag on a rack, in a roasting pan.
Add a chopped onion and some chopped celery to the bag.
Close the bag and clip with clothespins.
Bake at 300F until done. This bird took 7 hours to finish.
Remove the bag.
Make gravy from the drippings.
Let the bird cool for at least 1/2 hour.
Serve!
We had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, turkey and I made some of my "Quick Stuffing."
Yum! No basting required. No "store bought" turkey roasting bag needed.
We had LOTS of meat left over. That went into turkey salad, turkey and homemade noodle soup, turkey and brown rice, lots of packages of frozen turkey for stir fries and sandwiches.
I have done the rush to get it thawed in the sink of water thing too, but never thought of the paper bag. What a nifty idea, thanks.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are back and the aforementioned grandson is doing well.
debbieo
Thank you, Debbieo. He is doing pretty well. Not out of the woods yet, but definitely better. The paper bag idea did not originate with me. I learned about that many years ago. It's nice when you can do something good like that without spending extra money or thinking, "Oh no! I ran out of....!"
ReplyDeleteWow, what a cool idea. I have never heard of using a paper bag before! It wouldn't catch on fire in a gas oven, would it? :) Sounds like a delicious Thanksgiving-in-March meal! What a blessing it must be to your daughter to have you there helping and freezing leftovers!
ReplyDeleteDanielle, it was a gas oven, by the way, but unless it came in contact with the flame, I can't imagine it burning. :)
ReplyDeleteI've done the paper bag thing, but there are those that say it is unsafe, due to chemicals in the bag, inks, glues, etc. possibly tainting the meat.
ReplyDelete... and there was the time I caught the bag on fire ....
That's funny! It has crossed my mind about the safety of using the bags. I only do that if I'm desperate. I would actually prefer to use a covered roaster and then open it up to let the turkey brown. I do have a roaster, and it will hold a small turkey. The bake-in bags are nice. I wonder if they are really safe.
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