Since Thanksgiving is coming up....Turkey recipe..

[norgeway]

MyGrandmother had a weird way of cooking a turkey, she learned it working in the lunchroom of Lower Creek Elementary School in 1958-1962, I have had people tell me it was dangerous, but since they fed over 500 kids and as far as I know  never had any problems, plus we had turkey fixed this way up until her death in 1988..Anyway, here is how she did it, she always used a 12 to 14 pound turkey, she did stuff it with a cornbread stuffing containing onion and celery, cornbread and Pepperidge Farm blue bag stuffing mix,She rubbed butter all over it, salted and peppered it, wrapped the turkey tightly in fooil, placed it in a roasting pan....now for the weird part...put it into a preheated 550 degree oven for 2 hours, then She turned the oven off for 2 hours and when  She took the turkey out and unwrapped it it was beautifully brown and perfectly done....In the School lunchroom they did something that would horrify todays food police, About 1 pm they put the turkeys in the ovens at 550, when they left for the day about 3pm they turned the oven off, when they came in the next day about 7.30am they took the turkeys out and cut them up for the days lunch.Grandmother said the big commercial Hotpoint flat top ranges they had would still be hot in the morning.

 

[norgeway]

RE Lower Creek Elementary lunchroom

The food I had while there 1971-1977 , was as good as any restaurant I have ever eaten in, certainly not like the  kids have to eat today....Back then we had GREAT food, the best Chili Mac I ever had as well as the best rolls EVER. I feel sorry for kids having to grow up nowdays.

 

[ea56]

My Aunt Louise was a cook in a school cafeteria and she made the best yeast rolls ever. I wonder if there was some sort of school cafeteria cookbook that they all used? As for Thanksgiving turkey, I recall in the 50's that my Mom used to stuff the turkey the night before. We would never do this now, but I don't recall anyone getting sick from this practice. Then in the morning she took the turkey in the roaster to the bakery and they would roast the turkey. This freed up the oven for the pies and all the other side dishes. Then in the afternoon my Dad would drive to the bakery and pick up the roasted turkey.

 

[petek]

It's referred to as thermal cooking.  I'd never heard of it before until a year or so ago I was mooching around a thrift store and found what I thought was a Zojirushi japanese electric rice cooker but I couldn't find a plug or any controls on it.  All the instructions on the lid were Japanese. It seemed like a high quality pot and I knew the brand name so I bought it regardless and googled it at home.. As it turns out it is a non electric vacuum insulated cooker. It's basically a big Thermos.  You cook the food in the inner pot on the stove top until it boils for a few minutes then put it back in the "thermos" and it retains the heat at boiling or near boiling for hours on end cooking the food.. Same principle as what your grandma did with the turkeys it seems. . http://www.zojirushi.com/app/product/snxae

 

[toploader55]

School Cafeteria Food...

 

Yup. The Schools always seemed to have TOL equipment and it was upgraded every 5 years or so. It was always an event for local restaurants (if you didn't get the inside scoop from someone in the school system) when they were going to sell off the equipment for an update (as they used to say).

Scratch recipes,  good ingredients, and all the jobs that cafeteria created.  You needed cooks, line servers a cashier or two, clean up people, dish machine operators.

 

Children and Teens seemed so much healthier back then because they were getting real food at home and at school. Oh that's right... Gym classes too when you had to exercise.

 

[lordkenmore]

I have to think that cafeteria "cooking" deteriorated even by my generation (school in the 70s/80s). At least in my area. I seldom ate the standard hot lunch, but the smell alone told me all I needed to know...

I'm not sure when this happened, but by the time I was in junior high (early 1980s), apparently they had moved to limit the cooking in most of the school kitchens. I was told that the lunches were apparently made in my junior high kitchen and shipped out to other schools. Possibly in large vats carried on trucks with signs saying: "Warning! Toxic Material!" LOL

>Gym classes too when you had to exercise.

I wonder how bad gym classes are. I have heard stories of little exercise in modern classes. One reason sometimes cited for the fading of school showers is that kids don't really sweat enough to make it necessary.

But I'm not sure my era--when at least some kids would sweat--was a whole lot better. There was zero lifetime fitness. It was just going out and playing the season's sport. Football in the fall, basketball and wrestling in the winter, track and softball in the spring. It probably did give some kids exercise. But there were a large percentage of people--including me--who pretty much stood around the sidelines, either because of a lack of interest in sports, a lack of ability, or both. (I was "both".) Even for those who liked sports, well, what personal fitness value is there with football today, 30-some years later?

I have no idea what the schools in my area do now; however, I have seen PE classes out taking long walks (which can be done when one is older), and aquatics (again lifetime fitness) are a major part of the PE program.

 

[frigilux]

From a food safety perspective, I think cooking a turkey at 550 degrees for two hours, then off for two hours would be OK if the turkey is in the 12-14 lb. range---especially in an electric range, which holds heat longer than its gas counterpart.

 

[mrb627]

Paper Grocery Bag Method

My parents always roasted the Thanksgiving turkey in a brown paper grocery bag to keep it from over browning. It would start out in the bag then get removed 45-60 minutes before completion and the skin would brown perfectly. That is, the bird was in the pan and the pan would be slid inside the bag.

We never stuffed the bird. Always made dressing in a pan. There would never have been enough stuffing if we only had what the interior of the bird could hold.

Malcolm

Anyone else have an unusual method for preparing their bird?

 

[lordkenmore]

Here's an interesting way to prepare a turkey.

Fill it with unpopped popcorn. Sew it up. Put in a hot oven. The turkey is done when the rear end blows off!

(No, this is not serious!)

 

[lordkenmore]

>From a food safety perspective, I think cooking a turkey at 550 degrees for two hours, then off for two hours would be OK if the turkey is in the 12-14 lb. range---especially in an electric range, which holds heat longer than its gas counterpart.

I don't know enough about food safety to comment. But it does seem to me that a critical consideration would be how well the oven holds heat when shut off. If it gets turned off at 550, and is room temperature half an hour later, it is probably not a good choice for this method of preparing a turkey.

Another consideration would be the type of turkey. It seems like smaller would be better.

This method was probably a better match for years back, before 100 pound turkeys became the norm. The ovens of past years might also have been better insulated--at least, I think I've heard that claim.

 

[norgeway]

Personally...

I always cook them like my Dads side of the family, I put the turkey in a roaster on a rack, lay the giblets in the bottom, add enough water to make about an inch of water in the roaster , cover and  bake at 325 until done, this way I have enough rich broth to make dressing and giblet gravy.and the turkey is always moist....Of course I salt the bird inside and out and pepper it.

 

[chachp]

Convection Baby..uncovered!!

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">In my opinion that's the only way to go.  I have made my turkeys this way for years.  I stuff the bird and bake a casserole of dressing.  Not everyone likes it cooked in the bird.  The convection will sear that bird, seal in all the juice and when it's done it's amazing.  When you stick a knife in that bird the juice just runs out.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Our stuffing is:</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Make a broth out of the neck, heart and giblets and let it cool</span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Sauté Chopped celery and Onions in a lot of butter.  I use at least 1/2 pound</span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Mix Cubed Bread with the Celery and Onions, Sage, Poultry Seasoning, Garlic Salt, and Pepper.  </span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I add the broth to moisten it and then I taste</span>

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Once I have the seasonings the way I like it I add a few raw eggs then I bake</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">We've done it like this for years.</span>