Tips needed for using a non-electric roaster (i.e. Savory brand).

[polkanut]

Shortly before this last Thanksgiving one of the local grocery stores had turkeys for 99¢ per lb w/ store card so I picked up a 13lb bird for future meals.  I want to roast it in a Savory roaster (double wall type) but have never done a turkey in my life, and don't want to screw it up.  My mom and late grandma have/had used Savorys for years, and this is something I want learn how to do also.  But, I want to learn on my own, and surprise Mom.  I have 2 of them.  What tips can you guys share with me such as length of time, seasonings, temps, etc?  BTW, I want to roast it unstuffed.  I was planning on making dressing and baking it in a separate pan in the oven at the same time.

 

P.S., The roaster in the pic isn't mine, but I have one just like it, color scheme and all.

[this post was last edited: 1/22/2017-14:15]

 

[toploader55]

Hi Tim

Check your email : )

 

[polkanut]

bump

 

[dermacie]

If I can make a turkey anyone can. Nice roasting pan.

 

[vacerator]

Dereck,

my ex couldn't make a turkey or much else, but he was one LoL! Mostly stuffing between his ears.
Nice roaster, and nice roygbiv table cloth/mat.
Shut the front door--zee snap!
bumpidy bibidy bobidy boo.
A shock to the system, Michael Cain. No, I didn't hurt my ex.
I got a phone call almost two years after I last spoke to him. He wanted me to put his cat to sleep. I was 22 when we met, he was 26. I take half the blame, even though the home wrecker ten years my junior was most of it.
Did me a favor. No more weekends alone when anyone was away at tournaments while I worked on the house myself.
I know, I have no reason to belly ache now, but it's always cathartic.
It might help someone else avoid a situation they have to survive through.

 

[panthera]

OK, back to roasters

This is a bit unusual for a thread, but what the heh - it's been an unusual past few days.

 

Cool looking roasting pan!

 

First, I agree on the not-stuffing part. Do that separately. Easier to get consistent results. BUT - and yes, those were all caps. Learn from my mistakes: Check the chest cavity thoroughly to be sure there's no plastic bag of innards stuck in there, waiting to spoil everything.

 

OK, turkey is defrosted already. Thirteen pounds at at 350F/175C in a roaster will be about 2.5 to 3+ hours. Definitely use a thermometer, don't rely on those pop-up signals that often come with them. They don't sit deeply enough to make for good measurements. You're aiming for about 165F/75C at the thickest (thigh) when it's done and then you'll let it set for at least 20 minutes. This 'rest' makes a gigantic difference in texture and taste.

 

So - You can put the whole thing in a bag within the roasting pan and leave the lid off. The hole for the thermometer is enough vent, by the way, so ignore all the 'slice slits in bag' stuff.

 

Seasoning is up to you. I like to put a quartered apple and a peeled onion and a halved- lemon in the turkey instead of stuffing. Rub it liberally with olive-oil then seal it in the roasting bag, put it in the roaster (legs up) and let the oven do it's work.

 

No salt in the bag, no brine. This is the absolutely easiest method to produce a moist, well browned turkey I know.

 

Do watch that thermometer after the first 90 minutes, though - ovens and even double-walled roaster pans vary enormously.

 

That's my suggestion for idiot-proof and easy. Now everyone can chime in with far more complex stuff.

 

 

[maytagbear]

A note on thermometers.......

I do not recommend mercury "roasting" thermometers, because of the danger of mercury, and because the printed-on temperatures are wrong.

Electronic/digital thermometers are the way to go. The less expensive option is the
Thermopop by Thermoworks. 29.00 bucks.

The more expensive Thermoworks thermometer is the Superfast Thermopen. 79-99.00

Link to Thermoworks home page. They have great timers, too!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

ThermoWorks | Professional Thermometers & Temperature Tools

Explore ThermoWorks, the trusted leader in precision thermometers. From the kitchen to the grill, ThermoWorks meat thermometers ensure culinary perfection.

thermoworks.com

 

[polkanut]

Our family has used this type of roaster since 1917 when my great-grandmother bought 2 in dark blue for the wedding dinner of my great-aunts Helen and Alice.  They were married Nov. 1, 1917.  My mom has one of the original roasters and my 2nd cousin Linda now has the other one.

 

[rp2813]

Tim,

When I first met Dave, he had one of those same Savory roasters in grainy light blue porcelain enamel.  It was part of his funky kitchen decor and he never actually used it.  He eventually gave it to a friend who undoubtedly turned around and sold it.

 

I don't see why any turkey recipe that calls for a roasting pan wouldn't work with your Savory.  I'd venture a guess that results would be similar to using an electric roaster oven.  What I'm not sure about is how you'd use a rack on the concave surface of the roaster bottom.

 

[polkanut]

I know my late grandma and my mom just put the bird in the bottom of the pan without a rack.

 

[ea56]

My Mom had a roaster like this one only it was speckled blue enamel. Even with the concave bottom she always used a rack without any problems. Just about every turkey my family ate until about 1975 was roasted in this roaster. In fact the very first turkey I ever roasted was done in this roaster. I think the fact that the sides are somewhat insulated kept the drippings from to dark and the lid kept the turkey nice and juicy. You just need to take the lid off for the last hour or so so it will brown nicely.
Eddie

 

[earthling177]

Well, I don't know how to use a roaster like that, sorry.

But if you wanna know how I manage to piss off my sister-in-law every time we have Thanksgiving here, it's because she can't stand the fact that she starts *her* turkey day at something like 6 in the morning, but when it's our turn, they arrive here by 11 am or so, I'm just putting the turkey in the oven and we manage to eat at about the same time anyway.

I more or less follow the Cook's Illustrated method.

Choose a roasting pan that is about 2-3 inches high. Put about 2 cups of water in it, then a V-rack. Put some carrots, sliced onions and whatever aromatics you want in the pan. Some people here hate celery, so I don't use it, for example.

Remove the neck, gizzards etc from the turkey. Fold the wings so they hold against the body of the bird. I cut whatever is holding the legs together and separate them. Rub the turkey with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. I put a small lemon (cut in wedges) inside the bird, some slices of onion, 2-3 garlic cloves, and a couple of tablespoons of butter.

Place the turkey upside down in the V-rack. Adjust the racks so they will be useful for the stuff you plan to put in the oven with the turkey. Preheat the oven to 400F for a 12-18 lbs bird, 425F for an 18-22 lbs bird.

Roast the turkey for about 45 min. (12-18 lbs) or 1 hour (18-22 lbs). If roasting the larger (18-22 lbs) bird, reduce the temperature to 325F. For all sizes bird, remove it from the oven and flip the turkey breast side up, put it back in the oven and roast another 50-60 minutes for a 12-15 lbs bird, about 75 min. for a 15-80 lbs bird, or 2 hours for a 18-22 lbs bird, or until the breast meat reads 165F or the thigh reads 170-175F.

There is no need to baste the turkey at all with this method and the less you open the oven the faster it will be finished.

Let it rest for about 30 minutes and carve. Make the gravy with the pan drippings as usual. I also cook the "stuffing" in a separate pan.

I tend to cook the bird until 165F at the breasts, and remove it even if the thighs are not 170-175 yet. After we carve it, I put the dark meat in the microwave and let it go for about 2-5 minutes and it finishes cooking. That peeves my sister-in-law even further.

She just can't stand it that *other* people, including her family, claims it's the juiciest tastiest turkey they ever had. I end up photocopying the article for them all, they take it home with them. But she never tries this method when it's her turn. I would like this method *even better* if it didn't piss her off so much, 'cuz I actually like her a lot.

Cheers,
-- Paulo.

 

[mattl]

Good story!

 

We all have our own ways of doing a turkey, and ours is always better that anyone else's.  Me, I use my mother's method, and I assume she used her mother's.  I soak the turkey the night before and scrape all the guts out of the backbone area, also gets a bit of the blood out.  they I dry it, rub it with olive oil and season it heavily inside and out.  Wrap it with Saran and into the fridge till the next day. If we eat at 6Pm might pop it in the oven 2 ish for a moderate sized bird.  I use my ovens method, putting it into a cold oven, on a v rack, set the temp probe for 160 in the breast and baste occasionally.  Let it stand too.  Always nice and moist.

 

[panthera]

It fascinates me

How many different ethnic traditions use olive-oil for their birds.

 

Anyway, it occurs to me that a trial run of something less massive in that beautiful roaster might be a good idea - potatoes and carrots or one of those 'everything you need' pot roasts in a vacuum bag with seasonings and vegetables such as they have in the meat section at Walmart.

 

Teach you a lot about how this pan - and they all vary a bit - works in your oven (and we all know they vary enormously.)

 

Main thing is - have fun. As Paulo's illustrative comment shows, some people get way too hysterical about all of this. I recollect a few years back, my dad, fresh out of the hospital, really wanted a goose. Totally NOT goose season and it took me a few trips to various markets to finally find a gigantic goose, frozen at -27F in the meat locker of a local chain. 

Bought it, brought it home. He still wanted goose! That evening! Gad!

Put the dratted thing (baking queens here, you might want to cover your ears) in our biggest 1947 Presto Canner at 17lbs* for 45 minutes.

 

Took it out, threw it in the oven on a rack over a large well roaster, anyone who's ever cooked a goose knows why (resisting urge to talk about one's own cooked goose). Turned out great, he loved it.

 

The Julia Child faction of the family was appalled. Why, I'd violated every single, solitary 'rule' in the book! Didn't stop them from taking thirds, though....

 

*Weight calibrated for the altitude to ensure 250F canning temp.

[this post was last edited: 1/24/2017-10:28]

 

[mattl]

Ok Kevin you got me, the olive oil is my addition. Odds are there was not too much olive oil in Poland, or here in the '20s and '30s.  Odds are my grandmother used whatever was available at the time.  My mother used corn oil, I switched to olive.

 

All this turkey talk is making me want to toss one in the oven....

 

[panthera]

Actually,

And speaking here as a German - olive oil and butter have been staples of all European cuisines since they became affordable.

Poland very much included - prosperity has done much to reawaken the slumbering good foods of their culture. Most of which are still not for vegetarian me (I know, I get the irony as do those who benefit from my good meat/fowl cooking skills).

 

Most 'Central' and Eastern European cuisine was limited throughout the 20th century by the disaster of the Soviet Union.

 

So much was lost. Today, you can get torten in the Czech-republic to match their famous legend. Thirty years ago? Yeah, not so much.

 

So - on with the olive oil and butter!

[this post was last edited: 1/25/2017-13:29]

 

[mattl]

My maternal grandmother immigrated as a young girl  from Poland at the turn of the last century.  At that time things were pretty tough there, I'd guess butter but olive oil I'm not sure about. 

 

Our family's generations are really really stretched out.  My maternal grandfather was born in1865...  My youngest first cousin with  whom I share the same grandfather with is 44. My Polish relatives from the part of the family that stayed there have at least one more generation. Pretty wild isn't it...

 

[dermacie]

I have several roasting pans. My favorite is a Guardian Service aluminum pan with a glass lid. I actually don't use it to roast meats very often since my grandmother always used hers to make tomato sauce on Sundays since she was Italian. So that's what i use mine for.

I have a newer all-clad one with a rack that's what I used to make my turkey at Thanksgiving but they have no lid so you have to use foil.

 

[tolivac]

Olive oil&butter-GREAT for cooking pancakes and French Toast!!!!Try it!!!