Ok, so I won't be doing THAT again.
All day my turkey cooked in the oven, making the house smell just great. I checked the temperature a million times in the thickest part--the thigh--just as the directions said. I cooked it 45 minutes longer than needed, but the thermometer wasn't budging past 140. Then the final time I checked it, it read 180 degrees, so I took it out.
The bird rested for half an hour. The kids and I played. We took a little walk.
Back to the turkey. I start to carve it, and ahh, it's beautiful. Nice and golden. As I get more into it, I see that, dang it, it's not done yet. I don't know much about cooking meat, but I know the "juice" should run clear. This was pink.
What to do? I've already let it rest, and started carving. Can't put it back in.
As I get deeper into it, I find a little plastic bag of giblits. Nice. I fished all around that thing before I cooked it, even turning it upside down and shaking it, and I swear it wasn't in there! Neck--yes. Little bag of goodies--no.
I don't like dark meat, neither does Curt. So off go the legs. Oh my god, it's so gross. All the cracking of bones, and rending of mostly-cooked flesh. How did I miss this before? Am so priviledged as to never experienced this?
Thankfully, Miss Kitty, our mail carrier, brought the mail just as I was about to toss the whole thing in the trash (see above). I told her of my turkey woes, and she had lots of helpful advice to save the day. Wrap the meat in foil, and cook it another 30 minutes. Next time, use a roasting pan, she said.
So, it's not a total wash. We will eat the turkey for dinner, and for many other dinners this week. We'll boil the carcass (ew) and Curt'll make turkey soup. But darned if I'm cooking a whole anything for a long, long time.
