Small Scale Life Podcast - Episodes Tagged with “Thanksgiving”

Cooking Turkey and Making Soup

Tom — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 13:00:00 -0600

Thanksgiving seems to be a distant memory now, but I did want to circle around and talk about cooking a turkey using the tips discussed in Episode 29 and also talk about making turkey noodle soup with the leftover carcass and meat. This goes beyond Thanksgiving, and I hope you use this episode and the recipes/tips discussed when you cook a turkey in the future.

In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are living simply by growing, exploring and living healthy. To put it simply, we are focused on:

list text hereGardening,
list text hereHealthy living, and
list text hereHaving adventures along the way.

Before we begin, let’s hear from some friends of Small Scale Life.

For this episode of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Drew Sample at TheSampleHour.com. He recently released Episode 171, which is all about Hogtoberfest 2017. I listened to this podcast, and this podcast put me there in the middle of it all. The stories and experiences told around the microphone reminded me of the stories and experiences shared around the barrel stove this past weekend in Central Wisconsin at Domres Deer Camp 2017. This is how community is built, traditions established and bonds between people developed. If you are missing that in your life, listen to this podcast. You will hear something special. I have to give Greg and Susan Burns and the Burns family a huge thank you for the invitation this year. Also, I would like to thank Drew Sample for recording this, and the Bee Whisperer Michael Jordan, Doneil Freeman and others for participating. It was special, and I will be attending next year.

While we are on the subject of Greg Burns, I would like to remind you that Nature’s Image Farms does have comfrey left, and it is available for you at naturesimagefarms.com. As always, use discount code “SSL” for 10% off and FREE Shipping! So, if you would like to have your own Bocking 4 of Boking 14 Comfrey cuttings, reach out to Greg Burns at Natures Image Farms today!

Finally, I would like to remind you that our friends at Aussie Flame Weeders are still selling flame weeder kits to gardeners, market farmers and urban gardeners. These are stainless steel, five burner manifolds designed for a standard 30-inch garden bed. The kits also include 16-inch tires and the ability to carry propane tanks (so you don’t have to. Check them out at https://www.aussieflameweeders.com/

Welcome back to the show. As I mentioned in Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, Julie, the boys and I went to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day. We got to enjoy the day with family, and they handled all of the elements of the meal. It was a lot of fun to talk and hang out, and the food was fantastic! Unlike last year, there was no snow on the ground, and I got some good pictures of the sunset.

With the boys home for the long weekend, we decided to cook a turkey on Sunday. I wanted to try Jack Spirko’s cooking advice, so I started to thaw the bird for Sunday. Unfortunately, I did not get it thawed out in time to quarter and brine the bird for 24-hours, but I did try quartering the bird!

Learning to Quarter a Turkey

In Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 (http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/thanksgiving-2017-jack), he made a case for quartering a turkey before cooking it. Jack resorted to this when he had to cook a 38-pound turkey. No conventional smoker, roaster or oven can handle a 38-pound turkey. His solution was to quarter the turkey, which means you:

list text hereRemove the wings
list text hereRemove the thighs and legs
list text hereRemove the breast cutlets from the skeleton

Cook these pieces of meat together, but you can remove the various pieces as they hit the right temperature. That means you can remove the wings (which usually cook first), then the breast meat, and finally the legs and thighs as they hit 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Using this method, you won’t have shriveled wings and Sahara-like breast meat!

I have to admit, I was a little intimated by quartering a turkey. I had never done it before, even when I cooked the whole bird in a roaster. When I carved a turkey, I usually sliced a bunch of breast meat off, and then I would remove the legs and slice some thigh meat (dark meat). It was not intentional or planned; I just did it.

At Julie’s cousin’s house, I watched as Julie’s uncle carved the turkey. He essentially quartered the bird after it came out of their roaster. It did not look too complicated, but I still was unsure. I even asked her uncle if he ever quartered a turkey before cooking it, and he had never done that method before.

Still a little unsure, I went to everyone’s favorite go-to for do it yourself-type videos: YouTube. I watched two very good videos on quartering and deboning a turkey:

The first is from Jack Burton from stellaculinary.com (http://StellaCulinary.com/CKS44)
https://youtu.be/Z-sMdmCDXJ4

The second is from Matt Proft, who was a turkey farmer for several years (according to his channel).
https://youtu.be/fV-m5o6fhDQ

Both gentlemen made great videos, so check them out before trying this.

Quartering a Turkey

Since this was my first time quartering a turkey, I decided to not make a video. I figured that I was stumbling along on this one, so it would probably not make for good video. Sharp knives, slippery turkey meat and cameras seemed like a dangerous combination.

Grabbing the cutting board, knife and turkey package, I got to work. I removed the neck and the package of giblets. If you listened to Episode 29, you know where those giblets went (garbage can). The neck went into a stainless steel stock pot.

I quartered the bird with the following steps:

list text hereFirst, I removed the wings and put them in a cake pan
list text hereThen, I cut the top of the turkey (breasts) from the bottom of the turkey (legs and thighs). Removing the wings makes this easy.
list text hereNext, I removed the legs and thighs from the bottom of the bird. The bottom of the bird went into the stock pot for soup later.
list text hereWhile I could have removed the breast cutlets, I decided to move ahead and get the turkey into the roaster. I did not go that extra step this time.

With the bird quartered, I lined the roaster with tinfoil and dropped the meat into it. I brushed on olive oil and honey, and then I sprinkled on sage, rosemary, garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper. I cooked the turkey at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the meat was 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When I took the meat out of the roaster, it literally fell apart, and that was without brining the turkey before cooking it. For more on brining the turkey, head over to Episode 29 of the Small Scale Life Podcast.

Turkey Noodle Soup

After the quartering process, I had a stockpot with some meat and water in it. After the turkey dinner was over, I divided the turkey: some was for sandwiches and some was for the turkey soup. I added the turkey to the stockpot, and I turned on the heat. We let the turkey stock simmer for two or three hours, and once it was completed, we removed the bones from the stock. We also removed the meat from the stock and set it off to the side. We’ll add it back in before the soup is complete.

At this point, you have a choice. Because we used dark meat and the carcass to make the stock, it does have some fat in it. If you want to remove some of that fat, you can let the stock cool and remove it from the top of the stock (fat will congeal on the surface of the stock). Otherwise, you can proceed as normal. The choice is yours.

Once you are ready, you can begin to add to your stock to make soup. We added onions, carrots, celery, salt and pepper to taste. You can also add thyme and parsely to the soup. Then we added the egg noodles to the soup. Cook the soup and noodles until the noodles are soft, and you are ready to roll!
It is a pretty tried and true method to make turkey noodle soup. We have also done this with a chicken carcass as well (from rotisserie chickens). While this has been general instructions, I’ll have a written recipe for you as well (because I know some of you prefer that).

Putting It Together

The next time you make a turkey, give these ideas a try. It isn’t as hard as you think, and I certainly learned a lot about the anatomy of a turkey using this method. The turkey noodle recipe is easy cheesy, and it is a great way to save some money by getting several meals out of one bird. Spread your wings and give it a try!

Thanksgiving Cooking Tips and Failures

Tom — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:30:00 -0600

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you are well on your way to enjoying the holiday with family and friends. In this post and podcast, we are going to talk about cooking for Thanksgiving. I’ll talk about turkey, trimmings, funny failures and other ways to prepare your turkey, stuffing and appetizers.

While you are probably already hustling preparing for your Thanksgiving feast and have a plan in motion, this post might spur a few ideas for future meals and give you a few chuckles about some of our past failures. After all, people will sleep off their turkey coma at some point, football is only so interesting, and those dishes aren’t going to do themselves!

I wanted to start this podcast by wishing you all a great Thanksgiving and safe travels in your way. AAA is reporting that over 51 million Americans will be traveling over 50 miles for this holiday, and that is a 3.3 percent increase over last year. That translates to more than 1.6 million more people traveling this year than last year, so be careful out there on the roads, at the airports, at the bus stations and at train stations!

Thanksgiving 2017

Like last year, we will be on the road and will be traveling more than 50 miles from our home. We will be heading to Julie’s cousin’s house in Becker, Minnesota, for the day. We will watch some football, socialize, play some games and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. We had a great time last year, and I wrote an article about it called Thanksgiving Reflections. Of course, the bulk of that article was talking about the blog and podcast, particularly after a busy harvest season in 2016. My have times changed! I’ll have more on comparing 2016 to 2017 in a future podcast.

Turkey and Trimmings

Because I am not cooking a turkey and all the side dishes this year, I did not post an articles, podcasts and videos about how we make our Thanksgiving feast. HOWEVER, if you are like us and will be guests at someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, you should still cash in on great prices for turkeys! This is a fantastic time to buy a couple of birds at a low price and save them in the freezer for the future. Save some money; buy them on sale now!

I am really excited that Julie bought one last night, and with the two Domres’ boys here this weekend, I will be making a turkey! I am in charge of the bird, and I typically make them in a roaster. I bought a 22-quart Hamilton Beach roaster from Walmart several years ago, and it works like a champ! I have cooked many birds and other meals in this roaster, and it is really good to have during the holidays or for parties. One of the real advantages of the roaster is that the oven is free for other dishes and tasks (i.e., cooking other dishes and keeping other dishes warm while the bird finishes).

You can usually find one for under $50 at Walmart or other stores, and they will last a long time. Of course, I am kicking myself that I don’t have an Amazon affiliate right now!

How I Cook the Turkey

Following my normal steps, the turkey is prepped and in the roaster!
As I mentioned, I have cooked several birds in the roaster over the years. I have used a pretty straightforward method for cooking my birds:

Defrost the turkey (usually overnight process, so you might be in trouble if this isn’t done yet).
Remove the package of organs and neck (throw them away – like those worthless tomato cages)
Line the roaster with tinfoil (it makes for easier clean-up)
Put the turkey into the tinfoil-lined roaster
Brush the turkey with olive oil
Brush the turkey with honey
Sprinkle on garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, pepper and seasoning salt
Cook the turkey at 325 degrees F until the meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F
Remove the turkey, carve it and serve it to the family and guests
Note: I do not put stuffing in the bird. That is reserved for the oven to be cooked separately
Save the leftovers for sandwiches and other meals (if there is anything left)
This system has worked well for me for a number of years, and I usually have a moist turkey at the end of this process.

Funny Food Failures

Fortunately, we have not had too many failures (that I can’t remember or easily correct). Don’t let me fool you though: we aren’t culinary geniuses over here. I shouldn’t toot our horn too loudly; we have had a few funny food failures over the years:

Paste Mashed Potatoes – We made mashed potatoes that had the consistency of paste. This was the result of overcooking the potatoes. Try not to do that because the glue mashed potatoes are just not good!
Mushy Stuffing – When we were first married, I used to make stuffing from scratch from breadcrumbs, celery, broth and other odds and ends. Unfortunately, Julie informed me that the stuffing was “mushy and slimy” and that she preferred Stove Top Stuffing. Since then, we have been making and eating Stove Top Stuffing. I might have to make a homemade batch to see how much better of a cook I have become (or not).

Special Package – When Julie’s mom made her first Thanksgiving turkey, she didn’t realize that there is a package of organs inside the turkey. She cooked the turkey, and they “discovered” the package when they served the bird. That is pretty funny and easily done, especially if you have never cooked a turkey before. Make sure you remove the package of organs before cooking the bird. Some people use the organs in stuffing, but I do not. That would make the Mushy Stuffing even more difficult to eat!
Wild Turkey – I am a turkey hunter, and I have prepared a few wild turkeys that I have killed over the years. Wild turkeys are not Butterballs; they are very lean birds. When you prepare a wild turkey, you need to use chicken broth to marinate the bird while it is cooking, and you should put plenty of bacon over the breast. This will give the wild turkey some much-needed moisture (otherwise it WILL be too dry). Besides, everything goes better with bacon!

Other Cooking Ideas: Turkey, Stuffing and Appetizers

I am not perfect, and I am always looking for ways to improve on my skills. Fortunately, there are some really talented people that I follow. As I was finishing up my work in Western Wisconsin yesterday, I clicked on Jack Spirko’s The Survival Podcast Episode 2116 - Cooking this Thanksgiving and Just Killing It. In this episode, Jack covers a lot of topics including:

Handling those uncomfortable discussions about politics
Getting chronically late people to be on time
Meaning of criticisms from older generations
Making appetizers
Sweet Potato Rounds with Cranberry and Walnut Lebneh
Apple and Chestnut Stuffed Mushrooms with Bacon (or anything small)
Twice Fried Finger Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Garlic
Warm Cranberry Sauce
Quartering and brining a turkey
Smoking or roasting a turkey
Making a cornmeal stuffing
Making gravy
Creating some great mashed potatoes (his aren’t Paste Potatoes)
Mixing after-dinner cocktails
Making dessert
If you have listened to Jack, you know that he is very passionate about cooking. He loves to cook! I am always interested in what he is cooking and how he does it.

While I could go on and on about all the different tips, advice and dishes he discussed on the podcast, I did want to focus on quartering and brining the turkey prior to cooking the turkey.

Quartering a Turkey

One of Jack’s “a-ha” moments was when he raised and slaughtered his own turkeys three years ago. His Thanksgiving turkey was 38 pounds, and that creates a unique problem for most mortals like me, you and Jack: how do you cook a 38-pound bird in conventional ovens and roasters?

Jack’s solution was to quarter the turkey prior to brining and cooking it. By removing the meat from the skeleton, he could brine the various parts and fit them into the oven or roaster. He found an additional benefit from doing this:

Different parts of the turkey finish cooking at different times.

This is why your wings get fried, you breast meat is dry and your dark meat is almost done. If you quarter the turkey prior to cooking it, you can monitor each type of meat and take it out when it is done. Jack’e experience is that wings will come out first, breast meat will come out next and then the dark meat will come out last.

Jack discusses how he quarters the bird in the podcast, but essentially he removes the breasts first, then takes the leg quarters (think about how you see chicken leg quarters in the store) and finally the wings. Jack uses the carcass, organs and other odds and ends for making turkey stock for soups later.

This makes a lot of sense to me, and it is something that I want to try. There is an additional advantage to cooking a turkey like this: you are that much closer to serving your guests since you have removed the carcass from the equation. It is easier to carve the turkey parts rather than mess with the entire carcass and all the juices! This makes a lot of sense to me!

Brining a Turkey

One of the common problems people when cooking a turkey is getting a dry bird at the end of this process. Remember the turkey in Christmas Vacation? Dry meat is just not good.

One way to help with the “dry white meat” problem is to brine the turkey for 24 hours prior to cooking. As Jack says, “You notice that the deli turkey isn’t dry; why is that?” Brining the turkey will add a juice to your bird,a nd it will add some flavor to the meat as well. By brining the turkey overnight, you are soaking the turkey in a mixture of the following items:

Jack Spirko’s Turkey Brine

Per Gallon of Brine

1 Cup Salt
1 Cup Brown Sugar
Handful of Black Peppercorns (whole)
Small Handful of Whole Mustard Seed
4-6 Bay Leaves
8 Sage Leaves (1tbs dry)
Optional Items

2-4 Star Anise
Small Handful of Whole Coriander
Brine turkey parts for 24 hours prior to cooking the bird.

This brine will soak into the meat of the turkey, giving it some great flavor. Additionally, your brined turkey will have more juices for the cooking process rather than just relying on the nature juices of the bird and/or your basting sauce. I have not done this in the past, but I will with my next bird.

Putting It All Together

Cheers - Thanksgiving 2017
There are a lot of ways people celebrate this great American holiday. Enjoying a great Thanksgiving meal is a great way to bring family and friends together and enjoy each other’s company. Pulling it off just requires a little planning and some good advice; it is not as hard as you think!

Julie, Danny, Ryan and I wish you the best Thanksgiving. May your travels be stress-free and safe. May you enjoy the moment and the people you are spending your time with this holiday. Thank you for being with us on this journey to developing a Small Scale Life. I am thankful for the opportunity to share this journey with you and for your time, patience, feedback and thoughts.

Please be kind to each other this holiday and think of someone less fortunate than you. There are people in our communities that are hurting and need help. Give a little time, money and/or encouragement to others. Sometimes just a little help, encouragement and kindness goes a long, long way.

Thank you again for tuning in. Remember to grow, explore and be healthy! This is Tom from the Small Scale Life. Happy Thanksgiving!