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Are there any of you who are like me and not crazy about turkey? I do not hate it, but I much prefer chicken or beef roast. I have tried peacock, pheasant, and other birds, all of which I prefer to turkey.

I want to say you've probably been in the same situation as 99% of people who eat turkey that is overcooked, and dry as a result. Having said that, turkey is not my first choice of bird to eat (Though it can be very good if not overcooked)...but I'll go for Duck 100% of the time if it's an option. I prefer turkey to chicken, but chicken also tends to get overcooked and winds up too dry 99% of the time.

I'm with you Dan, in that I'll take chicken over turkey if given the choice. Never had peacock, so can't comment on that. Pheasant is ok, but I'd take turkey over it, grouse, or quail and I'll take beef or pork over any of them.

It's a sod to get cooked right as it tends to dryness- especially when we all decide to buy a frozen turkey the size of 8 year old child and stick it in a small domestic oven.
By the time you get the legs cooked down to the bone, the breast has the consistency of polystyrene after the freezer-burn.

Throw in the modern fan-assisted electric oven- designed mainly to incinerate and dehydrate at the same time- and you're on a hiding to nothing.

Fresh birds are better of course, and avoiding the temptation to cram the cavity full of ultra-dense stuffing.
Getting plenty of butter under the skin helps too.

Though there's always the option of deep fat frying, which can work out well- or burn your whole house down....FIRE IN THE HOLE! DANGER CLOSE! :D
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Personally, I prefer a nice side of pork or beef for groups of friends (even meat density is easy to get right) or a chicken for a sunday roast (which is what I'm doing today).

Though, I find venison/deer and pigeon even harder to get right- ultra lean wild meats turn into old truck tyres unless you do them screaming-rare or low-n-slow for an age.

Holy socks!! Excellent post there Demoncase. As usual you make a lot of good points well presented.
I think I just became a vegetarian....... :eek: :D

Cooked 11 turkeys this year for friends and family....brined, rubbed with my bbq poultry seasoning and smoked over apple & hickory wood for 9+ hours. Had phone calls all day yesterday thanking me and telling me how good and moist they were....I wouldn't know, I cooked a pork shoulder to pull for my Thanksgiving dinner with some slaw and 'tater salad.

I like turkey, but only occasionally and rarely on Thanksgiving

I'll definitely take chicken over turkey any day, but I do love a good turkey sandwich.

Cooking turkey can be a tricky thing. I like to put bacon under the skin so that it bastes the breast as it cooks and gives it a smokey flavor. Turkey is not my favorite thing to eat but I do enjoy it a couple of times a year.

Meh, I'm from the Midwest, so turkey--as well as beef, pork, venison, and chicken--are all mainstays for me. If given a choice, however, I'd probably choose tilapia, walleye, cod, or even catfish as my primary entree over the others. :)

Well Putin certainly isn't very happy with Turkey right now

Honestly I love turkey, not to the exclusion of other proteins, but it's a good one! The ordeal of cooking such a large bird does present problems, but I'm fortunate to be a side dish provider at all of the TG get-togethers that I frequent.

If I have to cook a bird, it's far more likely to be a couple of cornish game hens... or a couple NY strips

I'm with you Dan, No Turkey for me....usually Thanksgiving I have something else with the Letter "T" Tuna, Trout, tofu, tacos, tater tots, talapia, t-bone, tortillas, tortellini, Push comes to shove I do like Cornish Game Hens......Doc;)

Then there's this:)

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I'll be honest- my worst roasting experience ever was goose.

Goose was the traditional Christmas Day roast of choice in the UK before being supplanted by turkey in the early 20th century.....And I found out why.

Because it's a total nightmare- it produces so much fat as your roast that the whole house stinks of rendering, smoking, grease- not that appetizing smell you get when roasting a chicken, but the industrial burnt-oil pong you get when you burn out the clutch on your truck or car....To start with it's OK, but after a while it's all you can smell and your appetite goes straight out of the window

And to make matters worse- it's a full 4-5 hour roast for a small bird (A turkey or chicken the same size would be done in 2 hours tops)- so, after 5 hours of enduring the constant stench of fat, I really didn't fancy the dark but succulent meat......Suffice to say, Mrs Demoncase came home to all the windows and doors propped open and a pizza menu dropped on the table. :D

In short: I'll happily eat goose. At your house, if you've cooked it. :)

Why is chicken easier to cook than turkey in general?

I heard some people were going to eat a turducken: Turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken.

What about fish? Would any of you ever consider having and making a nice large platter of good fish for ThanksGiving or Christmas or such a holiday?

Like imagine salmon and trout and red snapper and other fish, perhaps stuffed or unstuffed.

demoncase wrote:I'll be honest- my worst roasting experience ever was goose.

Goose was the traditional Christmas Day roast of choice in the UK before being supplanted by turkey in the early 20th century.....And I found out why.

Because it's a total nightmare- it produces so much fat as your roast that the whole house stinks of rendering, smoking, grease- not that appetizing smell you get when roasting a chicken, but the industrial burnt-oil pong you get when you burn out the clutch on your truck or car....To start with it's OK, but after a while it's all you can smell and your appetite goes straight out of the window

And to make matters worse- it's a full 4-5 hour roast for a small bird (A turkey or chicken the same size would be done in 2 hours tops)- so, after 5 hours of enduring the constant stench of fat, I really didn't fancy the dark but succulent meat......Suffice to say, Mrs Demoncase came home to all the windows and doors propped open and a pizza menu dropped on the table. :D

In short: I'll happily eat goose. At your house, if you've cooked it. :)

We used to have a farm and had geese. Let me tell you....nasty birds. A big mistake if you catch one and bring it home to cook because they defecate everywhere, all the time. Like you said, they are greasy and will smoke up the house. It is better to cook then outside. I really do not know how people eat them. The taste is okay but getting around all the other stuff is hard. Duck is much better.

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:Why is chicken easier to cook than turkey in general?

I heard some people were going to eat a turducken: Turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken.

What about fish? Would any of you ever consider having and making a nice large platter of good fish for ThanksGiving or Christmas or such a holiday?

Like imagine salmon and trout and red snapper and other fish, perhaps stuffed or unstuffed.

A platter full of Crappie or fried catfish would hit the spot.

SpyderEdgeForever wrote:Why is chicken easier to cook than turkey in general?

I heard some people were going to eat a turducken: Turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken.

What about fish? Would any of you ever consider having and making a nice large platter of good fish for ThanksGiving or Christmas or such a holiday?

Like imagine salmon and trout and red snapper and other fish, perhaps stuffed or unstuffed.

Chicken is easier in general than turkey for three reasons:
1. Chicken is rather more fatty than turkey- removing some of the propensity toward dryness (Hence all those 'Low Fat Turkey Stir-fry' recipes)
2. Turkeys have been bred for massive breast meat, which makes for a huge expanse of meat that gets overcooked while you are trying to get the legs cooked down to the bone
3. Thanksgiving and Christmas tend toward family celebrations, so you buy an even larger bird than normal, exasperating 1 and 2 in your tiny little domestic oven.

The whole 'bird-within-a-bird' roast is popular for the reason you have create a relatively even meat density- but you end up having to balance cooking times and compromise somewhere. But if you stuff something inside a turkey, refer to point 2 but worse: you're much more likely to dry out the outer bird for the same of the inner birds

A big family sized salmon has worked for me on Christmas day before- Lightly poached in a court boullion then loads of salad potatoes and salad make for a really light meal. You're talking minutes cooking, not hours- it's much easier.