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Blogs / On the Table / February 2008 / Turkey in a pig-cooker and other turkey-cooking info

Turkey in a pig-cooker and other turkey-cooking info

Aforesaid turkey was intended to be the main dish at the tailgate onSaturday—unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties so Inever tasted it.

Note: For a cajachina, a grill, a broiler or any one-sided heatsource, it's best to butterfly the bird: Split it down the breastboneand push it flat. Slip any seasoning under the skin, between the meatand the skin.

In a conventional oven, you should cook a turkey about 15 to 20minutes per pound if it's not stuffed. This big baby, with the heatcoming mostly from the coals on top, was ready about half-time.

Of course, in the last several years, Americans have beendiscovering that there's more than one way to cook a turkey. Lots offeasts now routinely include the Cajun deep-fried turkey:

And every year you read about someone's house/yard/meal going up in flames because of a neglected fryer:

For some great turkey-cooking stories, read Jeffrey Steingarten's story about the Thompson's turkey in his book, The Man Who Ate Everything. Or just go herefor the wild and crazy recipe which my Turkey-Tek nephew (see earlierpost) has tried several times with varying results. It calls for—aswell as 33 other ingredients, NOT counting the turkey—water chestnuts,crushed pineapple, poppy seeds, ground veal, preserved ginger and sixeggs and it comes out looking like this.

Don't be alarmed. It's supposed to look like that...

Originally published 2007-11-20