Irritating comments on my turkey.


 
JeffB

JeffB

TVWBB Pro
This year, I did a turkey for Thanksgiving solo and followed the brine recipe in this forum. The only difference was I baked my turkey because I was out of town and didn't have my smoker. I DID, however, have my Maverick ET-732. I cooked a 21 pound bird at 325 and surprisingly it indicated that it was fully cooked in about 3 1/2 hours. Pretty quick, but the center of the breast was 172 and the thigh was 168 when I pulled it. It was moist and delicious, but it also had the "bloody joints" in the wing and thigh. My wife and her sister complained about it looking "undercooked" multiple times. I pointed them to the article about bloody chicken (fully cooked and safe to eat) but they kept complaining. For all my hard work, I was not very happy about it.

How does everybody deal with this? Serve white meat only? Give them articles to read during dinner? Get grumpy (that's what I did)?

Suggestions please on how to handle these types of comments.
 
I am the only serious barbecuer in the family, and have been doing it long enought they are used to pink in the meat. So I got off easy. I didn prepare my wife ahead of time on the joint, though.

It has to do with how turkeys are grown, or something.
 
I think you need to put a bag of ice on the breasts prior to smoking the bird...for an hour or so. Then the breast meat will be done at the same time as the dark meat.
 
I understand that you have issues with undercooked poultry that we do not have where I live.
But if you are sure that the turkey is safe, why not tell the tale that you have injected the bird with a small amount of nitrates, to maximize food safety? you could do it, so you are not lying.
It's cheating, I know, but I assume that you do not want to poison your guests in the first place.

Wives, and sisters can be hard to handle. As a last resort, admit that you have failed, and as them to make a juicer turkey for next year. That should do the trick.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Geir Widar:
I understand that you have issues with undercooked poultry that we do not have where I live.
But if you are sure that the turkey is safe, why not tell the tale that you have injected the bird with a small amount of nitrates, to maximize food safety? you could do it, so you are not lying.
It's cheating, I know, but I assume that you do not want to poison your guests in the first place.

Wives, and sisters can be hard to handle.
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As a last resort, admit that you have failed, and as them to make a juicer turkey for next year. That should do the trick. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

im both.... last i checked, i handled just fine.
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Most people just don't know how to appreciate real BBQ until they have had it a couple of times.

It took my wife about 3 cooks to really enjoy my spare ribs with a smoke ring. She had to get over the "pink". But now my family would much rather have home cooked vs restaurants. In fact now they complain if we pay good money at a restaurant and they don't see the pink ring.
 
Jeff, last time someone complained about my cookin'.....
no, i did not shoot them.

I told them where the closest Burger King is.
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Then i ate everything myself.


& it was good!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike David P:
Bump it up 10* internal. Then they can talk about dry turkey.
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That's funny.
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Jeff, don't know why you couldn't disjoint the turkey legs just like you do with chicken. With chicken at least, it really seems to help minimize the "red" without having to overcook.

Better luck next time, but you know it's always gonna be something and you can't please everyone, everytime. Just roll with it. Makes me think about when the folks keep grabbing wings or ribs at the same time that they're complaining about the spice. I just laugh.
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Similar problem here. Same thing happened with a small fryer a few weeks ago. I gave my wife the breasts and I ate the other stuff.

My wife and one of my daughters won't touch any meat with a little pink, much less red, in it. My daughter doesn't eat smoked meat primarily because of the pink smoke ring.
 
You might consider trying this method. Make a cut on both sides of the joint between the legs and thighs and cut where the wings join the breast.
 
I used to tie the legs together and fold the wings under the bird because it looked nicer that way. I found out that lengthens the time the legs, thighs, and wings take to cook.
You can also loosely cover the breast for 3/4s of the cook to keep it from drying out while the dark meat receives direct heat.
That said, my turkey temps varied so greatly I went by the 15 min./lb. rule and past experience.
 
This year I cut off the thighs and drumsticks for the first time. I put the 23 pound turkey on a roaster rack on the top grate, and the leg pieces on the lower grate. Everything was done at the same time. Not the best presentation ever, but everything was great.

BTW, I went to club for actual Thanksgiving meal and purchased the turkey on sale on Black Friday for $8.15 at my local Harris Teeter (it was a fresh natural turkey, never froxen that had an original price of $41!) Best deal I ever had on a turkey.

Ray
 
If they think their food isn't cooked through, stick their plate in the microwave for a few minutes. People who don't understand food or cooking won't care if their food came out of a smoker, oven, or microwave. Their food will be cooked through and they'll be happy. Your food will be cooked properly and you'll be happy.
 
Problem is that most of these folks think its not done enough since it is not bone dry. Its nice and moist and juicy since you brined it.

I have to suck down a pint of iced tea with my mother in law's dry turkey. It is so dry I could hardly swallow it. This year I offered to take over the task. I brined the bird, then injected it for flavor internally. I used a meat temp probe and got it to the perfect USDA recommended temp. It was moist and juicy. Of course someone made the comment it was not done since it was too juicy. Go get a grip dude....this ain't your mom's bird cooked to the point of exploding into flames.

I suppose they don't know what good is even when it smacks them square in the lips.
 
I have found that poultry that was previously frozen will sometimes be pink around the bones, when fully cooked, as you described above. Do you know if the bird had ever been frozen?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave/G:
You might consider trying this method. Make a cut on both sides of the joint between the legs and thighs and cut where the wings join the breast. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Dave, I assume you do this before you cook?

Mark
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by mk evenson:
Dave, I assume you do this before you cook?
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Yes. Lets heat get in those spots that tend to cook last.
 
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