Turkey Blunders or Boners.


 
timothy

timothy

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I know we all like to post on our successes, but I thought it would be fun to talk about our failures.
Our first Thanksgiving we hosted (1978) my Wife got the bright idea of stuffing the bird the night before. ( she reasoned it would save time):rolleyes:
I had no idea she did that, and some got mildly sick the next day except for the ones that drank alcohol.
Her family laughed it off, and at least they didn't ban us for life LOL.
 
I had a near disaster, just this year. When I unwrapped the turkey to put it in the brine, I noticed there was only a neck and heart in the cavity - no liver, etc. Didn't think too much of it, and threw it in the brine. Took it out yesterday and was surprised that the liquid was only draining out of one 'end'. Then today, as I was getting ready to truss, I noticed there was something near the neck opening. Yep, it was the paper wrapped liver. Thank goodness I noticed that before I cooked it.
 
Greg in Utah said:
I cooked one with the bag of guts still hidden in the neck :ROFLMAO:
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I'd be willing to bet that that's one of the most common mistakes, and thanks to a relative having made it years earlier it's never happened to me. ;)

My biggest mistake has always been thinking I could carve a turkey with any degree of competence.;)

Jim, you may be on to something. The liver would've been brined with the rest of the bird and the paper might very well have kept it from overcooking...
 
JimK said:
I had a near disaster, just this year. When I unwrapped the turkey to put it in the brine, I noticed there was only a neck and heart in the cavity - no liver, etc. Didn't think too much of it, and threw it in the brine. Took it out yesterday and was surprised that the liquid was only draining out of one 'end'. Then today, as I was getting ready to truss, I noticed there was something near the neck opening. Yep, it was the paper wrapped liver. Thank goodness I noticed that before I cooked it.
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Jim I almost did that this year too. When I put the spit rod through some of the paper poked out or I would have missed it.
 
I cooked the bag of guts yesterday. Had taken the turkey out Wednesday, rinsed, removed neck from cavity and thought it was odd they didn't include the giblets. I reached in to search, with no results, then ran a wad of paper towels inside the cavity to dry it before salting for an overnight dry brine.

Put it on the WSM yesterday, rubbed with butter and Memphis Meat Dust, and it cooked up great. When I was almost done carving it, the grease-soaked paper bag of giblets fell out.

I just laughed and threw them in the trash. I still can't believe I missed them when I actually searched for them. They must have been really jammed in the neck area.
 
Some years ago, at a University of Illinois football tailgate on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I went out early with my 18” WSM and smoked a turkey. It was blowing hard and I brought along plywood to block the wind. At one point a wind gust knocked over the plywood screen and smoker. It looked like R2D2 fell over and broke into three pieces.

I emptied my early morning Bloody Mary, stood up the smoker and moved it behind a car. Nobody else from our group was there yet to witness the blunder. Then poured another Bloody Mary and carried on.

-Champaign Craig
 
CraigFlowers said:
Some years ago, at a University of Illinois football tailgate on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I went out early with my 18” WSM and smoked a turkey. It was blowing hard and I brought along plywood to block the wind. At one point a wind gust knocked over the plywood screen and smoker. It looked like R2D2 fell over and broke into three pieces.

I emptied my early morning Bloody Mary, stood up the smoker and moved it behind a car. Nobody else from our group was there yet to witness the blunder. Then poured another Bloody Mary and carried on.

-Champaign Craig
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Great tail gaiting fail story! The best part is no one saw! I don't have a turkey fail story to tell but did go tailgaiting at Arrowhead one time and brought along some chili. We reheated a giant pot of it on a turkey frier burner - it was so spicy no one could eat more than one bowl, and we ended up burning the bottom of the pot pretty bad. I was still in my 20's when I did that... maybe one of my last dumb things I did before I turned 30. My brother will probably never let me live that one down or forget it :ROFLMAO:
 
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