23 Pound Gifts

What happens when you are gifted with a 23 pound, Heritage Turkey which was Organically fed, Cage free and Hormone Free? You get cooking, thats what you do.
What a wonderful giftt. And something that can make so many meals!
Day Brine it - I used a brine solution on the Turkey. The lid would not fit on my pot and it was too big for the fridge. So, It went out to the porch overnight in out 20 deg F temeratures. Ok, so brined for about 17 hours.

Then it cooked for about 9 hours (23 x 20)/60 = 7.67. That was not quite enough it had to go for another hour or so. Ah but the golden deliciousness that we ate last night was truly incredible. Funny think about brining, the flesh can get a red/pink tone once it is cooked. Especially the dark meats. So, because I was a bit freaked out by the color, I got my meat thermometer out, good thing because I was probably going to incinerate it!

Sorry, didn't think to take a picture of it when it was sitting and resting after the oven, it was so pretty and bronzed looking. Wouldn't you know it was too late to get into making the whole gravy thing and I had so much juice! I saved that of course. Nice and gelatin-y. Heres a pic of the juices, skimmed of fat.

Tonight, I have cut away the breasts, legs, wings and stripped allot of the carcass.

The carcass is in the pot being turned into a beautiful, flavorful stock. It looks kind of gross at this point, but, when it is finished, wow and wow again!

I made a Turkey pot pie and will freeze that in portions.

Layering Turkey pieces, carrots and snap peas.

After the last layer of meat and veggies, I spooned in some of the pan juices and added a bit of cornstarch to thicken the juices when they bake.

Top crust on and poked to let steam out.

Ta Da!

Nice fork work, right?

The best fork work is whats going to happen to that slice of Turkey Pie!