Comments

Episode-790- Chef Keith Snow on Thanksgiving Dinner Survival — 13 Comments

  1. Awesome show, gentlemen!

    Regarding turkey roasting, I’ve never basted, and I’ve never used gravy. (I don’t like gravy, and it doesn’t work with a low-carb eating plan usually anyway.) I also like crispy skin, so here’s what I do. I put my room-temp turkey in a preheated 500-degree oven, and I cook it for 25ish minutes. THEN, I turn it down to 325 and roast it to an internal temp of 160-165. And lastly, we let it rest for at least a half hour before cutting. That way, we don’t end up with all the moisture running out onto the carving board.

    Something else I like to do is stuff the turkey with an onion that’s been quartered, some crushed garlic cloves, some herbs, and some lemon wedges. This adds an amazing taste to the meat as it’s cooking, and of course, we discard all that stuff after the turkey is done.

    And regarding thermometers… I have to use a digital thermometer because I’m legally blind and can’t read most thermometers. We’ve gone through 3 remote-probe thermometers and I just got tired of them going bad (to the point where they wouldn’t even read a temp.) We like our little $10 digital instant-read thermometer, but Chef Keith’s comment about calibration has me thinking I should check to see how accurate my thermometer is these days. 🙂

    Thanks again for the excellent show!

  2. @Jack,

    RE: Nutroll and Poppyseed Roll. My grandmother used to make these as well–from Scratch. I was never much for the poppyseed, but I dream about the Nutroll still.

    Around my area, you can still find it (lots of Eastern European communities still around), but none of them are quite the same. Some taste pretty good, but almost all of them are dry.

    Miss you Grandma.

    • @Jack, My grandmother made these nut rolls as well. In our house we called them Kolache, but they are nothing like the Kolache you see in the stores/restaurants now days. If you search the internet for Hungarian Beigli though, there are tons of recipes out there for them though. We’re planning on making some this weekend along with home made pirogies. Yum! Nothing’s ever as good as the stuff grandma made.

      • That’s because you need the secret ingredient “Grandma Love”. That’s what mine said. Haven’t seen it in a bottle anywhere though.

  3. Jack,
    Great show! It’s hard not to listen to Chef Keith talk about food.
    My wife makes poppyseed and nut rolls every year for Christmas.
    If you want the recipe let me know and I’ll send it to you.

  4. Another great way to make the gravy and keep the fully flavored fat from the turkey drippings is to pour the drippings into a bowl (strained as Keith said) and then place that bowl in the freezer for about 5 minutes. This helps the fat to rise to the top quickly. Then ladle it off and use as much of the fat as you need to make a roux or the beurre manié to make your gravy along with the liquid under the fat. I do this often when cooking chicken, duck, or goose.

    What I use for my dressing/stuffing is: I bake all our bread; every time I slice a loaf, I dust off the cutting board into a ziplock freezer bag and place keep it in the freezer. I keep adding to it, and by Thanksgiving it is full and ready to be used for my dressing/stuffing.

  5. Pingback:REAL Cranberry Sauce – With Some Help From Chef Keith Snow | Country Consultant - Living The Good Life

  6. Great information. Thanks to Keith for putting some of this as free videos on his home page.
    I calibrated my thermometer and found it several degrees off. I will be trying both the turkey and gravy instructions this year.
    Great show as always.

  7. I just calibrated my cheap-o Taylor thermometer and it’s dead on – just lucky, I guess!

    So I finally caved and signed up for a lifetime subscription of Harvest Eating. I’ve resisted until now for fear most of the recipies wouldn’t work for a strictly paleo eater/cook and while there are plenty I’ll pass on I’m delighted to find tons more that I can either dive right into or adapt with a few minor substitutions. Happy camper. Thanks, Keith!

  8. I would love to get that poppyseed nut roll recipe folks??

    My mom makes these sweet crescent rolls at holiday meals…they are great..will extract the recipe from her over Christmas

    And thanks to you who are Harvest Eating lifetime members….pls remember to use the TSP discount to save $30 if any of you join….

    • Keith,
      My wife has it hidden somewhere around here.
      I’ll post it when I get it away from her.

  9. Thank you for the very inspiring podcast, Keith!

    Ever tried fried sage? It is addictive! I made it when I volunteered as a cook for the Mt. Washington Observatory (wicked awesome!) and the crew loved it! You can either pan fry sage in a shallow pan with a little animal fat, butter or oil (olive, coconut or palm, of course!) or deep fry it, if you are able. BTW, you have inspired me to refine my techniques, skills, procedures and organization! I tend to make a mess and be disorganized when I cook. It would be good to be more “professional” when I cook.

    I also made a confit of the turkey legs and dark meat by slowly cooking them in lard in a 250 F oven. I used the confit to make carnitas, poutine and cassoulet (I know, potatoes and beans are not Paleo, but I am back on it now). Speaking of Turkey, I made a tasty Middle Eastern shwarma by mixing the meat with cumin, coriander seed, thyme, turmeric, chilis, lemon juice and garnishing with chopped onions, coriander leaves, tahini and leftover cranberry sauce! Cranberry sauce tastes very much like the traditional pomegranate molasses and sumac. Yum!

    About the caliber selection, I highly recommend that you go for a military caliber that can be purchased much more economically than a purely sporting caliber. You can then buy bulk quantities of military ammunition and then some boxes of hunting loads for that same caliber. It would be prohibitively expensive to buy 1000 rounds of .270. You may want to look into surplus rifles as well and have a mix of say a Mosin Nagant ($90!) or SKS and a nice AR or AK. Buy lots and lots and lots of ammo and then train with it. That will give you far more of a performance advantage than a sporting round that is too expensive to shoot.

    Thanks for all that you do!