Thanksgiving Epic Fails

[lauralie41]

heidifayesmammy wrote:
We don't have thanksgiving in uk so will have to go for my worst ever (and first) christmas dinner! I was trying to impress my better half so I didn't at all plan ahead.
It started by running out of time from visiting family so we ran to our local open all hours shop and bought pot noodles and pizza and ate them at the dinner time... We still carry out this tradition.
After visiting it took about 6 hours to cook a turkey that was about the same siza as a large chicken, took it out the oven to get the meat off only to find it needed cooking still so had to put it back in after extracting the cooked bits, roast potaotes took about 2 hours then suddenly burnt, very very soggy veg, I realised I'd finished the eggs off on the morning's fry up so had to use ready made yorkie puddings and set fire to the grill while they were cooking. Cranberry jelly didn't set. Stuffing was soggy and lumpy. Gravy was thin and lumpy. Pigs in blankets worked well! Yay!
Christmas pudding at about half past ten at night (beacuse it had taken that long to cook everything and eat it) with lumpy custard that tasted of flour.
Because it was a busy day and was getting late I had to turn the oven off so the turkey never did get fully cooked! 5 years later my christmas dinner is just about getting better. I do make a nice lasagne though!!

heidifayesmammy welcome to food.com, it is very nice to meet you!

It tends to happen when we are trying our hardest to have perfect holiday dinners that something goes wrong. I dont know why it happens but that is the best time for things to go haywire. Stick with us this year and there will be a lot of friendly folks ready to help answer questions or find great recipes for you so wonderful holiday dinners from here on out.

[I'mPat]

lauralie41 wrote:

I'mPat wrote:
Don't celebrate thanks giving here in Australia but well I have had my disaster dinners (haven't we all) but one that ssticks in my memory wasn't one of mine but one I think you can relate to was when a very good friend of my MILS who lives on a farm bought down a leg of lamb for them all to have - there was only one problem IT WOULD NOT FIT IN THE OVEN, has anyoine had a similar problem with a turkey.


Pat

Oh no Pat! That was very kind of your DMIL's friend to bring them the leg of lamb. Was there anything they could do to make it fit in the oven?

Years ago when I had to have the biggest turkey I could find, 26 pounds, it was a tight fit. He almost hit the top of my oven so we had to sort of move the roaster around a bit and found a place where the turkey did have some room. I covered the top of the turkey with foil so it wouldnt burn before it was even roasted.

The FIL being the resourceful country man that he is took a hacksaw it and two dinners were gotten out of it plus left overs for shephers pie and bubble and squeak - not a scrrick was wasted I have been told (this happened before a knew them but it is a favourite family story).


Pat

[lauralie41]

Rachel Savage wrote:
My first Thanksgiving experience was definitely the worst. As an American living in the UK, I found it hard to find a turkey in November (generally they are only available in December for Christmas). Eventually, I bought an "extra large" self-basting frozen turkey. When I took it out of the bag on Thanksgiving morning, it looked tiny (and it was, by American standards -- about 12 pounds). I send my flatmate out to find another turkey. He found one at a butcher's shop and we wound up handing it off to a friend who lived around the corner to cook because my oven could only hold one turkey at a time.

Meanwhile, the turkey had not defrosted, despite several days in the fridge. And it was covered in what looked like wax (which turned out to be the self-basting material). I washed off the turkey (defeating the whole "self-basting" idea) and put it in the sink with luke-warm water (recommended by a friend who had worked in a commercial kitchen) to finish defrosting. Eventually it defrosted enough to cook.

When dinner time came, my friend came bearing turkey number 2. We polished off turkey number 1 and was glad to have the second one, though it meant we had copious amount of leftovers. A good meal was had by all.

Welcome and nice to meet you Rachel! It's always better to have to much then not enough! What did you make with the leftover turkey? You will find many wonderful recipes here if you need to finish up leftovers this year.

[lauralie41]

I'mPat wrote:
Well Rachel you were not eating take away and hopefully the left overs were used in some delicious recipes, which could brings us to another topic "HOW DO YOU USE YOUR LEFT OVER TURKEY FROM THANKSGIVING?"


Pat

Great idea Pat! Will have to see what we can do.

[lauralie41]

I'mPat wrote:

lauralie41 wrote:

I'mPat wrote:
Don't celebrate thanks giving here in Australia but well I have had my disaster dinners (haven't we all) but one that ssticks in my memory wasn't one of mine but one I think you can relate to was when a very good friend of my MILS who lives on a farm bought down a leg of lamb for them all to have - there was only one problem IT WOULD NOT FIT IN THE OVEN, has anyoine had a similar problem with a turkey.


Pat

Oh no Pat! That was very kind of your DMIL's friend to bring them the leg of lamb. Was there anything they could do to make it fit in the oven?

Years ago when I had to have the biggest turkey I could find, 26 pounds, it was a tight fit. He almost hit the top of my oven so we had to sort of move the roaster around a bit and found a place where the turkey did have some room. I covered the top of the turkey with foil so it wouldnt burn before it was even roasted.

The FIL being the resourceful country man that he is took a hacksaw it and two dinners were gotten out of it plus left overs for shephers pie and bubble and squeak - not a scrrick was wasted I have been told (this happened before a knew them but it is a favourite family story).


Pat

that is a cute story and how smart of the FIL! thank you for sharing!

[Rachel Savage]

I always have such good intentions to use leftover turkey, but the weeks roll by and I start forgetting it's in the freezer. I still have 1/2 a large ziplock baggie in the freezer with last year's turkey. Since it's now September, it's probably time to throw that out and start thinking about this year.

I find that saucy dishes are best for leftover turkey since otherwise it can get very dry. I like turkey curry and have also made a version of Chicken and Apples in Cream substituting leftover turkey for the shredded chicken.

[Chef #832369]

My first epic thanksgiving fail was probably 10 years ago. I just didn't give myself enough time for the turkey to defrost...you know where this is going. Well when the time came, I removed the bags inside, and stuffed it and decided that cranking the oven to 500 degrees would surely cook said turkey and stuffing, even though it was still frozen. Not so much.
The outside of the turkey was crispy...that's the only really good thing about dinner...The pan drippings evaporated and crusted on because of the high heat...so no gravy...the outside of the turkey was burnt, and the inside was still raw. The stuffing wasn't cooked at all, the potatoes came out alright, but not stellar and I forgot to put out the cranberry sauce and bake the rolls...Not my finest hour, but I learned from my mistakes and got a little better with the timing of my meals and learned to prep ahead. Hope you enjoy!

[lauralie41]

Rachel Savage wrote:
I always have such good intentions to use leftover turkey, but the weeks roll by and I start forgetting it's in the freezer. I still have 1/2 a large ziplock baggie in the freezer with last year's turkey. Since it's now September, it's probably time to throw that out and start thinking about this year.

I find that saucy dishes are best for leftover turkey since otherwise it can get very dry. I like turkey curry and have also made a version of Chicken and Apples in Cream substituting leftover turkey for the shredded chicken.

Rachel the Chicken and Apples in Cream #13881 sounds very good. My DH likes dishes with a sauce or gravy so added that recipe to my cookbook. Thank you for mentioning it!

Yep I agree, toss that bag of turkey from your freezer. Get your freezer bags ready for this Thanksgiving!

[lauralie41]

[quote="Chef #832369"]My first epic thanksgiving fail was probably 10 years ago. I just didn't give myself enough time for the turkey to defrost...you know where this is going. Well when the time came, I removed the bags inside, and stuffed it and decided that cranking the oven to 500 degrees would surely cook said turkey and stuffing, even though it was still frozen. Not so much.
The outside of the turkey was crispy...that's the only really good thing about dinner...The pan drippings evaporated and crusted on because of the high heat...so no gravy...the outside of the turkey was burnt, and the inside was still raw. The stuffing wasn't cooked at all, the potatoes came out alright, but not stellar and I forgot to put out the cranberry sauce and bake the rolls...Not my finest hour, but I learned from my mistakes and got a little better with the timing of my meals and learned to prep ahead. Hope you enjoy![/quote]

Enjoyed your story and giggled a bit but I dont think you were laughing that day. Bet you havent had trouble with your dinners ever since! Thank you for sharing your story with us.

:

[Liza at Food.com]

There are some GREAT stories in here! thanks so much all! I'm in charge of the bird again this November...and i definitely will make sure to take the plastic bag of giblets out this time!

[lauralie41]

Liza we will all send you a reminder to take that bag out of the turkey on Thanksgiving morning.

The stories have been fun to read and some good tips in there too. Thank you everyone for sharing and great idea Liza and Jasmine. Hope we see more folks join in.

[I'mPat]

lauralie41 wrote:
Liza we will all send you a reminder to take that bag out of the turkey on Thanksgiving morning.

The stories have been fun to read and some good tips in there too. Thank you everyone for sharing and great idea Liza and Jasmine. Hope we see more folks join in.

Hopefully yes there will be more stories to come - but what is that though we have aboutt liking those humourous moments over failures but hopefuly we learn from them and well putting them here may help others falling into the pit we did


Pat

[Chef #1290317]

In 2001, my family thought we would change up our traditional "roasted" turkey tradition, and try deep frying. However, my grandfather apparently put the thermometer in the wrong part of the turkey, and by the time he took it out, it was only charred remains.
We ended up dining on the shrimp cocktail someone had brought as an appetizer, and whatever we could dig out of the fridge.

[Liza at Food.com]

Oh my goodness...great story and i can't believe you still have a photo. i LOVE it!!!

[MrsBWilcox]

There's nothing like melted plastic (which is the bag MY giblets came in the first time I cooked a turkey) to enhance the taste of your overcooked turkey... I have learned since then to allow PLENTY of time to let the turkey thaw AND to check BOTH ENDS for surprises!!