It’s 3:20 in the morning. Technically, it’s Thanksgiving Day now so Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m going to bed soon. I just finished preparing our turkey to be cooked tomorrow, uh, I mean in a few hours from now.
Even though it’s been in the fridge since Sunday afternoon, it was still pretty frozen come Wednesday evening. Why didn’t our turkey defrost? Most sources do say it may take 3 - 4 days though so I guess we needed another day. Since we didn’t have another day, we had to do the speed water defrost method. This involves soaking the turkey, in its packaging, in cold water for about 30 minutes per pound. That’s probably another reason our turkey didn’t defrost—we have a 17.5 lb turkey! It actually was one of the smallest ones they had. Seems like grocery stores don’t stock smaller turkeys.
Anyway, around 9 PM, I put the bird under water. Thankfully, I had a giant tupperware bin that we use to store rice (yes, we eat that much rice). I put the rice in something else for the time being and it became the perfect working container for the turkey.
Thanksgiving Turkey Defrosting
I left the turkey bobbing in the water on the kitchen counter. I could have done it in the sink, but I didn’t feel like cleaning out the sink. Since the turkey had already partially defrosted in the fridge, I figured it only needed a few hours and shouldn’t be left out overnight. Tim was out and I knew he would be home around 2 AM, so I decided to just go to bed and check on the turkey once he comes in and I wake up.
Well, that was about an hour and a half ago. I got up after a few hours of sleep, not tired at all and completely excited about checking out the turkey. It was no longer frozen! Now it was time to prepare it according to the salt rub recipe I mentioned earlier. One thing I wasn’t expecting was how difficult it is to handle a big, bulky, and heavy bird!
I cut open the packaging and shook off the excess blood/water that came off the bird. There was a metal bracket like thing that was holding closed the turkey’s legs. It was a bit tricky, but I ended up removing it by squeezing it first to release the pressure and then sliding it out of the turkey. Next, I removed the turkey neck that had been stuffed inside the cavity. It was a bit frozen still and had a big chunk of ice stuck to it. The inside of the the turkey was very cold and it hurt to keep my hand in it for long. The turkey flesh itself though was soft and not frozen, thank goodness. After the neck, I pulled out the bag of giblets that had been stuffed in the other end. The pointy flap of the turkey’s “butt” was also dangling off the bottom so I just sliced it off. All this will be saved to add to the gravy and to fry up and give to the dogs, especially the giblets.
Thanksgiving Turkey Neck, Giblets, and Butt
It got messy at points with pink turkey blood and juice running all over the counter! Yuck. After I removed the “extras,” it was time to rinse the turkey inside and out. Man, it wasn’t easy holding the heavy bird under the faucet and washing it, but once that was done, I sat it up in a colander in the bin to drain for about 5 minutes. Next, I plopped it down on a cutting board and started the salt rub which is just as the name implies: rubbing the turkey with salt. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of turkey, so I measured about 18 tsp of salt, or 6 tablespoons. It looked like a lot of salt so I was surprised as I was rubbing to realize that it really isn’t much at all compared to the size of the turkey. I concentrated on the inside cavity and breast but made sure to evenly coat all the other areas too.
The recipe said to put the bird breast-side down in a shallow bowl or pan and cover with plastic wrap before sticking it back in the fridge. Well, I had two problems then: I don’t have a bowl or pan that can hold the turkey (yet, gotta get one tomorrow), and I didn’t have any plastic wrap!
I briefly debated walking the 2 blocks to the supermarket at the corner, but it’s cold and dark and wet out. Then I looked at the oh-so-handy bin I’ve been using. It was the perfect size to hold the turkey but unfortunately it was too tall to fit in my fridge, that is, until I removed the middle shelf—oh joyous day! 
As for the plastic wrap, I cut up one of those clingy, clear plastic bags you put your fruit and veggies in at the store. It worked perfectly.
Thanksgiving Turkey Salted and Wrapped
I slid the whole thing into the fridge and now it’s ready to be buttered and roasted tomorrow for about 4 hours. We’re planning to eat around 4 PM, so it’ll go in the oven a bit before noon. Plenty of time for the salt to work its magic in softening the meat and making it juicy for tomorrow! Yummy yummy.
Thanksgiving Turkey Waiting
Now, after thoroughly cleaning everything from the counter to the kitchen scissors, it’s time to go to bed. Happy Thanksgiving!
We have two more movies from my Netflix queue to get through over the next few days: I, Robot and Fracture.
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