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25 November 2008

Takeout deep-fried turkey Mmmmm ... Includes embedded YT.
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The best turkey I ever ate was one Thanksgiving at George's where it's a family tradition going back a long time to have pit-roast turkey.

The pit was dug many years ago, and if you think that pit-roast turkey sounds like a great idea and you live somewhere cold, you're too late, because the ground'll be too hard to dig.

The pit has to be dug in the summer. At the end of the summer, you also have to make sure that you've bought as much of the barbecue coal that Wal*Mart has on sale, because you need lots and lots of it, along with lighter fuel.

The pit has to be about 4ft across and about 5ft deep, big enough to fit a metal trash can in, with plenty of space around the sides and a couple of feet deeper.

Then you take the old tin bathtub that's been sitting out in the barn since last Thanksgiving and fill it with barbecue coals, making sure that as you layer the coals, you soak 'em with barbecue lighter fuel.

Light the coals and when they're heated, get a couple of the fellas, wearing heavy boots and thick gloves, to tip/shovel the coals into the pit.

When there's a layer about a foot deep, put the trash can in. Layer the coals all around the side of it (you should have at least 8"-10" clearance to let you do this, the more space the better) until it's almost to the top. The can should be warm inside by this point.

Take the turkey, which has been buttered, seasoned and wrapped in foil, and put it in the trash can. Put the lid on.

Layer hot coals over the top. Cover the trash can completely. If you dug your pit right, you should have coals about a foot deep on top.

Set up that little home-made shelter that your daddy made 45 years ago over it to keep the rain off.

Leave it for a few hours.

Shovel off the top layer of coals and add another layer of hot coals, pouring them down the sides where the old coals have burned down.

Leave for another few hours. Add more coals as necessary.

After, oh, quite a few more hours, the turkey will be cooked and delicious beyond belief.

If I had not seen/tasted this for myself I would not have believed it.
cue cries of ew! gross!!

Jan, that sounds pretty close to what the folks up the way used to do for a pig roast back when I was a kid. Pig roasts are a big deal in Ohio. and yep you gotta dig the hole before mid-October or you're screwed. And no selfrespecting farmer would be caught dead without a #3 "worsh" tub.

that little home-made shelter didn't have a tin roof on it did it? we had one that allegedly began life as a "farrowing crate" (also pig-related). It looked kinda like a biggish doghouse. or a portable shed for garden gnomes. or something.

mom mostly used it to keep rain off the hibachi; same difference really. she also liked to cook the thanksgiving turkey in a greased paper bag, which led to at least one instance of the fire department showing up.

good times.
posted by lonefrontranger 25 November | 17:22
Yes, the shelter had a tin roof :-)

And, ah yes, it was a 'worsh' tub, not a bath. George's family likes the Behrens brand, his mother being a Behrens and all ...
posted by essexjan 25 November | 17:45
cue cries of ew! gross!!
Well, yes, very gross. Since they didn't bother to DEBONE ANY OF IT. I can't fathom how hard it was to carve. and eat.

(although I'm doing a bacon turkey this year ala Chow)
posted by kellydamnit 25 November | 19:47
Florida ban on gay adoptions found unconstitutional. || Truman Syndrome,

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