Found out the whole family will be out of town for Thanksgiving, leaving just my wife and I to fend for ourselves on Thursday.
So, since my BEESR was delivered yesterday and I had a turkey in the fridge today, figured I'd break it in by preparing our Thanksgiving meal early. That way we can just roll out of bed and warm up the food before watching her Lions (and then my Cowboys) on Thursday. With no family to visit or help cook, I figured my wife would prefer to spend the day sleeping, eating, and watching football -- no cooking.
I started with the basics. Seasoned the cooker with vegetable oil. Stuck the digital probe in a glass of ice water to make sure I was getting a good reading before I began, to be safe.
It was an 11.26 pound turkey. Rubbed a little peanut oil on it, then rubbed in some salt and pepper.
Not too nuts with how the turkey sat in the basket. Guess I'll have to break down and buy some kind of rack to rest the turkey on so it stays more upright, because it came out with a kind of curved/slumping posture that held even when I moved it from the basket to a pan for carving. Not a big deal usually, but if I was preparing a proper holiday meal for family, I'd probably want it to look as perfect as possible. Plus I think it'd cook even better if it's more upright in the middle of the basket instead of slumping to one side.
Put it in the preheated BEESR at 10:28 AM, and I cooked it on the highest setting the whole way. Went from a closed lid to an open lid beginning at 12:17 PM, figuring it'd crisp up the skin, with the internal temperature at 138. Cooked until 1:00 PM when I yanked it from the BEESR with an internal temperature of 161.
I was a little surprised it took as long as it did, as I'd heard tell of cooking times coming out to roughly 10 minutes per pound (and my cook overshot that estimated time). It's been pretty cold in New Mexico lately, but this cook actually took place on a nice, warm day. Outside temperature was 58 degrees when I started the cook, and it was in the high 60's when it ended. So I don't feel like the cooking time was dragged out at all because of cold weather (although I believe the cooking times/temperatures listed in the booklet are based on a 90-degree environment, so maybe the 50's and 60's are dragging it out a bit despite feeling rather warm and pleasant to me). I wonder if the cooking time would've been better if I did a more thorough job of seasoning the cooking chamber? Hopefully it'll improve as I continue seasoning it.
I let the turkey rest a bit. Then I removed it from the basket by turning the basket on its side and inserting the handle of my thickest/sturdiest wooden mixing spoon all the way into and through the turkey, and using the spoon to lift/carry the bird over to a pan. I told my wife afterwards that it's a good thing we bought such thick wooden spoons, because that maneuver would've snapped the handle off standard wooden mixing spoons.
So, I have to say, I'm very impressed with the cooker. Juiciest turkey I've ever made in my life, and it's not even close. It was so juicy and moist, I told my wife that it was almost making me fear that the turkey was under-cooked. I'm just so used to turkey coming out more dry. Of course, I tested the temperature with multiple thermometers, and the turkey also passed the "eye test" as my wife and I both agreed it looked perfectly white and fully cooked. It was just so moist and juicy, I scared myself for a moment as I wondered if the lack of dryness meant I'd pulled it too early.
My wife agreed it was very good, from the samples we helped ourselves to while I was carving it up. She's already floated a test balloon about the idea that we should just eat this turkey now and cook another one for Thanksgiving.
SIDE NOTE: I moved the cooker indoor this evening after it was totally cool. I saw a mouse scurry away from the cooker when I went out to move it after it cooled down. Not sure if the mouse had been messing with the cooker, or if it was a coincidence that it happened to be near the cooker. I'd dumped the drippings from the pan after I cooked the turkey earlier in the afternoon, but I wonder if the mouse was attracted to the warmth of the device (or some remnants of the drippings). I find myself wondering if leaving it outdoors will attract animals or rodents to the cooker. And if it gets their attention, can they actually gain access to the inside of it? If the cooker is sitting on a flat concrete surface, can mice wriggle their way into the machine to get a taste of any residue left in the dripping pan?
ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: My wife thinks the cooker looks like a robot. I hadn't thought about it, but it kinda looks like R2-D2 dressed up as Darth Vader.
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