Hi fellow EFers,

Does anyone know where I can buy a good turkey smoker or turkey fryer that will work here in Switzerland? Due to my small oven (Swiss standard) and large number of (hungry) guests I need to prepare more than one.

I would appreciate any tip!

Thanksgiving preparation team leader,
Gaebigirl

First of all you´ve gotta find a turkey!

Why would that be a problem?

Been making them for 25 years here, no problem to get them (even a 30 pounder once or twice).

Tom

Are you referring to a) the kind you eat or b) the kind you unfortunately might have to work with? If a), I too have found them both fresh and frozen, Swiss and German - although my oven limits the size to about 7 lbs. If b) well, it's hard to fly with the eagles when you work with turkeys...

I need to make two due to the number of guests and would like to serve them hot - hense the need for a turkey smoker or fryer. My grill is not fitted to BBQ one. Since the neighbors are not invited, I can't ask to use their oven!

So, does anyone know where I can get a turkey smoker/fryer for use here in CH?

Wow Tom, how did you cook such a big bird here in CH? I used to cook that size in Colombia, but the oven I have here is unfortunately too small!

A 30 pound (14kg) turkey will JUST fit in a Swiss oven, but it has to be on the diagonal.

Done it twice, though usually I go for 20-25 pounders. We often do them at a friend's up in ZH, and her oven is slightly smaller than mine, and 10kg is about as big as I can fit in hers.

Tom

Do you not find that cooking such a large bird means that you end up with quite dry breast meat?

I find that the dark meat on the legs cooks significantly slower than the white meat on the breast and as a result you end up with with dry white meat if you cook the turkey whole.

My way around this is to remove the legs and cook them separately but then you don't have such a grand spectacle to bring to the table!

No, but I've been doing thisfor over 30 years, since I was at university, we used to cook one a month, as it was cheap and we liked it!

Also, I cook them breast side down these days.

Tom

Here are a few tips to having a moist turkey. Among them include roasting it for a while breast-side down (first hour) then flipping it to continue roasting so that the breast looks nice for presentation. Another trick is to slide some butter (usually seasoned butter) inside between the skin and the breast meat, allowing it to baste itself as the butter melted.

I've watched a few cooking shows that cover how to cook turkeys, they tend to come on a lot starting about this time of year. One that I saw they made a crust out of mustard and some other ingredients which was allowed to blacken in the oven. This gave flavor to the turkey and was thick enough to form a sort of baked-clay exterior surrounding the turkey, keeping the moisture locked in. For serving, the outer hard-baked shell was broken away, leaving a beautiful (and apparently flavorful) turkey inside.

The very moistest ever turkey I had though was made by someone who brined theirs and then deep fried it wrapped in a paper bag. This was back in the US though - sorry Gaebigirl, I do not know where to find a fryer here.


Finally, something I've heard about serving many different types of meat is to allow it to rest (in it's cooking dish, with it's juices) for a few minutes in order to allow it to soak some of the juices back up. This will help increase the moisture content of the cooked meat.

(Well do I remember choking down overly dry turkey a time or two, thankfully with the aid of copious amounts of gravy )

I would second brining the bird. I always brine poultry before I roast, even for a simple roast chicken. I find that the flesh tastes more meaty as well as it being more moist and juicy. Don't brine for too long though.

Some tips below:

http://bbq.about.com/cs/turkey/a/aa110103a.htm

Hi Tom,
How big is your oven? I have been roasting thansgiving turkeys for 26 years here and in Colombia and so frustrated with the oven I have now! Do you use a roasting pan? Does the bird touch the sides? Maybe I could up it to 10 kg but without the stuffing. I have 12 coming over for thanksgiving dinner - to be celebrated on the following Saturday giving the lack of a holiday here - so I need to have enough turkey. Any ideas? I haven't heard of where I can get my hands on a smoker or fryer.... I guess I could always grill some parts on the 'ol BBQ!


Gaebigirl

42cm wide, 44cm deep, 29cm high.

Pan is 35cm x 40cm, so to use the full size of the oven I use aluminum foil to extend the pan.

And I always stuff them, body and crop.

Tom

What temperature do you use? Do you brine, by the way? Top and bottom heat?

Gaebigirl

Mrs Grumpygit uses muslin on top of the bird and bastes. Its always perfect. I got a smoker as a gift . You can buy one on line.

I went to the gutter when I saw the thread title...

I'm a baster too, although I have never used muslin. Maybe I'll try it this year. PLEASE tell me where online you found the smoker! Was it delivered to you here to Switzerland?

Anxiously waiting for the link,
Gaebigirl

Okay ya'll, having asked hubby for the magic words to look for online, I've come up with this gem of a blog, titled Turkey Frying and Other Fun. (Well, it's in German but, I promise, that is what the title is!)




It appears to be a home made turkey fryer, but then the ones in the US started out as funky (and very dangerous!!) home made thingies as well.

One thing in my search that kept coming up is how dangerous it is to have so much hot oil not only in the open but also over open flame. I think this design seems a bit less dangerous than the whole propane tank + open flame + potential for hot oil splash but maybe I'm just imagining things.


Perhaps trying the search for "turkey" and "fryer" in other local languages (I looked for truthahn frittieren) will help find something local.

Brining is a great way to get moist breast meat.

And I quite like Cook's Illustrated and they have a brining guide online at http://www.cooksillustrated.com/imag...ningbasics.pdf