Thanksgiving Dutch Oven Style...

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

My kids are with me only through Wedsnesday this holiday week, so we're gonna have to have our turkey a little bit early.
Havng never done one in a DO before, I thought, "Hey, this will be fun!"
Welp... I went out this afternoon and did the grocery shopping, but the kids didn't want to wait until tomorrow, so we'll be eating a somewhat late dinner.
I'm doing a spin off of Byron's recipe for herb roasted turkey dinner.
I wanted to try a stuffing idea I had, using some country sausage in the mix.
The bird has just about another hour to go and I just added the potatoes, which hopefully will be done when the bird is done.
Once I remove the bird and the potatoes, I'll add some more briquttes under the DO and make gravy from all the drippings.
Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy...
I've been battling rain and wind outside, but I'll get a shot of the bird, just before I take it out of the DO.
Here's the recipe, I did a spin off of...
http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/dutch-oven-recipe-herbroastedturkey.htm

His recipe calls for 15 lb. bird and a 15" deep oven. I found a 10lb. bird and the top of the bird still hit the lid on my 14" deep, so there is a pretty "toasted" spot at the top on it....

[doug hodder]

Dean....I'll take the "toasted spot"....have fun with it and enjoy...doug

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Doug,
I mail it to you.

[Podunkfla]

Dean... Byron sure has some good receipies on his site... Will keep me cooking for a long time. I've been trying to figure out how to download 'em all and save them... I used to have a little utility that would do that (save a whole website). Can't find it now.

Happy thanksgiving!

friend ~ Brick

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Hunkering down in the corner, trying to stay out of the rain and wind.


Ready to take the bird and potatoes inside and get started on the gravy.
I forgot to take a picture of the stuffing, but it's visible in this shot.


The gravy had some good tasting little tidbits.

Colton mashed the potatoes real good.


The meat was fall off the bone good, but the stuffing with country suasage made the meal outstanding.

Three doses of 16 on the bottom and 26 on top for three hours, then finishing up with 28 on the bottom for the gravy = 154 total briquettes.
I think I could've gotten by with one less hour on the bird because of the small size. (10 lbs)
The pictures turned out a little on the dark side, the bird really wasn't black like it appears in the shots.

Oh... On the stuffing, I browned up 1 1/2 lbs. of country sausage, drained it and sprinkled it with sage and minced garlic, then added that to a 14 oz. bag of Pepperidge Farms seasoned croutons which take 2 1/2 cups of warm water and a stick of butter. Oh Yaa, added in one half of an onion diced up.
I could only get about 1/4 of the stuffing inside the bird, but kept the remainder, set it asside and reheated it for dinner. (Bethany wasn't too sure about eating the stuffing from the bird... Dad is old school)

[Podunkfla]

WOW! That looks GOOD!

[madjack]

WOW! That looks GOOD!

..yeahbuddydoanchano...I'll even give it the coveted award...........

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

It was GUD... sept I ate too much.
Oh Yaa... One crushed up Bay Leaf in the stuffing too.
Pretty cool... all that from one 14" DCO.

[cherokeegeorge]

Damn Dean that looks greatyou are becoming quite the d.o. wiz.

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

George,
Well... I know the kids like stuff that we do in the dutch ovens and when they asked me if we were gonna do an early Thanksgiving, how could I turn 'em down???
Let's see, that recipe was for 12 and there's only the 3 of us, (TDN is away on vacation) so the way I see it, we'll be having turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy four days straight... Then it's over to their mother's for Thanksgiving.
I'm heading to my brother's for Thansgiving and my family heard about the cobbler we did at the Apple Harvest Fair, so I'll be doing that for them on Thanksgiving.

[Outlaw]

Looks awesome! Thanks for taking the time to share. PM me for my address, I'm looking forward to some leftovers

[Ma3tt]

Well done!

[Mike B]

Well, Dean, you've got it - the dread Dutch oven disease. I hope you don't get a lot of snow where you live, or you'll be suffering withdrawal symptoms by spring.




Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Mike,
It seldoms snows right here on the coast and my place has a nice overhang all the way around it, but with last night's wind and rain, I almost took the setup out to the shop... Year round DOing here.
The last snow we had that amounted to anything was in 1988... left about a foot and a half of snow on the ground and folks around here have been refering to it as the Great Blizzard of '88.
(It was kinda neat seeing snow pack at the beach...)

[Miriam C.]

Sooooooooo. How long did that take? It looks really good. I really like the crunchy skin too.