Want to add a special wish to all of you who have been so gracious in sharing your expertise - especially to Linda Lou, Readinglady, Ken and Annie - for faithfully putting up will all of our many (and sometimes repeated questions).

God Bless.

Bejay

I'm very thankful to all the folks who tutored me through the pepper fermenting process, and all the others who have shared their knowledge on a day-to-day basis.

I too wish you a very feastful Thursday.

Westelle

Gee, you meat me to it this year.. Hope all of you do have a very happy holiday. Wild birds are having a feeding frenzy right now and it was snowing for the fist time today..

Gee, you BEAT me to it this year.. Hope all of you do have a very happy holiday. Wild birds are having a feeding frenzy right now and it was snowing for the first time today..

PS: I must have been thinking of the turkey when I typed the above..

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Forum friends. I hope for everyone it is a day filled with remembrances of the blessings in our lives. Whatever our challenges so many have less.

And right now my "blessings" include a local appliance dealer willing to deliver a water heater tomorrow morning, a garage that is only partly flooded with no permanent damage and a DH who has the skills to hook it up!

Carol

Newbie here that would also like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Great day all!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all the forum members who share their lives, their knowledge and answer our questions, those who share recipes - again and again and again, those who ask questions we haven't thought to ask yet and those who bring smiles to our days. This Thanksgiving I have another reason to be thankful, one a lot of people will find unusual. Today we laid to rest my younger brother who had been terminally ill for quite some time. I am truly thankful he no longer suffers. This is not a sad note, this is a celebration of his life.

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving too. Time to can those cranberries in the stores :)

bcskye, I am sorry about your loss. Blessings to you and your family.

And a very thankful hapgiving to you all from Zabby.

I'm one of the Canadian contingent that celebrated Thanksgiving back in October, but this year I'm in the U.S. on American turkey day to share the holiday with my mother-in-law. We'll have a meal with her in her assisted living dining room and be thankful for many things.

becksye, may your memories of your brother bring you lots of joy.

Zabby

Thank you for all your Thanksgiving Day wishes ! I want to send Happy Greetings to each of you and your families !

I am sorry for your loss, bcskye.

Carol, hope you have plenty of hot water again.

Now, you all enjoy your fruits of your labor on your Thanksgiving tables. Open those jars and savor the flavors !

I decided to brine my turkey breast before its roasted. I used a cup of kosher salt, half cup sugar to a gallon of water. I let the turky breast soak overnight in it. Today, I will be shoving some herbed butter under the skin before its roasted in the oven. Stuffings all made, and the rest is a quick process. The fresh thyme and roasemary I still have growing out back gave these a lot of flavor.

Let us know how the brined turkey breast turned out. I've been watching the Food Network shows on that subject and I figured I'd try it with a chicken first and see how it turns out, never thought of a turkey breast instead. What did you use to soak it in? And did you put it in the refrigerator or use a cooler? Details-PLEASE! :-)
Shammie

Actually I have brined chicken for fryng too. I cut up the chicken into pieces and mixed a half gallon of water, 1 cup of Kosher salt and 1/2 cup sugar until dissolved. The chicken pieces went into the brine and the whole thing went into the fridge. The instructions said it could soak for an hour or more and then drained. I coated each piece with an egg wash and then a mixture of crushed corn flake crumbs and flour, seasoned with herbs and spices like pepper, corander, onion and garlic powders, ground celery seed, and a few other spices to compliment the flavor. It was pressure fried.

As to the turkey, it was just the breast and fit nicly in a big bowl with the brine. Because it was a larger piece of meat, I brined it overnight in the fridge. It was then drained and I tucked the herbed butter under the skin. I roasted 3/4 the way in a covered, stainless steel roasting pan, then I removed the cover to allow it to brown. I must say it was the juiciest breast I have ever eaten. Even though it was a plain, non flavored brine, it made the usually dry breast into someting that could be eaten without having to drink liquids to wash it down. I roasted it with a few cut up carrots, celery onions, garlic, and fresh thyme and rosemary. All the drippings were added to the gravy.

Thanks for the info, Ken. Sounds easy enough, I'll try it next time I do a turkey breast. My Thanksgiving turkey was a 20 pounder, don't know what I could have soaked it in, maybe a cooler? All those Food networks chefs say it makes the juicest turkeys ever. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And remember, left overs are a new meal in the making!
Shammie

Yes, a big cooler would be appropriate, but be sure to keep the water salt ration at the same level. With our cold weather here, I could have stored mine outdoors overnight, but I was just doing a breast and it fit nicly in one of y big mixing bowls. I have an even larger mixing bowl and a 20 pounder would definately fit in that one. Even for that, my fridge shelves are adjustable so I could even fit it in the fridge. I also have a 4 ounce capacity meat pump (syringe) that I use when curing beef and pork and that could have also been used to inject into the turkey meat, but I figured it would work about the same by just letting it stay overnight in the fridge. If injected instead, it only needs an hour or two to soak in, so that method is faster.

Thanks Ken, I'm going to try it with some huge chicken breasts I have in the freezer, they're usually quite dry.
I also have an injector, never used it, I might try that sometime soon. I think myh husband picked it up somewhere and I never quite knew what to use it for. Shammie

If you do inject, be sure to use the type of needle that hs small holes punched in its side. Mine has two types of needles, one with several holes and one that looks like a gigantic needle with a sharp pointed end. When I brined the turkey breast, I didn't use the injector as it soaked over night in the fridge. I did, however, use a sharp tipped knife to pierce small slits from inside the bone and membrain that holds the rib bones in place. This way, the brine was also able to naturally get into the meat close to the bones. My brine pump is big and is made by the Morton company (yes, the salt maker). Its all brass and stainless steel.