If I'm not too late, baste it with some melted butter.

ML

Well here must be something there even if it's just those wonderful sticky bits on the bottom of the pan.

Not sure how you usually do your gravy but maybe you are used to adding flour to your drippings and then adding hot liquid.

This technique works equally as well. Take the bird out of the pan and deglaze the pan with chicken broth. The results will be a wonderful base for your gravy.

To make your gravy, make a roux of flour and butter and then gradually add the hot liquid from your pan. It will be fabulous!

Since you're making it for Saturday, I take it you don't plan to serve it whole? If you cut it up you could do it several ways. To preserve most of the look of the meat you could take the breast halves off whole and the legs and keep them for serving/slicing up Saturday. Then you could use the carcass and make a broth to make gravy out of. Keep the skin off the back and maybe off one breast and render it down a bit in a pan [add oil or butter if needed] to get some brown and fat to make your roux if you use roux. Otherwise if you use cornstarch, just don't put a ton of water on the carcass and make gravy out of the broth. The skin will give the best flavor for the gravy, so if you're just going to carve the meat all up, use all the breast and leg skin. If you have skin lovers, keep a little out for them.

Heh, I was typing as Chase was posting. Yes, you could go an easier route and do as Chase says. Smiles. I'd still steal some skin from somewhere to cook with the chicken broth. Wink.

I have occasionally ended up with a bird that doesn't give off a lot of fat. As long as there are some brown bits in the bottom of the pan though you should be okay. Just add a couple of tablespoons or more of butter and make a roux. Then add your chicken/turkey broth, salt pepper and some fresh chopped sage. Simmer to meld the flavours.

Ann

go buy a couple of turkey legs and roast them then make turkey stock....or just use canned chicken stock to deglaze the pan.
Linda C

THANK YOU!! all. I did cook broth this AM with giblets, etc. I also had the meat thermometer in wrong (one of thoes that has a wire that attaches to a gadget so you can watch the degrees outside). I think it came loose and was not registering correctly....fixed that. It is now up to almost 160 and smelling more like a turkey is in the oven. Still not too many drippings coming out...but a little better. Should I roast to 180??

Now for my confession..I will be 70 in about two weeks and I am LOOSING it with cooking..can't tell you how many turkeys I have done in thoes years.. even my French silk chocolate pie didn't come out as it usually does, but it will be fine.
At least I'm on the right side of the grass!!

AGIN THANKS!!

Nauset, I'm sure you have a lot to share regardless of your turkey's output. And early BIRTHDAY WISHES to you.

Cathy

For the next time.... Bake the turkey in a roasting oven bag and you'll end up with LOTS of broth (not just drippings as robotdog5 described so well above) to use for gravy. At least 1-2 cups. You can also bake thighs/legs in an oven bag just for broth and making gravy. I add coarsely chopped onion, celery and carrots, along with seasonings - salt/pepper, fresh or dried sage or poultry seasonings, to the bottom of the bag and place the turkey on top, and you will have more than enough for well-seasoned gravy.

I don't want juice in the bottom of my roasting pan. If I do end up with juice in with the fat, I just put the pan back into the oven and let the juice cook down and brown in the fat. Then I add the flour to the pan to make the roux. This makes for a much richer gravy than one made with just the juices.

Perfect! Came looking for gravy tips and bingo first post! Roasting turkey wings now for all that goodness.

While our turkey roasts, I always make stock w/ the neck & giblets (minus the liver, which makes it bitter) & several bay leaves in a quart or more of water. I cook it until the neck meat is falling off the bone. The liver I save as 'cook's treat' - roasting it in the oven w/ lots of seasoning - helps to keep up my strength = )

I've also discovered that even if the pan seems dry, the inside of the bird can be filled w/ juices once done - that goes toward my gravy as well.

I am not fixing our turkey this year, as we are going to our granddaughter's, but I never roast our turkey, I guess you would call it baked. The seasoning for it are as follows, lots of salt inside, a stick of real butter and rum or rum flavoring. It is put breast down either in a roasting pan and covered tightly with foil or in a baking bag. Before sealing up add a pint or so of water. Then let it bake away for near 4 hours. I always fix mine the day before dividing the light and dark meat in separate pans. Heat in oven the next day with some of the broth from the turkey. The broth is used to make gravy and it is very good. This recipe came from my Hawaiian cousin and since tasting his, this is the only way we fix ours. Nice and moist and tasty. Happy Thanksgiving.

Sue

Sealed in a pan with lots of liquid is called braising. The technique is typically used for tougher cuts of meat to allow time for the connective tissue to breakdown. I would imagine it is very similar to cooking a turkey in a bag.

There are a few things you can do to try and get the turkey to produce drippings. First, make sure that your turkey is properly thawed. A frozen or partially frozen turkey will not produce as much drippings as a thawed turkey will. Second, try basting the turkey with some butter or oil. Basting will help to keep the turkey moist, which will also help to produce drippings. Finally, make sure that you are cooking the turkey at the proper temperature. If the turkey is overcooked, it will be dry and will not produce as much drippings.

"If the turkey is overcooked, it will be dry and will not produce as much drippings." Surely it becomes dry because all the moisture has dripped out. It's not overcooked until the very end of the cooking process, by which time it will have produced drippings.

And yes, I know this is a very old thread which Mark Aboutfood has resurrected, presumably to get his name out there.

I believe he is a spammer. He has remarked on multiple outdated threads with odd comments since signing on very recently.....like maybe earlier today.

Yeah, but no links, so maybe just finding things of interest and not noticing the dates. Also the second from left sort choice on the index brings up lots of old threads and is easy to hit accidentally.

He'll probably start including a link....

He put a link yesterday pushing a book.

Ah. Gardengal, you were so right! I had been thinking bachelor who thought he knew more than the old ladies.