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Is everyone eating overdone turkey or what? It shouldn't be dry or flavorless.
>Is everyone eating overdone turkey or what? It shouldn't be dry or flavorless.

"Dry and flavorless" is exactly how I'd describe traditional American Thanksgiving turkey, in all my years of experience. Yes, for some reason, Americans apparently don't know how to cook it properly, but it is a very, very common thing.

> We don’t have to accept all that death and waste for a dry, flavorless bird no one likes.

The author should learn how to cook. At one point in European history, eating turkey on Christmas was reserved for only royalty. The Windsors have eaten turkey every Christmas since 1850 for a reason. It is a delicious bird.

If people would get away from the Norman Rockwell presentation of a whole bird, and spatchcock the thing instead, it will take less time to cook and cook more evenly. Salting it and leaving it uncovered in the fridge for a day or two helps to retain moisture in the meat. People need to use a good meat thermometer, and understand that killing pathogens is a combination of temperature and time[1]. The recommended 165 degrees basically means if pathogens are exposed to that temperature, they're instantly dead. However, if held at a lower temperature for a certain amount of time, they will also be killed.

[1]https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-s...

Spatchcocking turkey was a huge discovery for me when I lived in Japan. I didn't have an oven, but I did have an electric rotisserie, and the spatchcocked turkey came out perfectly.

(Sadly they don't make that rotisserie anymore, it was very popular among my friends).

Most Americans don't know how to roast meat so that it doesn't wind up dry, and they are probably following the instructions that are on the packaging.
If you need help with the turkey, Butterball runs a phone bank every November with people who can advise you on defrosting, cooking, and food safety. 1-800-butterball

But if your turkey is still frozen (today is Thanksgiving), you're going to have to fall back to "thanksgiving pizza". Even defrosting it by running cold water over it in the sink won't get it ready to cook in time.

Our tradition: fried chicken.

If turkey was good, we’d eat it more than once a year.

Fried chicken is delicious and you still get to do the whole over-involved preparation of poultry.

Turkey is good. I eat it throughout the year.