Image by Ylanite Koppens from Pixabay
I’ve never attempted to roast a turkey. And there are several reasons for that.
- Reason number one: The oven has always been an extra storage space for pots and pans for me. No other functionalities. So my skill in managing the process of roasting or baking is non-existent.
- Reason number two: I’ve heard so many turkey mishaps that I know it’s no easy task.
- Reason number three: I have always tried to eat less meat. I know I can’t be a vegetarian since it requires a vegetarian upbringing or a vegetarian discipline. I have neither. However I am always on my way to be a vegetarian.
- Reason number four: I’ve cooked enough and experimented enough to know that a failed food experiment brings a unique problem–how to deal with the aftermath. I can’t just throw the failed experiment into the garbage and forget about it. I can’t waste food like that. I just can’t. So I have to eat the awful consequence no matter how bad it tastes.
I heard many stories of failed turkey roast. Actually everybody in the Asian immigrant community has one, two, or even three turkey disaster stories. One of my friends, who loves to elevate daily trivial to the height of cultural significance, claims that Asians don’t know how to cook turkey. We can do chickens and ducks, but turkeys belong to a whole different culinary sphere. I don’t agree with him. Actually many of us don’t agree with him, but none us can prove him wrong with a beautifully roasted juicy tender turkey. At least not yet.
My friend C has her turkey story: “We just wrapped the 15 pound turkey in a big sheet of aluminum foil and threw it in the oven. None of us had ever used the oven before. Inexperienced as we were, we had a little trouble to lit the fire–problem with the pilot fire. We had three engineers and three biologists among us. To this day I still can’t believe that it took us more than half an hour to get the fire taken care of. About 3 to 4 hours later, when the bird was presented on the table, it was unbelievably dry. And that’s not the worst part–the worst is that the center is raw. One of us pointed out that the center was probably frozen when the bird was entering the oven.”
My friend L has her story: “We learned the magic word ‘basting’. An alarm clock was set and whenever it rang, we would open the oven door and the aluminum foil as quickly as possible, and baste the bird with the juice collected in the roasting pan. The result was–disappointing. It’s a little better than the first time, but not too much better. The basting was supposed to keep the bird tender and moisturized, but it tasted nothing like that.”
My friend S told me this: “We know turkey is difficult to roast, but those of us who had been to their professors’ home and who had tasted the juicy turkey first hand didn’t want to give up. ‘We can do it.’ we claimed optimistically. I was the unwilling participant in this project–we read recipes, watched videos, consulted people, and even wrote a detailed procedure. Also we opted for a smaller turkey, only ten pounds. I did all the defrosting and pre-oven preparation by the book, but still the turkey turns out not as I had expected. I guess I am just doomed to turkey failure.”
Turkey Alternatives
chicken: Sometimes I just buy an organic chicken roast from Wegman’s, which is located about 10 miles from where I live.
duck: Many Asian stores have roasted ducks for sale.
dumpling: Mix the ground turkey with ground pork, but don’t tell anybody–except people on social media. Just call your dumpling something like “turkey dumpling” even if less than half of the meat is really turkey. Add more garlic powder. Thyme, nutmeg and sage also go well with ground turkey, but one really wants to experiment and taste the fillings first before wrapping up.
tofu: Pan fry tofu with a little bit of oil and then simmer it in one’s favorite sauce for as long as one can manage. Overnight in a slow cooker is preferable.
Trader Joe’s Breaded Turkey-Less Stuffed Roast with Gravy: I’ve never tasted this before and maybe I will this year.
Leftover Alternatives
A failed turkey story usually comes with a silver lining–people get very creative when dealing with the leftover turkey.
rice sandwich: Even if one doesn’t have an onigiri mold, one can do this. However the rice has to be the more sticky kind, like the Japanese rice for example. After the rice is fully cooked, one can gather the rice on a plate and press a little to make it into any shape one desire. One can use anything flat to press on it to make it stick together more. Also one can pan fry it if one desires. That will be a slice of rice bread. One can use it to make a rice sandwich with turkey meat in the middle. Still, I have to say two pieces of rice bread go well with something that’s a little sour and a little sweet. This means that if the turkey in the middle is not really sour and sweet, this sandwich may not taste so good. One has to experiment with the flavor several times before one can come to the right kind of taste that one really enjoys. Add a little vinegar, a little sugar, a little sushi seasoning for example.
sweet and sour soup: Turkey meat goes well in this soup.
omelette or bean soup: Turkey meat can be added to these.
Haoyan Do 
Had no idea that cooking turkey is so complicated. Good thing I’m a vegetarian. Nice stories shared by you, Haoyan.:-)
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I always want to be a vegetarian, but can’t give up meat completely.
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One can hire a professional chef to teach how to cook turkey. That being said, turkey can be eaten in many ways like chicken.
Although the vegetarian option is a lot healthier.
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That’s so true. Turkey is just like a bigger, tougher, more difficult chicken.
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They have lots of vegan or vegetarian turkey options now if you’re trying to decrease your meat intake. And the best part is it’s easy to prepare since you just have to throw them in the own for a while and make the sides.
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That’s so true. In the past two years, I’ve seen an explosion of meatless items in supermarkets around here. I tried several. The thing is I also want the fat content to be lower than 5%, which makes it hard for me. I only see very limited options. Love this new trend. Meatless is so much better for the body and for the environment.
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True not all alternatives are healthy or low fat. I had to do a lot of research before deciding what brands to buy on a regular basis. I would recommend only eating store bought meat alternatives as a treat on holidays like this one or on special occasions. There are a lot of meat alternatives you can make yourself as well like seitan and healthier since it’s homemade.
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Yes, I just do something with tofu. My diet choice is quite limited right now. Wish there are even more choices on healthy vegan choices. There are more than before right now, but still some has such a high fat content.
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Yeah and some also have high sodium which is really bad for you in the long run.
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That’s so true. I mean please make healthy vegan or vegetarian food. I pray. I need them more and more each year. LOL. And wish somebody can come up with an idea to make healthy food more tasty than unhealthy food.
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Luckily, I have this amazing place near me that makes healthy homemade vegan substitutes and meals so I’ve been eating their food often and buying their products. But we could all use some more healthy vegan/vegetarian options. Perhaps we need to start this business lol.
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Hahaha, so true. I mean healthy and taste food (vegan ones) are really popular. I mean if the taste can be better than they currently are, … Taste is the problem. However I know the taste will be improved or probably some new cooking method will be invented to make bean and veggie taste better than meat.
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Yeah the taste does improve over time. Have you heard about lab grown meat? I think that would be a good ethical and healthy replacement for real meat and it would taste the exact same. People who have tried it say it tastes exactly like real meat.
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Wow, that sounds great. I’ve never heard of that. Can lab grow meat? I want to be the first to try even if it is a health risk…Do they taste good? Wow, the world definitely needs that in order to help people eat less meat. Meat is no good for the health and is very damaging to the environment.
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Lol you’re too late people have already tried it. Apparently lab grown chicken is sold in certain countries. I believe Singapore is one of them. And I think Israel too. I don’t think are any health risks associated with it but I really don’t know. I agree meat isn’t great for the environment or for health. Not to mention the death of all the animals. If we can avoid this it would be wonderful. I watched someone online who said it tastes exactly like real meat so that’s also great for people that crave the taste of meat. It also cooks exactly the same too.
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Wow, really? Please let it be sold here too. There are a lot of demand for tasty fake meat. I think most of my friends who reject vegetarian diet is because the taste of bean and veggies are not as good as meat in their opinion. If there are, they probably can change their opinion.
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I so want to try it too. I don’t like red meat but it would be nice to try chicken or fish. I don’t think you can ever recreate with plants the taste of fish especially raw fish like in sushi. At the moment the only place selling lad grown meat in N. America is California but I am truly hoping they start selling it everywhere. I think people understand that meat is bad for their health and the environment but crave the taste of it since that’s what they grew up eating. This could really change the world for the better.
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Yes, I hope they can expand that to other regions too. There are people dying for some good vegan options. I don’t know if this is true but I often feel that the rate of breast cancer among women is related with meat intake. Reducing the intake to our ancestors’ level, the breast cancer will disappear. We are basically apes who should not eat a meat diet to begin with.
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I am a vegetarian also – in my mind at least. Unfortunately it’s my mouth that does the eating.
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Yes, so true. Sometimes the mind and the mouth think differently… Haha, sometimes my mind think different from itself. It is very much a messy signal transmission system in our body.
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Yes, I like chicken and tofu! I like turkey too, but is a major production to prepare! This post made me hungry. 😋
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Haha. Yes, I am drooling as I am typing right now. It really makes people hungry.
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My favorite food is Greek Yogurt because it’s thicker than normal yogurt. I add Stevia to it so it tastes like whipped cream. 😋
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That sounds really great. I love Stevia, without which I don’t know what I am going to do since I don’t want to consume sugar. LOL.
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Same!
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Me too.
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You can always do a ham…when my mom roasted a turkey, she would slow roast in an iron pan in the oven for like 10 hours constantly basting, she also stuffed it with the best bread stuffing ever ! I made turkey once. It’s too much of a chore.
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Wow, what a wonderful mom you have. I can smell the turkey she cooked from here. I am drooling. I didn’t know it’s such a difficult thing to do until everybody around me tried and failed.
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Had. My mom passed in 2002. Her stuffing was what our family enjoyed far more than the turkey. Neither of my parents were great at cooking, but they both had at least one meal, or one aspect of a meal (in this case the bread stuffing) that were drool inducing delecasies.
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I wanted to convince you to try turkey but after reading your reasons for not preparing it, let’s just eat chicken.
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Turkey is no easy task. I have to tell you. Those people who know how to cook it are magicians.
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😅that’s a good way to put it.
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Hahaha. it is a difficult task but it looks easy. That’s the trick–looks can be deceiving.
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Believe me, you’re not the only one who hasn’t tried to roast turkey, and some of us aren’t planning to anytime soon.
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Hahaha. Love your comment. I don’t think I can ever do it. It’s such a mysterious task. Several times I tried really wonderful turkey roast and it is juicy and tender. I just don’t know how that is achievable. It is a miracle.
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