All the Haitian recipes I’ve used call for scrubbing meat with halved limes and/or sour oranges. Watching some of the videos, they really put some elbow grease into it.
This bird is 20-ish pounds and is currently in-progress. It’s a fresh Butterball that was originally priced at $3.29/lb, then on pre-TDay sale around $2/lb, then Friday the meat manager threw up her hands in despair at how many they still had fresh (she said they can’t “convert” them to frozen, although of course shoppers are free to do that at home) and marked them at $0.50/lb.
[Edit - so my receipt claims I saved $56 on the deal, but in reality it was about $30 off the most recent sale price.]
They say these domesticated turkeys can’t fly, but I can tell you they were flying out of that refrigerator bin.
My oldest daughter’s family went to his parents’ for Thanksgiving because she’s due with #2 in early January and doesn’t want to be traveling there for Christmas. Their turkey didn’t turn out so well, so I asked if she wanted to split this one.
Instead of brining, for this one I followed Kenji’s salt 24+ hours ahead with an 80:20 mix of salt & and baking powder.
I hope it turns out well but there were areas where the baking powder was still evident on the skin, so I swabbed that off with a wet paper towel.
Cross your fingers for me.
Oh, and it wouldn’t fit either way on my half sheet (would have if I hadn’t ripped out its spine), so I had to make a lil’ drip catcher around the legs.
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I dont scrub it down, but a cold-water rinse to remove some of the funk from everything trapped in the plastic is required imo.
If anything splashes it gets wiped down.
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Late to reporting, but better than never. Our Midwestern family hosted and the massive spread included charcuterie boards, bagel dippers with chipped beef dip, veggie tray, and the requisite California giant black olives. For the main meal I had smoked turkey and smoked ham, mashers with herbed chicken gravy, half a large dinner roll, great-grandma’s baked souffle-style dressing, green bean casserole, my DH’s broccoli salad, and my bourbon cranberry-orange-apple sauce. My BIL opened a fancy red for me, and I was happy to oblige in drinking most of the bottle (everyone else was on beer and white wine/white sangria.)
For dessert I had some Maker’s Mark cask strength I got for a steal ($39.99) and SIL’s famous banana cream pie. I was rolled to bed before my flight the next AM. 
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I like the idea of the labeled butcher paper.
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Thanks to any who crossed their fingers for (or eyes at) me!
Today’s bird turned out great and I think i could have safely increased the salt a fair bit, but it’s great as-is.
Let it rest an hour then split it and brought my daughter’s half over here (her house) when I came to babysit:
OK, no more turkey photos for at least 6 or 7 months!
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As someone who had an alternative Thxgiving meal, I cannot emphasize enough how much I’ve been enjoying everyone’s turkey pics.
Positively drooling 
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I will spare you a new thread and a poll, but…
Although I enjoy the meal, it is an awful lot of cost and work for a meal that has its good points but just doesn’t light me up. That seems to be the family’s consensus view. I foresee next year being easy to cook, low cost, and low effort. BB and CAV are contenders. So is cassoulet.
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Yum!
Last year we did short ribs with the traditional sides, and I would do again!
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Could you taste the baking soda?
Your T-day turkey looks as beautifully browned without it!
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Nice! I’ve never made it, but now that I’ve seen it, I want to try.
Also Tim (@Vecchiouomo), does Kenji’s recipe here look fairly decent?
Particularly wondering about his suggestion that chicken thighs are a fine sub for the duck; or if you note anything else way wrong about the recipe.
Edit to add - I don’t need the gelatin he suggests; my fowl stocks/broths(*) have enough collagen to be a really firm gel at about 50F.
(*) Hard to know what to call it - Stoth? Brock? Stock because it’s primarily bones, but also more meat than a true stock; all the meat in the neck, spine, giblets (not liver), and clingers around the ribs and anywhere else. After the bones are done cooking (soft enough to break by hand) I strain and add mirepoix for about 40 minutes of simmering.
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Cassoulet is such a great Thanksgiving idea.
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It looks solid to me. I am a big believer in the notion that cassoulet should be a way to make a wonderful dish of dried beans and odds and ends of the meat at hand. If you have to go out and shop extensively for expensive ingredients, the dish may be great, but it will not embrace that spirit and as a result will mean you are not making it as often as you should. Sure, there are some things that may have gotten pricy like duck, the right sausage, and even the right beans, but there are ways to save on those costs. Rancho Gordo Tarbais beans are great, but everyday cannellini work well, too. Heck, pretty much any dried white beans will work. Toulouse sausage is excellent, but most any garlicky sausage will work. Duck confit seems to be non-negotiable, but if you confit chicken legs in duck fat, it will still be excellent. Don’t feel constrained. Use up leftover pork roast . I have used lamb leftovers, too. The technique for building that crust is essential, and a wide cooking vessel really helps. I am a big fan of Anne Willan and the Toulouse approach, but they are all wonderful.
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Perfect as always, Tim. Many thanks!
Good question. I could not really tell any difference between the two, except as mentioned the first (Thanksgiving) that I think I over-brined just a bit.
This second one had no parts that seemed over-salted (which differs as i mentioned from the last time I tried dry salting).
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Me too. I started cooking seriously after I bought a book by her decades ago, titled, “French Cookery School.”
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I would like this twice if I could. 100% agreed. This is the way, as they say on that show.
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