OK, TIME FOR A MAD MAX TURKEY ROLL CALL

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

i completely lost the bubble here on the forum ....after barely looking at it the past two days, i don't have the time or energy to go back and see how many mad max turkeys got cooked this year, or how they turned out. ...but here's my re-cap.. .

1. it was a banner year as far as i can tell. . ..talking to the naked whiz, he didn't have the final numbers, but on wednesday alone, by 10pm, mad max turkey central had logged a record 1,600 hits and still counting!! .. .thats comparing to 10,000 hits in the 4 weeks leading up to thanksgiving last year!! ...so i'm betting this years total numbers will be really incredible ...

2. phone calls. . .got about 25- 30 each day to the hotline. . ..lot of them were just good friends here calling to say "HI" and "happy thanksgiving". . .allways great to hear from friends at the holiday ...and we (you know who you are) had a few great laughs as well!! . ...some folks called wiht real panic questions, and some folks called just to get affirmation that they were on the right track. ...a few folks called because they saw the banner on the top of the forum and figured that BGE was providing a turkey hotline and they had never even read the mad max web page (had to send them off to read it, but i still helped them) ...we'll fix that anomoly for next year (but a big THANKS to the great folks at BGE for doing that for me ...oh, and i even got a couple of text messages at the end of the evening from folks texting me pix of their birds and saying 'thanks'. ...that was cool!!!

3. my meal ... .between the phone calls i managed to cook up a pretty damn good meal for my family. . .ended up with 10 at the table, and we had, of course, a 23 pound MM turkey, done to perfection (could i do it any other way??!!), a ham with dr. chicken's glaze that was fabulous, 'egg' wokked yams and apples with dizzy raging river and cinnamon/sugar, mashed taters, egg' wokked sesame string beans, and my girl giada's pancetta/ciabatta/chestnut stuffing .... it was a great meal, and for dessert, besides the usual pies, i made a pumpkin trifle that was to die for (layered pumpkin spice bread/cardimen whip cream/pumpkin pie filling/regular whip cream. .. .needless to say we were stuffed . ..!!!! and it was the usual, 12 hours of cooking, 45 minutes to eat, another 6 hours to clean up .. ..and i loved every minute of it!!!!

4. so again, give me the MM roll call and let me know how yours turned out...

and thanks for everyone's cooperation. . .as long as everyone does right by me on the phone calls, i'll keep doing it every year!!

Richard Fl · November 2008

Add the count to the last figure. As always great!

SWOkla-Jerry · November 2008

Thanks Max, our Bird was wonderful as well as the MM gravy. We had a table of 12 including my 91 year old dad.

jeffinsgf · November 2008

Minor disappointment on mine. Thermometer read 165 on breasts and 180 on thighs and juices ran clear, but when I carved, the dark meat was really pink and fleshy close to the bones. I carved one breast for the meal then sectioned the rest and threw it back on the grill for another half hour. My gravy didn't come out as well as my test turkey, probably from a little anxiety attack from the carving. :unsure:

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

sorry to hear that. ...if the thighs were 180, they should have been done...sure the pink wasn't just from the smoke??. ..although, occasionaly i've had an underdone thigh, but when that happens, i just remove the thighs and toss them in the microwave for 5 minutes on high to finish them. ..that way, everything else isn't stuck waiting. .. . they will be done and still juicy and flavorfull and won't dry out. ..

what do you think went wrong with your gravy?

Porco Rosso · November 2008

Mine turned out great!

I was a little worried because the thigh didn't reach 180 until the breast was near 170... despite much icing earlier. But it was still moist and everybody loved it.

jeffinsgf · November 2008

No, it wasn't smoke ring. It was pretty raw. ThermaPen in my immediate future. I'm tired of my old analog.

On the gravy, I think my pan drippings were a little scorched. I watched them close, but one of the apples got pretty carbonized. Then I added a wee dab too much stock, added some thickening, stirred for a few minutes thinking it was about right, moved on to something else, and then found it was really thick.

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

gotcha ...

on the gravy ...sometimes, if your pan looks too burned, best thing to do is simply pour the liquid from the pan and save that for the gravy, but don't use the pan itself as the scorched dripping still in the pan will leave a burnt taste to the gravy. ...in that case go ahead and start your butter/flour roux in a fresh heavy skillet/pan, add the wine if you are using it, then add the liquid from the pan to that. . ..you will still get the flavor from those drippings but with out the scorched bits from an over cooked pan ...

as far as the thickness. ...you should have just added more stock from the stock pot...and if you ran out of that, you should always keep some canned chicken broth on hand as an extra additive if you need it to get the gravy to just right consistency ....

HTH . . ..max

Austin Smoker · November 2008

A few pictures are worth more than a bunch of words...

One word - AMAZING!! Thanks Max - this will be a new tradition with our family.

Spring Chicken · November 2008

We did Fred Turkey using most of the Mad Max Method and everyone said it was by far the best turkey they had ever eaten. Light and dark meat was equally juicy and tasty. I can't wait to do a sandwich while watching LSU and that other team.

I think instead of how many Mad Max birds were cooked, or how many hits were coming in to Whiz's site, it would be really nice to know just how many people enjoyed the Mad Max Eggperience. Gotta be in the millions, Eggspecially if you count the repeat enjoyers.

You did good My Son. You are welcome back at the Chicken Ranch anytime you feel the need, I mean have some time available.

Spring "Living Life In Abundance" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

thanks leroy ...extra special coming from you!!!. ..hope you and the 'hen' had a great day yesterday. . .not sure when i'll be back in houston, but you can bet when i do, there will be at least an hour or two reserved for a visit to the 'cooop'. ..

Smokin Tiger · November 2008

I followed your recipe and cooked a 9.5 turkey breast. It was very good and the gravy was fantastic. Thanks for sharing the recipe. The instuctions on TNW's site are great.

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

great color on that bird!!!! glad it came out well for you. ..

Haggis · November 2008

Hey, Max!

Since you aren't looking back through the forum I thought I'd note that I sent you a ping on the forum just to see if you had any thoughts on one of the recent America Test Kitchen shows that a.) loved icing the breast, and b.) started the turkey upside down to prevent overcooking the breast.

That said, our 16 pounder came out well even though we didn't follow your method. Only taste complaint is that my one chunk of apple wood was too much - next year will be zero wood. Yes, I know you and the Whiz warn about too much smoke!

One additional comment - it seems that even "fresh" turkeys often are semi-frozen and can be icy in the cavity if not given ample time to thaw - that can lead to undercooking in the joints as mentioned in one of the other replies to your post. How do you determine when the bird is ready to cook in such circumstances, or do you only use fresh kill?

Hope your holiday was a good one!

Boss Hogg · November 2008

Good morning, Max. Hey, my first MMT turned out fabulous :woohoo: . No doubt due to the expert mentoring you provided at Fred's. I thought about calling you just to say "thanks", but figured you were inundated with calls. BTW, had a blast making gravy for the first time in my life. Actually, I made two consecutive MMTs on the egg yesterday. On the second one I had trouble keeping the Egg up to temp. Even though I put more lump in in between cooks, I guess I didn't stir enough ash out in between cooks. Here's the photo evidence...

Note, rotated bird for mor even browning

Thanks, again for all your help. Can't wait to make the next one :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

Brian

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

hi wally. ..

thanks for the kind words. . .i don't think there's much benefit to starting breast down, particularly after icing the breasts ... . and its a pain to turn the bird over (particularly if its a big one, like my 23 pounds). ..

as far as the freezing thing, you are right, lots of advertised "fresh birds" are in fact parially frozen. . .i've been buying 'shadybrook farms' fresh birds from the safeway for years now. .. always had great luck with them. .. but occasionally, you can feel that they are still a little frozen in the thighs and/or back area ..usually i buy the bird on sunday before thanksgiving, so it still has plenty of time to defrost in the fridge before thursday. ..but occasionall i've opened the packaging on thursday morning to find that the inside of the cavity is still a little bit frozen ... .when that happens, i simply stick the bird in the kitchen sink and run medium tap water over it till it softens back up. ...usually only takes about 10 to 15 minutes at the point ....and then i go back and ice breasts to get that difference between breasts and thighs. ...

dhuffjr · November 2008

Here is mine.

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

brian, that looks terrific!!!. ..glad it worked out so well and that you were successful with the gravy too!!!!. ..i look forward to seeing you guys again. ..you PA guys will have to come down to waldorf in may for sure!

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

looks great dennis. .. and as always it was good talking to you yesterday!

BENTE · November 2008

all turned out well for me max!!! i am now in charge of the turkey every year.. my brother actually pulled me off to the side and said thanks for doing the turkey it was alot better than moms!! and he has been cooking in resturants for several years.. i will from now on use the cooler trick the bird was done 2 hours before sit down time.... my mom thought i was nuts when i asked for a clean cooler and some old clean towels.. but it was still steaming when i carved it.. and there was no problem with the oven having too manythings in there :laugh:

thanks for the tips.. the family thought i was weird again when i told them i had called the turkey hotline in maryland and the guy i talked to told me to give parker and leah a hug and kiss from him

:woohoo:

Celtic Wolf · November 2008

Well here is the Mad Wolf's Turkey.

Just for the grins I did one with adjustable rig and one with the plate setter. Both Turkeys finished the same time and since I haven't heard from my Tom Sawyer son I am sure both came out tasting tasty

Wolf Son's Turkey

Mad Wolf Turkey

The stuffing was delicious and did not taste smokey at all.

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

LOL. . yeah, the butterball hotline doesn't ask to give your wife and daughter hugs, do they!!?? . .glad you were the hero in your house and you get to make the bird from now on. .. before you know it, you'll be training parker in the 'ways of the egg'!!

mad max beyond eggdome · November 2008

they look great pete. ...i'm not surprised that they both came out the same using the two different set-ups. ..the adjustable rig w/spider is a great way to go. ..

Camano · November 2008

Had 10 people over and they loved the turkey. Thanks Max

src="http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp247/jmroncamano/Turkey11-27-08.jpg" border="0" alt="MM Turkey">

BENTE · November 2008

she has already found out it gets hot

:evil:

Celtic Wolf · November 2008

Use the [ IMG ] Tags

Camano · November 2008

Had 10 people over and they loved the turkey. Thanks Max

Roudy · November 2008

Ho hum - another great Mad Max turkey. This was my fourth and it's gotten very easy to do. The gravy was my best effort yet, although I shorted the wine and butter a little this time around. 17 pound bird, brined for 36 hours, cooked approx. 5 hours. Served with dressing, mashed potatoes, fresh cranberry/celery/orange salad, and roasted brussel sprouts. I bought two sugar pumpkins and had forgotten how much pulp they would yield - 3 pies worth. We shouldn't have any trouble eating these in the coming days. My nephew is visiting from pilot training at Columbus MS Air Force Base. We stuffed ourselves unmercifully, and then went to a minor league hockey game last night. The home team won easily (6-2) and we saw lots of hard checks and fights. All in all great times and great eats!

SSN686 · November 2008

Morning Max:

I didn't do the bird myself this year, but went to Tallahassee and my son did the bird on his Egg. The "guest of honor" was a 16lb'er and cooked a total of about 4.5 hours. It was a little difficult "watching" instead of "cooking", but sometimes you just have to see if the young'uns can do it on their own. His only problem was that he didn't have a baster, so we improvised with something else that didn't really work as well, but got the job done.

Overall he did a pretty good job on the turkey and the gravy (but I would rather do it myself). :P

RWhiplash · November 2008

I was extremely pleased with my first MMT (however I did brine). My 18# bird was done in a little less than 4 hours which was a somewhat sooner than I expected (about 13 min/pound). Scorched some of my drippings and I like your suggestion about pouring out the liquid/drippings into a new pan. Should I consider pouring a small amount of apple juice into the roasting pan half way through the cook next time as well? I will also be more careful about starting my gravy before I've separated the fat from the "crud". I needed to get the drippings into the gravy and because I didn't allow it enough time to separate I got too much fat. Still turned out fantastic.

Thanks so much for all of your efforts Max.

Randy

Celtic Wolf · November 2008

I didn't think there would be a difference either. Just thought I would prove it to others.

Note that I used disposable pans too. Still had some great gravy. Deglazing was made easy by the using the liquid from the bird while it was still hot.

Think I will post the Mad Wolf Recipe since lots of people asked about stuffed birds on the egg.

OK, TIME FOR A MAD MAX TURKEY ROLL CALL

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