I know from various posts in the past a number of us take cooking delicious meals pretty seriously. Just wondered how many of us are venturing off the beaten path of Christmas turkey and doing something different.

I will be cooking a 15 pound, 6 rib prime rib roast. AnD it will be done perfectly, seared on the outside and then an even doneness from edge to edge of mid way between rare and medium rare. That will be joined by classic Yorkshire pudding, cooked in a pan, not in those silly muffin trays. After those two items, I don't care about the rest. LOL

Some sort of beef roast, not a prime, however, cooked over charcoal on my Weber grill with a rotisserie keeping an eye on it, or, cooked indoors on an ancient Farberware electric grill in the same fashion, if it is raining as it is supposed to.
The wife is the mashed potato princess, who learned from the mashed potato queen (my mother) how to make a pot of garlic mashed potatos that will bring an American adult male to his knees with tears of joy in his eyes.
There will be some sort of green vegetables, shrimp cocktail, a fruity wine she likes, and Sam Adams Boston Lager that I like, but, I only care about the first two items.


And the beer.

Best,
Ted

Rock Cornish game hens with baked potatoes, broccoli, carrots and Caesar salad- and a fine Merlot to go with on Sat. evening Christmas Eve. Sunday, with all the gals and grand-kids here for the day, Roast saddle of venison (a deer I harvested with son-in-law Geoffrey), mashed potatoes sans garlic, rolls, cornbread stuffing, Waldorf salad, Lambrusco and or Zinfandel for the adults, milk for the grandkids- later, Folgers coffee and Dutch apple pie with Kool-Whip and or cheese, your choice..

Spiral cut ham with brown sugar and pineapple glaze, pineapple rings, sweet potato casserole with candied pecan topping, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, applesauce, whole wheat rolls, homemade yellow cake with chocolate icing, vanilla ice cream and homemade cookies.

Wine and beer for the adults and milk and juice for the grandkids.

Many people favor prime rib over filet mignon, I don't know because I've had many filets that were cooked to perfection but I don't know that many restaurants that would tackle a prime rib.

My wife created a tradition for our family. She makes quail and dumplings for Christmas morning breakfast. Absolutely wonderful.

And we are having smoked beef tenderloin for the main meal.

That sounds delicious Mike. I've been doing a variation on Eggs Benedict for my family Christmas morning for almost 40 years now.

Now that's a breakfast James!

american Bison,Buffalo roast

Sounds like a good meal. How do you do the venison saddle?

My mothers side of the family is Italian so on Christmas Eve we always have sauce,homemade pasta/ravioli,meatballs/sausage. We also have baccala (cod) and probably ham. For Christmas we have prime rib and more sauce and mannicotti plus many side dishes. A good wine is a must on both days.

If your ever in western NY The Red Osier is a must for prime rib!!!

As for my family, Brisket as this is Texas...

For my family, a rare roast of Prime Rib. A nice, well marbled piece of Iowa beef. Along with a huge pan of Yorkshire Pudding. Lot's of other sides as well, my Mom is quite a Gourmet. I think this year's dessert is a raspberry trifle.

I'll make the Bearnaise Sauce.

Here in Iowa, many places serve Prime Rib on Saturday night.

I'm going to have to try that sometime Woody, I'm not that far from the Finger Lakes area.

"Batching" it alone, so leftovers.

Here in Downeast Maine its going to be fresh scallops, lobster and haddock! Can't wait!

Some Florida quail and a Virginia salt cured ham!

My oven will be cranked up for the third time this year. Wife has to cook because everything is closed.

On Christmas morning,

Zabaglione

There can be no other.

I have a friend who has been cooking these at home, in a convection oven, for years. It took him a few to get his technique down, but, internal temp of about 150, 20 minutes of rest after that, seems to be the key. I don't do it because the minimum cost of participation is around $60, and my family, 'cepting me and my dear old Mom, are not big meat eaters.
Fully intend to thow one on the Weber grille, over a nice, smokey, fire one day, but, it will have to be when we have company. I'd be eating even a little 6 pounder for a week after the event, if it was just we three.


Best,
Ted

Merry Christmas Ted!!!

I've always heard that you got to know how to cook prime rib to get the flavor out of it. I don't know about that because every time I've had prime rib it was exceptional!!

A glass of champagne to kick off, plus a decent Rioja or Sauvignon blanc with the meal

Smoked salmon cornets stuffed with pear, avocado, and shrimp bound in a horseradish mayo.

A nice young Pinkfoot goose shot on the Solway a few weeks ago brought on as a sub for the usual turkey and served with much the same accompaniments; spicy red cabbage, goose fat roasted spuds and parsnips, five spice carrots, broccoli for the masochists, and crunchy stuffing balls.

Xmas pudding flamed in brandy, with custard and or ice cream.

A selection of Welsh artisan cheeses, bikkies and a port.

Coffee and brandy or Calvados aux choix.

Life's a bugger innit?

Eug

Hmmmm. Roast Goose. One of my favorites. Has anyone else had it stuffed with sauerkraut? It causes a conversion of the fat, making it extremely tasty. It works for duck as well. One of my German Grandmother's meals from my childhood.

What a good thread, I've just been inspired to pick up a bottle of bubbly for "Kir Royale"..

I had a sample of goose that Lloyd's Father-In-Law had "corned" like a corned beef. We had it as a snack, on a grouse hunting trip.

It was stunning.


Best,
Ted

Oh yeah. Corning is great, and very easy. It's great for fatty meats and poultry. You just use Morton's Tenderquick, some pickling spices, and soak it for a few days. Smoking afterwards makes it even better. It also works great for brisket, and especially for venison. It makes venison fat delicious. It really helps to use an injector syringe to pump the solution into the larger pieces of meat and the poultry breasts.

Regards
Ken

My job is the Italian Christmas Eve "Dinner of the Seven Fishes", I was out oystering on LI Sound yesterday for appetizers.

But I have also made a venison terrine with dried cherries and pistachios as a Christmas Day first course, I used meat from the moose I took in Maine this year.

Best to all!

Rob

The Management is quite sniffy about farmed geese. She won't have them at any price, considering them tasteless and unpalatable; so it's a wild one or nothing, and she does enjoy those.

Most turkey is IMO pretty unremarkable going on rubbish; as my late Mother said tasting of nothing so much as boiled handkerchief! On the other hand we've never eaten a wild turkey which might be different.

Ken61 wrote Good man yerself. I was beating on a driven shoot a month or so ago, and had one with the Guns ... Bollinger and Plymouth sloe gin. Cor!

Whenever we're in France I make sure that a bottle of Creme de Cassis de Dijon is in the goodies bag for Kir Royales and Summer puddings.

Eug

I don't know yet. My gang is out of town, and I don't catch up with them till tomorrow. Whatever it is, it'll be just fine. Merry Christmas folks.

Wonderful,

Wild Turkey tastes like turkey, just more so. Kind'a like comparing canned tuna to the fresh sashimi you've just carved off the still wriggling tuna you've just brought to the boat.

Booze and guns, Jagermeister for the Teutonic folks, Kir for the French, and a nice, peaty Single Malt for our British friends... As an American, I enjoy them all. I wonder, what do the Italians and Hungarians drink? Campari? Unicum?

Ken, your take on the taste of wild turkey is EXACTLY as I describe it....just like turkey, only more so! Merry Christmas!

Took me 25 years but I am now always confident that prime rib will come out of the oven done to perfection.

Takes a long time to get the technique down because we don't cook them every week.

For the week end after Christmas, with family, I am doing for the first time a country salt cured ham, low and slow, on my new Master Built electric smoker. Cook all night with a touch of hickory smoke. Capture the juices-"brown jelly" part goes into wife's bean pot, along with hock part( whole ham too long for smoker, so have to shorten it).You can't get this from precooked ham/w water added and pre-sliced. My sister/sister-in-law/cousin are bringing other great "stuff". I feel sorry for anyone that doesn't live in the south.
Mike

Tradition here is a traipse to homes of all of my relatives within walking distance ... whisky ,or black rum then on to the next one gaining a family member as we go,eventually ending up at the point of origin around noon for a local turkey ,stuffed with our Newfoundland savoury dressing ,blueberry duff,pease pudding , salt meat ,cabbage ,boiled potatoes ,carrots ,mashed turnip ...it's rough trying to get it all on one plate.

Do you "Lard" your saddle? Lardoons (thin strips of fat) marinated in a fruit flavored brandy before being inserted in the slits really keeps the meat moist and adds a nice flavor.

Regards
Ken

I have a nice local Fresh Farm Turkey, also a smoked shoulder ham that a mate n I raised n had smoked locally.They do a wonderful job
I do the cooking.
My real delight are...
1..making the stuffing..big tasty portabello mushers cut thin, loads of onion,celery n red pepper,
some of the same pig sausage pork, a few roasted chestnuts, dried apricots & have at it with the herbs n bread crumbs.Lots of garlic
2...the gravy.. getting all the juice from the bird pan scraps n all, put outside in the cold to separate, skimming the fat n a shot of Gravey Master, corn starch to thicken.
3....Then my locally famous roast spuds & parsnips.
Par boil peeled spud cut in nice sized chunks till fluffy on outside but still well solid,...dry on towel until dry (other wise they will not brown. that is important),Then heat big pan in oven with 3/8th" olive oil, garlic n a few spatterts of Worcester Sauce mixed in (helps the brown n crispy_) roast around 375 for about90 mins ,get them all oily. basting every 20 mins or so/Peel Snips, but if small cut in half n add to oil with spuds.no need to par boil as they cook fast
Then a big pot of Brussle Sprouts..
that gets me goin'
cheers
franc
Home made whole cranberry sauce, of course
eat well mates

Franc, it's the one thing I miss about switching to the Prime Rib....no stuffing. And yours sounds pretty tasty.

I'm on my own now. Christmas Eve day I will continue the tradition of fasting breakfast and lunch. My evening meal will be fish and toasted homemade bread. Christmas Day meal will be a thick Porter House steak so rare the steer will beller when I sink my teeth in it. Side dish will be chicken pasta salad and croissant rolls. Dessert will be German Lebekuchen and when I'm done I'll raise my glass of "middles", (that my neighbor stilled for me), to all who passed before me this past year.........to my Mother, to PA24 Doug Woodin, and also two of my local friends. May their memories live forever. You all take care now and have a very Blessed Christmas.

Hey Joel, think I'll join you in that toast to Doug. All the best this Christmas.

James

And I. Doug's loss leaves a big hole.

All my best, SRH

So did anyone burn anything, or screw up badly yesterday?
Hope all went well, mine was pretty awesome...I'm having the same again shortly..nice pyrex dish full of a bit of everything in the oven as I type...love those left overs
The roast spuds do well with a light second roast, still nice n crispy yummm
cheers
franc

HA!!!
24 hours of on/off freezing rain, here, and my 95 year old honored guest, a WWII veteran and survivor of the Battle off Samar, didn't feel well enough to come. My elderly Mother came down with a whopper of a cold. My Brother didn't think a beef roast on Christmas day was worth risking the drive to my house for. Hell, I agreed with him. It was slick.
Wife and I shrugged, threw the beef, a 6 lb rib roast, in the freezer, and used the shrimp to prepare a nice shrimp, pasta, and vegetable salad. Easy, peazy, looked at photos, had some pie and coffee, later, and stayed in the whole day. It was actually nice to dress down and relax with just my family, and be thankful for it.
New Years Day is coming, we will try it again next week.

Best,
Ted

Canvasback,
Down here, instead of stuffing, we make "dressing" on the side(I love it). You can make it to go with Prime Rib, heck, you can make it to go with peanut butter sandwiches, if you want to.
Mike

Mike ,I guess I call it stuffing, I thing dressing is the same thing,right?...I make mine in a pan too,,,stuffing/dressing? the birds messes with my timing
cheers
franc

Mike, up here the names are interchangeable.

When I do cook a turkey I usually do both, in the turkey and on the stove top. Then mix the two. That way I get the quantity I want along with the flavour that can only come from being roasted in the bird.

canvasback,

I quess that's why they make different colored pickup trucks.
Mike

I heard Anthony Bourdain on the radio discussing cooking Thanksgiving Turkeys. He cooks two birds, a large and small one. The larger he cooks and then filets the breast off the bird and slices up the meat in the kitchen and plates both dark and white meat on a serving tray. The smaller bird is the one he brings to the table as a centerpiece and doesn't carve until after the meal is over. He refers to this bird as his "stunt" turkey. He cooks the dressing separately.