Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler American Thanksgiving recipe ideas

Thanks, Bob. I had "my" recipe, but not sure how it will scale. I RTFM, er, used the search feature, and found The Cocktail Thread which sent me in the right direction.

Wow. The beer brine recipe was spectacular. It was probably the best turkey my relatives, family and I had ever tasted. I used a Trader Joe's Hefeweizen. Nice, bright, wheat flavor to the turkey.

For Christmas I'm thinking of doing a darker, malty brine based off of the "Tipsy Turkey" recipe there.

For the Gravy, I used Sam Adams Boston Lager, and various mushrooms. Added some cream to round out the saltiness of the broth. Also excellent. I had never made gravy "from scratch" before, so that was exciting.

For the mashed potatoes, went with a Goose Island IPA. If I did this again, I'd tone down the garlic and butter, and do more IPA. It was a wonderful flavor that went well with the gravy.

Thanks again for the links! I hope everyone's thanksgiving was flavorful and full of good family time.

By the way, peter, how did your turkey turn out?

I'm going to guess it got gobble gobbled.

Yeesh, don't give thanks for bad jokes.

Our turkey was amazing, too. I brined a 12lb turkey for 24 hours. I used a half gallon of my wheaty pale ale home brew and a half gallon of Sam Adams Oktoberfest in the brine. I asked the chef what to do with the brine after the turkey was done and he said to dump it as it had already done its job. I did make a stock out of the turkey carcass and drippings, so at least the briney goodness lives on there.

I also made the mushroom gravy, using Goose Island Mild Winter ale. Everyone loved it.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting my Great Uncle (mom's dad's brother) and his family for the first time. I never got to meet my mom's dad, so I'm looking forward to this get-together. His wife said they'll have some strong Polish beer for me. This is why I substituted half the beer in the turkey brine with Sam Adams. I intended to do it entirely with my homebrew, but the opportunity to share my homebrew with new-to-me family was too important to pass up.

Sounds delicious!