we have done it this way for many years… the only way that comes close to this [not saying which is best] is when our son in law fries whole turkeys….

slow roasted turkey
I have used this fashion of roasting turkeys for many years. It consistently produces fall off the bone moist turkey every time AND it is hard to over cook or burn it. ;]
Preplanning the feast. Start a few days ahead of when you plan to have your turkey / meal. How big is your turkey? For this discussion we will say that it weighs 20 pounds and is still in the deep freeze. Do you have a roasting pan that will comfortably hold the turkey? Assemble everything that you need for the meal. Write down everything that you are missing and go buy it.
A day or 2 before the meal bake whatever pies you want. The day before make the bread, I would suggest Ezekiel bread. 21 hours before you plan on sitting down for the meal take the turkey out of the freezer. Dice 2 or 3 large onions and make a bed in the roaster pan for the turkey. Release the turkey from the wrapping while it is still frozen and put it on the bed of onions. Coat the turkey with olive oil apply seasonings which will follow. Add 1 cup of water to the pan. Cover & place into the oven. Set your oven to 200 degrees F [no preheating required] set an alarm for 20 hours from starting the oven. Here is the hard part…. Leave it alone, no peaking!
By taking the bird straight from the freezer and cooking it this way germs do not have time to multiply as the turkey spends very little time in the danger zone of 40 – 140 degrees F.
At the end of the 20 hours [1 hour per pound at 200 degrees F] remove the cover and turn the heat up to 350 degrees to brown your turkey. Carve and serve.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE RUB
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed dried rosemary leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
• 1 teaspoon rubbed sage (crumbled between your fingers)
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
+++
One year the stores had whole turkeys 20 pounds for $5.00— that year we put up [canned] 150 pounds of turkey [after skinning and deboning] .
What are your recipes for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals?

ANZAC BISCUITS
Makes 32 with a shelf life of several weeks
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup thread coconut
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
125 g butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp boiling water
Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a baking tray or line with baking paper.
Combine the oats, coconut, flour, and sugar together in a large bowl.
Melt the butter and golden syrup together. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add to the butter mixture. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix together.
Roll teaspoons into balls and place on the tray, allowing room for them to spread.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, cooking one tray at a time.

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/general-preps/

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/tactical-pens/

Blog butter canning

You can buy commercially canned butter….. For a price.

Currently butter is going for about $3.00 to $4.00 a pound depending on where you get it and live. I have seen store bought canned [tin can] butter for $12.00 for a 12 oz can OR put another way $1.00 an oz of butter.

There are basically 2 ‘kinds’ of butter salted and unsalted. Salted tastes better [to me] and it stores better. It will keep in the freezer for several years. In the refrigerator it will keep for up to a year. Either way refrigerator or freezer, butter takes up room and will have a shortened shelf life if the power goes out for extended periods.

So how can you have butter on hand for extended times, save space and money? By canning butter yourself at home. There are basically 2 ways of canning butter at home. The butter can be ‘tinned’ in a tin can like what you buy commercially. The tools to do this can run between 1 and 2 thousand dollars to get set to do. While it IS doable it is not cheap. The other container that is way more economical and easy to do at home and that is the Ball or Kerr glass jars such as you would can or bottle other foods in a pressure canner or cooker. Butter is one of the few items that I will can in either a hot water bath or the oven instead of the pressure cooker at my altitude of about 6,100 feet above sea level. Canned butter when stored in a cool dry and dark place will last for decades. A side historical note, recently [to me as I am sure the show was several years old already] Bizare foods with Andrew Zimmern [great show] anyway there was a segment on some butter that was found in a peat bog estimated to be 2,000 years old and it was still edible!

First wash your hands and jars. Put the lids in hot water, this softens the sealing compound so that it seals better.

The general procedure is cold pack the butter into pint jars leaving about a half inch of head space, wipe the rim of the jar to remove any errant butter which could interrupt the seal and then put the lid on hand tight. Set the filled jars into either the oven at 200 degree F or into a pot and fill with cool water up to the neck of the jar. Turn the heat up to medium and let the butter melt, slowly bring the temperature up to a simmer or if you have a candy thermometer about 200 degrees F until all of the butter is melted. You will notice in the melted butter a small layer of milk solids at the bottom of the jars. The milk solids add flavor. Wearing gloves because the jars are HOT, agitate the jars so that as the butter cools and gets firm the solids are mixed with the fat of the butter.

For hot packed butter, in a large pan [sized for the amount of butter you plan to can] genteelly melt the butter in your pan until it is all liquefied. The milk solids will fall the bottom of the pan, this is also how you ‘clarify’ butter. Your jars should be warming during this process so they won’t break from the temperature difference between the hot butter and cold jars. When ready, ladle the melted butter into the warm/hot jars leaving a half inch head space, wipe off the rim of the jar as above and place the lid, tightening hand tight.

If you plan to include the milk solids in this, you will have to stir the butter as you ladle it into the jars and agitate them as above. If on the other hand you plan to store just the clarified butter, you do not have to agitate the jars and can just leave the jars on the counter top to cool. While the jars are cooling you can take the melting pot and cook rice or whatever to make use of the residual butter and solids so that you don’t waste.
After the jars are cool, take a marking pen and label the jars with date processed and which type of butter is in it. Whole or clarified and salted V unsalted.

You can do the same thing with other animal fats. As an example, saving the pan drippings from bacon to flavor other foods.

Store it in cool dark place and it will most likely be shelf stable for many years. I still have a batch which was put up by me over 10 years ago. I used a jar this year that was as good as when I put it up. YMMV