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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Can you cook a turkey in a 9 quart dutch oven?

This is the Lodge 9 quart dutch oven.

I wondered if I could cook a turkey in this pot; After all, it's not exactly small.

But then I noticed that it wasn't tall either; It's the same height as the 5 and 7 quart pots.

I'm sure a 10 pound turkey would fit, but the 12 pound was cheaper, so I decided to make it fit.

I had to remove the breastbone, which isn't as easy as the cooking forums claim, but not hard either.

Unfortunately my kitchen shears weren't sharp enough, so I had to use my cleaver.

Bone shears are now on my shopping list!

Another first for me was injectable marinades.

I made my own with melted butter, garlic powder, onion powder, sage*, seasoned salt, black pepper, and better than bouillon chicken base.

*sage, or poultry seasoning.

I started out injecting, but then ended up scooping it up with my fingers and rubbing it all over.

Then I stuck a half stick of butter in the cavity and put the turkey in the pot, breast side up*.

*I intend to try "breast side down" next time, but so far I've always done breast side up.

Be sure to have the Lodge trivet on the bottom of the pot.

Another thing I did differently was, I put the neck in with the turkey to roast. Before, I boiled the neck to use in dressing or gravy. Roasting sure made a difference in taste!

I roasted in the oven at 325, checking periodically until the pop up timer indicated it was done.

I did not add any liquid to the pot*, and I didn't need to add any. The turkey made its own juice.

*I saw on a video where the guy poured cooking oil into his covered dutch oven for turkey.

The idea was for the covered pot to act like an "oven bag", in which the turkey bastes itself.

It worked; This turkey was very juicy.

If you want crispier skin, you can remove the lid during the last 1/2 hour of roasting.

Since the top was partly touching the lid, there were a couple of brown spots on top, but very little.

A consumer reported using the 9 quart dutch oven to cook up chicken parts to make her own dog food, claiming the 7 quart was too small.

Another consumer roasted two chickens in it.

The lid for this pot fits the 13 inch skillet.


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