The Pizza Oven Thanksgiving

We've had our pizza oven for nearly 3 years now and were told that you can even cook a turkey in it. So, we decided to try it this year. A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving I got a small (10-pound) Butterball turkey for a test run and invited a few guinea pigs...er... friends over for the test run. I thought that it would also be a good time to try out some of the side dish recipes that were created for the pizza oven by Andrea Mugnaini, the importer of our pizza oven. The test run worked out fabulously... the turkey was amazingly moist and delicious. The side dishes were fabulous. I also got a sense of the time line and felt confident that I could add in the mashed potatoes (I cheated and used a make-ahead recipe) and dressing (though that was never in doubt) and also a pecan pie to the menu.

For the "real" Thanksgiving dinner I ordered a small heritage turkey from Whole Foods. I've been curious about the heritage turkeys for a while and wanted to try one to see if the price tag could be justified. Since we only had 6 folks in attendance for the real Thanksgiving dinner, I only needed a small turkey and when trying a pricey heritage turkey, small is good. Well... the verdict is thus: As it turns out, heritage turkeys are leaner and therefore don't cook up as moist. While it tasted good, it was dryer than the Butterball. So, lesson learned: I'll stick to regular turkeys from now on. It may not necessarily be a Butterball... it may be a "natural, fresh" turkey but it won't be the expensive heritage.

This was our menu:

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

Oven Roasted Turkey

Rich Dark Gravy

Roasted Cranberries

Cornbread & Sage Dressing

Roasted Yams

Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Pancetta

Mashed Potatoes

Pumpkin Pie & Brandy Whipped Cream

Pecan Pie & Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce

Every item on the menu spent some time in one way or another in the pizza oven, except for the mashed potatoes and the desserts. The gravy stock was made from turkey necks and backs that roasted in the oven, then simmered in a stock pot with the usual assortment of herbs and vegetables. Plus, the gravy was finished off with drippings from the roasted turkey. The yams and Brussels sprouts were easy to do in the oven, as well as the cranberry sauce and the dressing. My mother-in-law (Mary) brought over some nice cranberry dinner rolls that she baked up for the meal. Everyone should have brought another person because we were overrun with food (so what's new?) and we had enough for a dozen people.

Overall it was a lovely Thanksgiving with some very wonderful people. It was an honor and a pleasure to host it this year.