OrpheusGrey

For Thanksgiving our good friends from Tennessee, Sarah & Boone, decided to rent a big cabin in the mid Okayama hills for 11 of us to get together for a big American style meal. It was potluck, with the theme being typical American turkey day fare. Jenn and I came in late on the list and decided to undertake the challenge no one else wanted... the turkey.

To our great surprise, we actually found an 18lb turkey for sale in Okayama (for Y7300). But an 18 pounder was a bit too big for the only oven we had access to in Japan, our friend Bernie's. So we ordered a 15lb turkey online and had it shipped to her place.

We went over there the night before Saturday's dinner and stayed the night so we could get up bright and early to start the bird. At 7am I began preparing the two rubs. First, was a browned butter with sage and garlic for between the skin and breast. Second, was an olive oil and herb rub for the skin. We got the turkey all rubbed up and in the oven by 9:30, then settled in to a movie while it cooked.

Basting was a bit difficult due to the shape of the only roasting pan we could find, and to the lack of a basting bulb, but with three people we managed.

The turkey finished right before we had to leave, so we wrapped it up and tossed it in the car as we drove up to the cabin in Fukiya. It was a 2 hour drive, so the turkey steamed itself to quite a moist state. It just shredded away when I tried to cut it later. I didn't get any good slices, but we had some moist pulled turkey when all was said and done.

A good portion of our friends who attended were Aussies who had never experienced Thanksgiving, or turkey. So they got a kick out of the amount of food we eat, what we eat, and other things we do on Thanksgiving. And we had a great time sharing it with them. It was huge fun just hanging out in a cosy little cottage, listening to music, eating good food, and drinking some good drink. We even played twister.

The next day some of us walked around the village to get some pics