A couple of years ago at Thanksgiving for a very large family, it was
discovered that one of the turkeys was spoiled. With fifty or more people
ready to eat, the best we could do was to fry a turkey. No one had actually
done this before but it is hard to get take at my cousin's place in rural
Mississippi so we brought out the turkey frying apparatus.

My uncle and I went outside and waited for the oil to heat up - very
important but also difficult when it is extremely cold. For the seasoning,
we found a jar of injectable marinade in the pantry with a 30 cc syringe and
a needle with multiple openings. Being a nurse and a doc, we quickly
injected the turkey and immersed in the oil. Sitting there under blankets,
we read a book and took a gander at the thermometer occasionally and fried
the turkey according to the directions in the book. It was wonderful.

Here is South Louisiana, there are any number of commercial injectable
marinades. Before they were so popular, we used to take syringes home from
the hospital and do the same thing. The marinades are fairly low calorie
which implies there is not a lot of oil in them. In fact, I would be leery
of using oil based stuff because it might heat up faster than the lean meat
causing it to cook unevenly.

If you really, really want to make your own, I would use reduced,
overseasoned pan drippings from another cooking adventure with the fat
skimmed off. Depending on your mood, you could flavor it with garlic,
peppers, etc.

Before I ever cooked my own, we had a nurse at one of the agencies. The
Wednesday before T-day, he would light up the propane and fry turkeys for
anyone who brought him a turkey. Even though they were done a day early,
they were still the best at the table on Thanksgiving.

j


> wrote in message
...
> Deep Fried Turkey is a Cajun dish, invented in Louisiana and
> popularized by Paul Prudhomme and later by Justin Wilson.
>
> Italian seasoning has no place in it - you need to use Cajun seasonings.
>
> It's not "brine", it's not "marinade", it's a vegetable-based injection
> sauce that's thick yet just thin enough to inject into the bird easily.
> A bird deep fried without the injection (like Justin Wilson made)
> doesn't compare to an injected bird - the difference is like
> night and day, with the injected bird being far superior.
>
> Paul Prudhomme published a 4-page procedure and recipe in his
> "Prudhomme Family Cookbook" complete with a recipe for the injection
> sauce. It contains things like onions, celery, peppers, Worcestershire,
> and lots of garlic. It doesn't taste anything like an Italian seasoning.
>
> I just can't believe the huge amount of misinformation perpetuating
> this thread!
>
> Paul specifies a fresh turkey, but I've prepared it with both fresh
> and frozen and it doesn't seem to make enough difference
> to really matter. The bird should be injected the day prior to frying.
>
> Yum!
>
>
>
> : I got me an eight gallon pot with a propane burner stand and I am
> : planning to fry turkeys. Does anyone have experience making the
> : marinade you're supposed to inject into the turkey before frying?
>
> : I Googled up several recipes for Italian dressing based marinades.
> : Going from the store freezer into my refrigerator how long will it
> : take for the bird to soften up to the point where I can inject
> : marinade into the fleshy parts? How long should I let the marinade
> : "work" before I fire up the peanut oil and prepare for frying? Has
> : anyone in the group had personal experience frying a turkey?
>
> : Regards,
> : Bill
>
>
>