JayStPeter
11-22-2006, 8:14 PM
I was working for a small company that gave us Turkeys the day before Thanksgiving. Well, my soon to be wife and I were going to her parents house for Thanksgiving and not returning until Sunday. There was no way a Turkey was going to fit in the small freezer of the fridge I had gotten a good deal on. They already had their Turkey ordered, so I decided I'd go ahead and cook it after work. Then I would cut it up in the morning before we left and store it in ziplocks and tuperware for future use.
As I was leaving, they handed me the Turkey. It was the biggest Turkey I've ever seen ... 24 lbs IIRC. On the way home, I realized I didn't have an appropriate pan to cook this thing in so I stopped at the grocery store and got a foil pan for it. I got home around 6:30, jammed the turkey into the slightly undersized pan and put the thing in the oven. It was the first Turkey I had ever actually cooked. I knew it was going to take a while, so I hatched a plan to set my watch to beep every half hour to wake me so I could baste the beast.
All went well until I awoke to the smoke alarm beeping. The room was foggy with smoke. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen to see the oven engulfed in flames. The huge bird had been too much for the foil pan and had poked a small hole in the bottom at some point. So all the juice ran into the oven and caught on fire.
Luckily, there were some large oven mits sitting on the counter left from my search for the baster. A door to the driveway on the side of the house was right next to the oven. So, I whipped open the door, reached in with the oven mits, and tossed the turkey into the driveway. Shutting off the oven and closing the door put the fire out in the oven.
I ripped down and smashed the smoke detector, then opened the windows and put fans in to clear the smoke. About 15 minutes later I looked out in the driveway to see a small bonfire still burning.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
As I was leaving, they handed me the Turkey. It was the biggest Turkey I've ever seen ... 24 lbs IIRC. On the way home, I realized I didn't have an appropriate pan to cook this thing in so I stopped at the grocery store and got a foil pan for it. I got home around 6:30, jammed the turkey into the slightly undersized pan and put the thing in the oven. It was the first Turkey I had ever actually cooked. I knew it was going to take a while, so I hatched a plan to set my watch to beep every half hour to wake me so I could baste the beast.
All went well until I awoke to the smoke alarm beeping. The room was foggy with smoke. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen to see the oven engulfed in flames. The huge bird had been too much for the foil pan and had poked a small hole in the bottom at some point. So all the juice ran into the oven and caught on fire.
Luckily, there were some large oven mits sitting on the counter left from my search for the baster. A door to the driveway on the side of the house was right next to the oven. So, I whipped open the door, reached in with the oven mits, and tossed the turkey into the driveway. Shutting off the oven and closing the door put the fire out in the oven.
I ripped down and smashed the smoke detector, then opened the windows and put fans in to clear the smoke. About 15 minutes later I looked out in the driveway to see a small bonfire still burning.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.