Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday. I've talked about it before, so I'll not go into the reasons now.

This year, I spent Thanksgiving Day with friends, in Longmont, engaged in that most American of pastimes - extreme cooking.

British readers will probably be unaware of the kind of stuff that goes on, in the name of cooking turkeys.

I'm talking here, about frying turkeys. Yes, frying...entire...turkeys. It's actually less crazy than it sounds.

In short, you get a big pot, deep and just wide enough to fit an average uncooked turkey. You half fill it with peanut oil, and put a propane burner underneath it. You then, heat the oil to, let's say about 400ºF, and drop your turkey into the boiling oil.

OK, you don't exactly drop it, because you probably need your eyes and skin afterwards, but you gently lower the bird into the oil. You use peanut oil, because it doesn't soak into the meat, but instead seals the skin of the turkey, trapping moisture in, and keeping oil out.

It takes just 45 minutes, to cook an 18lb turkey. Try doing that in a conventional oven.

I have to say though, from both an engineering and culinary standpoint. It's a solution to cooking a large cut of meat quickly, and it gives you the most succulent turkey you've ever tasted. Something to give thanks for, surely?

The pot and burner

Giving the bird