liz@unirot.UUCP (Mamaliz ) (11/18/85)
This recipe works well for a turkey that is up to about 15 lbs. Anything
larger then that is going to give you a dry tasteless bird anyhow (probably).
I discovered the basics of the recipe in "The Taste of America" which I cannot
find right now, so I cannot give author attributes. It is an excellent
book and is published by Penguin. It is not a cookbook.
THE SOUP KITCHEN TURKEY
Make sure your turkey is at room temperature. It is better to use a fresh
turkey, but I have succesfully used frozen turkey during the summer and such.
(We feed lots of people at the Soup Kitchen - so we have turkey a lot).
Get your oven HOT, you are roasting this turkey, not steaming it or baking
it. I use 425-450 depending on my mood, and whether I have found the cook-
book. While the oven is heating, make your favorite stuffing. I like a
rather plain bread stuffing, mg likes his even plainer. There are good
fancy stuffings, but you will not find a recipe for one here.
Bread Stuffing (Plain and plainer)
One or two bags of stuffing mix. If you have stale homemade bread
around the house use it instead. Of course it will be better. There
is never stale homemade bread around my house...if I get in the mood
to bake, people seem to finish it right off.
A LOT of melted butter. I use a stick of butter and a stick of margarine
usually.
As much finely chopped celery as you want (mg hates celery, so if you
want it real plain, leave out the celery - it works, but I think it
misses something).
1 finely chopped medium yellow onion (mg also hates this, but I ignore
him. Put the onion in no matter what.)
1/2 to a whole box of fresh chopped mushrooms. (mg thinks this is too
many mushrooms also - I think you get the idea that veggies are not
his thing. These are not necessary, I like them though).
All of the brown giblets, also chopped real fine. ("Yuck, you are
putting gooey things in the stuffing.") These can be left out also.
I tend to supplement them with some chicken livers and hearts.
Saute all the veggies and giblets in the butter/margarine mixture. You
only want to cook them until the onions are transparent and the celery
is getting soft. Add the mushrooms and giblets near the end, you do not
want them real overcooked.
Add the contents of the frying pan to the bowl of bread cubes. (You probably
fried the veggies an hour ago anyway). Just make sure the butter is still
sort of liquid. Add whatever spices you are interested in (I would probably
use nothing but sage and thyme). Add 1-2 cups boiling water (depending
on how much bread you use). Add an egg yolk or two. Stir around until
everything is sort of soggy and let cool enough so you can handle it
with your bare hands.
The stuffing is made (enough for an army it seems, but I know many
people who would rather eat stuffing then anything else. I never
seem to have leftover stuffing ...boo hiss).
Wash your turkey and dry it well. Stuff both cavities lightly. Do not
try to fill them up too much or the turkey might explode. Stuffing expands
when it cooks. Sew the flaps shut with strong thread (I use unwaxed
dental floss). All those little gadgets are good for nothing. Sew
the wings to the turkey so they lie flat. Tie the legs together. Pour
some more melted butter all over the turkey. Lie the turkey on its side
on an oven proof platter not too much larger then the turkey. Put
it into your hot oven.
15 minutes later, turn the turkey on to its other side. Cook another
half hour or 15 minutes depending on how fast it is browning (you dont
want it to brown too fast). Turn the oven down to about 350 after this.
You should supposedly turn the turkey over regularly, but I usually give
up (it is a sloppy job for strong arms and just put it on its breast or its
back at this point. The turkey is going to cook (with regular basting with
the juice in the platter and MORE butter) for another 2-3 hours, not longer.
While all this is happening you have made a turkey broth with the neck,
maybe some turkey wings, and the chicken broth you have in your freezer.
A good portion of this now goes over the rest of the stuffing that is in
some sort of casserole. Cover the casserole (I use a large cake pan and
aluminum foil). Put it in the oven with your turkey (even on the oven
floor if your oven is as small and shelfless as mine is).
Take the turkey out (remember it has cooked 3-1/2 hours or less - you
want food not cardboard) and make a gravy with all those good juices
in the platter. Let the turkey sit while you do this. I cannot tell
you how to make a good gravy, as I have never succeeded at one myself.
Take out the stuffing.
Serve. Hope somebody at the table knows how to carve.
lizzyjohnf@apollo.uucp (John Francis) (12/05/85)
First and foremost - get a GOOD turkey. It's no good wasting all your time on a deep-frozen piece of reconstituted cardboard. I am fortunate enough to have a local butchers shop that sells fresh free-range turkeys (walking around on Dec 23rd, bought on Dec 24th, eaten on Dec 25th). Right - now what do you do about the fact that there isn't one of those funny little plastic things to tell you when it's done? Read on ... Stuffing - optional. (If you are using a frozen turkey it is NOT optional - leave it out unless you are prepared to pre-cook the turkey for an hour or so to get rid of all the water first - nobody likes soggy stuffing). Stuffing will never cook exactly right inside a turkey, so what I do is to put a little sage & onion stuffing in the neck cavity for effect, and cook the other stuffings (more sage & onion, chestnut, ... ) separately. Some of the local stuffings around here (local = USA - I'm English) would probably cook O.K. in a turkey, especially those involving apples and raisins, but I have no first-hand experience of these. Truss the beast up somehow using anything you like (little skewers and string, dental floss, surgical cat-gut, potato nails, etc.) and get ready for the next step. Cooking: we want to roast the bird, not boil it. So try and arrange some way to stop it sitting in any liquid that runs off. I use a rack, but I have seen one of those conical wire-cage roasters large enough for a turkey. This would be a good idea (of course you can't have stuffing in the bird if you use one of these), except that most ovens are not high enough to cook a 25lb turkey standing on end, and I cook large turkeys. Rub the outside of the bird with butter, and sprinkle LIGHLTY with your favourite herbs ground with rock salt in a mortar. Lay strips of bacon across the breast of the bird (the best use I have found for the low meat-content bacon sold over here), and set it on the rack in the roasting pan. Cover the whole thing with a foil tent. I normally set the oven at about 350, but it depends on your oven. Cook until almost done, turning occasionally so that different parts of the bird are in contact with the rack. For the last 45 minutes remove the foil and bacon so that the skin gets nicely browned. The bird is cooked when a SHARP skewer inserted into the crease where the leg joins the body just gets clear liquid out - if you see any pinkness cook it some more. When it is done take it out and set it to one side for about 15 minutes, laying something damp over it. Linen or cotton is best, but damp paper kitchen towels used double work well. This makes the eventual task of carving much, much easier. What do we do with the runoff ? Two things. The fat goes into a roasting pan together with any dripping you have saved from steaks, chops, etc., and goes into the oven during that last 45 minute period with potatoes in it, turning them every 15 minutes or so. When you take the bird out you are still about 15 minutes away from eating, so drain off the fat from the potatoes, turn the oven up to 400, and you will soon have nice crisp golden-brown roast potatoes. The remaining juices go into the gravy. I thicken my gravy with a flour roux made by putting flour and butter into a heavy metal pan (I think its about 60% flour by volume, but that is just a guess - the result after the butter has melted should have the consistency of a paste) and cooking it until the flour is just showing the slightest signs of beginning to turn golden. Then add liquid to the roux a little at a time and STIR - it will absorb an extremely large amount of liquid and get very thick while you are stirring it in. This same roux is also useful to thicken any other sauces you are making (plain white sauce or cheese sauce for any members of the cabbage family, for example).