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Roast Turkey with Stuffing
Allow 1 lb. turkey to each serving. Select a turkey that is young and plump. Cleaning and Dressing--Pick off pin feathers, singe to remove hairs, cut skin near head and push back skin, disjointing head at base of neck. Cut skin around leg one-half inch below leg joint, being careful not to cut tendons. Break bone with sharp rap and pull off foot. Make an incision below breastbone to tail. Keeping finger well against breastbone, reach carefully into body until heart is reached. Loosen membranes and remove entrails. In this mass are embedded the gizzard, heart and liver which are called giblets. The kidneys and lungs adhere close to the body wall and should be carefully removed. Cut skin on under part of throat and remove windpipe and crop. Remove oil bag and upper part of tail. Wash bird by allowing cold water to run through it, but do not let it soak in the water. Wipe inside and out, looking carefully to see that everything has been removed.
Stuffing: Bird is next stuffed. Use enough to fill the cavity, but do not overstuff, or the skin will crack while roasting. Sew openings together with stout clean thread.
Trussing: Draw things and wings close against the body and fasten securely with skewers or tie with string. Draw skin of neck to back and fasten with small wooden skewer.
Roasting: Place turkey, when stuffed and trussed, on its side on rack in dripping pan. Rub entire surface with salt, brush with soft butter or margarine and dredge with flour. Place in hot oven (550 degrees) to sear. When well browned, reduce heat to moderate oven (400 degrees F.). Baste with fat in pan, and add 2 cups boiling water. Continue basting every fifteen minutes until turkey is done, which will require about 4 hours for a ten-pound bird. Basting: For basting use 1/2 cup melted butter in 1 cup boiling water, and after this is used, baste with liquor in pan. Turn turkey frequently that it may brown evenly.
Gravy: Pour off liquid in pan in which turkey is roasted. From liquid, skim 1/4 cup fat, return the fat to pan and brown it with 5 tablespoons flour. Add slowly 3 cups stock in which giblets were cooked. Or add 2 cups boiling water to dissolve the glaze in bottom of pan and substitute for broth. Cook 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper and strain; add the giblets, chopped very fine. If preferred, the giblets may be used for force meat balls or chopped fine after cooking, and mixed with stuffing.
Giblets: When cleaned and washed, the giblets should be simmered in water enough to just cover them, until tender. They may be served with the turkey if desired, or used with gravy or stuffing.
A full carcass-to-gravy procedure from an era when the bird arrived with its head, feet and entrails attached. Most cooks today can skip the first third of the instructions and start at the stuffing, but the roasting and gravy directions need adjusting.
- Start at "Stuffing"A supermarket turkey is already drawn, singed and trussed-ready. Pull the giblet packet from the cavity, remove any lingering pin feathers, pat dry inside and out, and pick up the recipe from there.
- The oven numbers550F is above the working range of many domestic ovens and will scorch the flour dredge before the bird sears. Period cookbooks generally put "moderate" somewhere around 350-375F, lower than the 400F printed here. A brief 425-450F start dropped to 325-350F achieves what the recipe is after.
- Cook to temperature, not timeFour hours for a ten-pound bird is roughly an hour longer than modern practice for a stuffed bird. Use a thermometer: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh without touching bone, and 165F in the centre of the stuffing.
- Stuffing safetyThe one instruction that matters most is the recipe's own warning not to overstuff. Pack loosely, stuff immediately before roasting rather than the night before, and check the stuffing's temperature separately from the meat.
- Basting and turningEvery fifteen minutes for four hours drops the oven temperature repeatedly and lengthens the roast. Two or three bastings are plenty, and turning a heavy bird on its side is more trouble than it repays; breast-up on a rack with the legs toward the back of the oven works as well.
- The water in the panTwo cups of boiling water in the dripping pan steams the underside and dilutes the fond you want for gravy. It is optional. If you skip it, watch that the drippings do not scorch, and add water only if the pan runs dry.
- GibletsSimmer gizzard and heart for an hour or more; add the liver only for the last ten minutes or it turns grainy and bitter.
- Gravy proportionsA quarter cup of fat to five tablespoons of flour to three cups of stock gives a lightly thickened gravy. Cook the roux a full two minutes before adding liquid or the flour will taste raw.
- YieldOne pound of dressed weight per person is generous by modern reckoning; three-quarters of a pound is closer to what people actually eat, so a 12-14 lb bird serves 12 to 16 with leftovers.