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I always test the recipes that I publish here on Planet Green and on TreeHugger, but today I am doing something different. In all of the years I have been cooking, I believe I have made one turkey and it wasn't a big success. Normally, I would ask advice from my mother or my mother-in-law who are both excellent cooks. Sadly, they are both deficient in the turkey-cooking department. So I turned to our friends Brad and Elizabeth Johnson who have generously invited us to their family Thanksgiving dinner for the past five years. Every year, they produce the most magnificent turkey dinner imaginable.
They both agree that the most important element is to buy a fresh, organic turkey. They get their bird from a local organic farmer who raises, slaughters and cleans the turkeys herself.Their opinions on how to cook the turkey differ a bit. Elizabeth favours Canadian cookbook writer Bonnie Stern's turkey treatment and Brad favours the traditional American Fannie Farmer cookbook.
Working from the Essentials of Home Cooking (2003, Random House) by Bonnie Stern, Elizabeth tells me that you rub the turkey with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Stern suggests that you should fill the cavity with a quartered orange, a halved lemon, a peeled onion, sprigs of rosemary and sage rather than the traditional bread stuffing.
Stern bakes the stuffing outside of the turkey and then pours the drippings over it before it is served. This results in a moist turkey which cooks in less time. Begin baking at 350°F with the turkey breast down and then after half an hour turn it breast up and add 1 cup of port to the pan. Reduce heat to 325°F, baste every 30 minutes and cook until the meaty part of the thigh is 165°F on an instant read thermometer.
Fannie Farmer suggests rubbing the turkey with butter, seasoning with salt and pepper. That recipe also calls for the bird to start breast side down and then turned after half an hour and then basting every twenty minutes. The biggest difference here is that the turkey is stuffed with a traditional bread stuffing which requires longer cooking. The turkey cooks until the meaty part of the thigh is 185°F and the breast is 170°F on an instant read thermometer. This ensures that the stuffing reaches a temperature of 165°F, otherwise there is a serious risk of illness from salmonella and nobody needs that on Thanksgiving. The rule of thumb here is a cooking time of 15 minutes per pound for a turkey which weighs less that 16 pounds and 12 minutes per pound for a turkey which weighs more than 16 pounds.
The stuffing is made from bread ripped into small pieces, 1/4 lb of butter cut into pieces, 4 tbs finely chopped onion (Elizabeth prefers more onion and I agree), a couple of ribs of celery, finely chopped, salt pepper and herbs. Sage, thyme, marjoram, oregano or any combination would all work here.
Do remember, if you are stuffing your bird to wait until you are ready to put it into the oven. The bread mixture sitting in a raw turkey is at risk of contamination. Also, remove all of the stuffing before serving. Don't forget to remove the innards from the cavity before cooking. You can put them in a pot of water with an onion and cook using the resulting stock for your gravy.
So there you have it-the secret to making a delicious turkey. Thanks to Elizabeth and Brad Johnson for sharing their knowledge, and of course, their turkey with me.
Difficulty level: Moderate
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