How to Roast a Turkey
Source of Recipe
Brenda-Lee Olson
Recipe Introduction
From the ingenious brain of BL
List of Ingredients
One Whole Turkey
Recipe
Thaw the turkey then wash it and remove the innards inside the cavity in the little paper sack. Some people like to reserve these (giblets) to make a richer gravy, but I give them to the cat (when we had one). Depending on whether you have a utility turkey or not, the giblets may not be included, but the neck may be in the cavity as well. Save
that for soup. Just put it in a freezer bag and save it up with other things like wing tips, etc.
To wash the turkey, you can place it in a warm water bath with a bit of kosher salt. You may wish to do this in your roaster or a bucket/basin since the sink is not exactly the cleanest place to wash food, especially if you have a garbage disposal.
Once the turkey is washed, pat it dry with paper toweling and discard the toweling. Unlike chicken turkeys aren't prone to salmonella, but it's always best to be careful.
Now depending on how you like your turkey, I would suggest you stuff the inside with a couple of apples and onions with a garni of fragrant herbs. Onions should be peeled but can be left whole. Apples do not need to be peeled.
To make the bouquet garni, gather some fresh herbs like basil, oregano, garlic and rosemary. Put them in a little piece of cheesecloth and tie with cooking twine. No cheesecloth has nothing to do with milk (smile) and cooking twine is usually hemp that hasn't been treated with chemicals so it's food safe.
Next place the metal turkey lifter in the roasting pan with the wings hanging out to either side. Place the turkey on the base of the lifter. (if you don't have a lifter skip this step, but if you are going to roast turkeys you may wish to get one.
Place a small amount of water it the bottom of the roasting pan. You want maybe a 1/2 inch across the bottom but no more.
Put the lid on the roaster and put the turkey in a pre-warmed oven at 350 degrees. The turkey needs to roast slowly for about 30 minutes per pound of turkey. A small turkey can take between 2 1/2 and 3 hours. Bigger turkeys longer.
If you don't have a roasting pan with a lid, use foil to cover the turkey.
Remove the cover and increase oven temperature to 400 for the last 1/2 hour of cooking. This is to crisp the skin.
During the cooking you will want to open the oven and baste the turkey with the juices. For the last hour I like to add some cranberry juice to the liquid so that the cranberry flavour steams in. If you prefer you can add a cup of cranberries (whole) to the apples and onions on
the inside.
When I have the time, like for sabbath, I put the turkey in the overn at 250 and leave it cook for 8 hours.
When the turkey is cooked, remove it to a cutting board and leave it stand 15 - 20 minutes before cutting. Use the time to make the gravy.
The apples can be discarded but the onion can be pureed and added to the gravy.
Once cooked, the turkey can be frozen in portion sizes.
Save the bones to make broth or turkey soup.
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