This particular turkey didn't even cost a nickel. It was a gift.
So I decided to make a full turkey dinner to celebrate Humiliation Day, which is what January 3 is according to my handy-dandy Lobster calendar. It's also Fruitcake Toss Day, but I didn't have a fruitcake to toss. Plus, I suspect I've given fruitcake short shrift, and if I had a proper one might not want to toss it.
Anyway, I ignored Alton Brown's dire warnings against cooking the stuffing in the bird. Strangely, he seems to like to stuff anything except a turkey. I liked the stuffed pumpkin I made last week so well, I decided to live on the edge. I omitted any broth from the recipe in hopes of preventing soggy stuffing. I thought the bird probably had plenty of broth to offer.
I had more stuffing than I could fit in the bird, so some of it got cooked in a bread pan separately. This stuffing turned out much, much better and didn't have to be scooped out and finished in the oven separately, so from now on I'll listen to Alton Brown.
There weren't any pan drippings an hour and a half in, so I added some water to the pan to create steam, worrying that the meat would dry out. This created some pan drippings, and I also used a syringe to suck those up and inject them back into the meat. This turned out to be a masterful idea. Basting is great for the skin, I did that, too, but injection gets to the meat itself.
I also made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy.
The gravy, I cooked the neck, giblets and liver for the first few hours of the roasting to make stock. Then I added flour and whisked until it was thick. Then I added all the pan drippings I could come up with, and when it turned out too thick I added a bit of milk and kept stirring. Good gravy.
Mo tied into the turkey like she'd just been released from a Turkish prison. She ate both drumsticks, gnawing them to the bone and came looking for more as I put away the leftovers.
As far as recipes go, I assume you have the recipe for green bean casserole, a dish I do nothing to dress up. Maybe sometime I'll branch out and try portobellos in it or something.
The dressing was basically the same recipe as the stuffing I put in the pumpkin the other day. Well, not really.
I don't know how many cups of croutons, etc., it was two bags, I think a total of 10-1/2 oz.
1 diced onion
Some diced carrots
Some diced celery
1-1/2 sticks butter (sauté the veggies in this, then toss in the croutons)
Some rubbed sage (I don't know how much, maybe a tablespoon)
Some thyme (about the same as the sage)
Toss in some shredded Cabot Extra Sharp cheddar (much cheaper than Gruyère, but has a similar effect)
Top with some more shredded cheese and bake at 350º for half an hour or so. How's that for a recipe? A masterpiece of imprecision.
I started some stock with what I was too lazy to cut from the bones. And the whole house smells so wonderful!
I thought of loosening the skin all over and working butter and herbs under it all over. Cooking shows make it look easy, but I'm a squeamish one and just cleaning and dressing the bird was more than would have been possible when I had a wife to sluff such duties off on.
So once it was all done, I started some stock to save for later, using the remnants of the carcass and some onion, celery, carrots and whatnot.
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