part0009

Wash the turkey thoroughly inside and out and pat dry with kitchen paper. Carefully remove the skin over the breast meat and push small pieces of butter under the skin. Do not simply cut the skin, but work through the neck opening. Cuts in the skin favour the escape of meat juice and should therefore be avoided.

Prepare the filling if desired: I have taken the really wonderful corn bacon filling here from the recipe database: Melt the butter and fry the onion and bacon until translucent. Put the onion and bacon in a bowl and mix very well with the rest of the ingredients (except the eggs). Now quickly fold the eggs into the mixture. Tip: Turkey should not be stuffed to burst. Stuff the bird, but do not stuff it too much, as the stuffing swells during cooking, and close with toothpicks.

Season the bird with salt and pepper on the outside and place it on the rack in the oven preheated to 220°C. The grill should be in the lower third so that the bird is in the middle of the oven. Place a large casserole dish/fat pan in the lower third so that fat and gravy are collected here. During this time the butter will melt and the first turkey fat will drip into the pan.

After one hour, lower the temperature to 85 °C. From now on you don't have to take care of the bird until it is served. For the rest of the cooking time (stuffed turkey about 16 hours for 8 kg, about 18 hours for 10 kg, etc.), the bird is cooked in the pan. - depending on weight) keep the oven closed and do not baste the bird!

In the evening of the meal:

Approximately one hour before dinner, roast the turkey insides in a large and heavy pot in butter and olive oil until they are brown and lightly touch the bottom of the pot. Add the finely diced vegetables and roast them as well. Deglaze with white wine, add chicken stock, salt, pepper, thyme and a pinch of sugar. Leave to cook for at least half an hour without a lid, so that the stock is reduced and properly infused.

Remove the offal and puree the sauce together with the vegetables. The pureed vegetables give the sauce a wonderful taste and a light binding. Add the cranberry sauce and season with salt and pepper.

When the turkey is ready - the meat should have 85°C everywhere, if necessary measure it with a meat thermometer - lift it carefully out of the oven. Caution: There is still some meat juice left in the bird, which has not yet run out. Carefully move the turkey back and forth on the grill and over the fat pan, tilt it so that the meat juice is collected in the pan (in my case this resulted in about 750 ml pure meat juice and about 250 ml pure fat! Place the bird on a serving dish, spoon out the filling and serve in a separate bowl.

Tip the contents of the fat pan into a tall, narrow container (e.g. measuring cup), skim off the fat and pour the pure meat juice into the sauce. Bring sauce to the boil again, season to taste, thicken if necessary and serve with the bird.

The most complicated part of this recipe is the sauce, because once the bird is in the oven, you don't have to worry about it anymore.

To all doubters: There is really no need to be afraid of salmonella, as long as the turkey is fresh, the kitchen and all materials (knives, cutting boards, work surfaces) are kept clean and the oven heats reliably. After such a long cooking time, it is absolutely impossible that any part of the bird is not cooked.

The better the quality of the turkey, the more pleasure you will have with the meat in the end. In our case, the legs could be easily released from the joints and the meat fell off the bones, so tender and juicy it was.

On Thanksgiving we served homemade red cabbage, beans in a bacon coat, garlic mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and of course the turkey stuffing. This was a great addition to the menu due to the high bread content and tasted like refinedly spiced napkin dumplings.