Food, glorious food

The Turkey Stuffing Recipe

By Jim ⋅ November 25, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

As a friend of mine once said, the Christmas turkey really is the easy part. The bird is rendered lifeless, plucked, cleaned and then you roast it for about 20 minutes per pound and that’s it (some people like to slide a little garlic-butter under the skin of the bird before it goes in)

THE STUFFING

The more difficult part is what to do with the void in the middle of the prospective meal…i.e. what is grossly described in cookbooks as “the cavity”.

That would be the yawning emptiness within…what another friend of mine once called, “the black hole at the centre of the culinary universe”…it has to be filled…stuffed…hence the turkey-term: “stuffing”.

The very first thing you need to do is make sure your hands are very clean. Then get a loaf of stale bread. Stale bread really means what bakeries call day-old” bread, which may be 2-day-old bread. That doesn’t matter really because the bread needs to be at least 3 days old. It should be quite dry.

So…here are the ingredients for the stuffing:

• -one or one and a half loaves of stale bread cut into 1-inch cubes.
• -2 or 3 cloves of garlic.
• -1 or 2 bayleaves – you decide.
• -1 medium onion finely chopped…spanish are best.
• -3 tbs. torn or chopped parsley. (preferably home-grown – and remember that home-grown parsley lasts well into the winter – so it’s a good idea to plant some in the spring.)
• one sprig rosemary very finely chopped.
• one half cup dried apricots, finely chopped. (or substitute your favorite dried fruit…such as figs, raisins, apples, pears, prunes – or anything else you can think of).
• 2 tbs. olive oil.
• 2 tbs. melted butter.
• salt and ground pepper to taste.
• stick of cinnamon broken in 3.
• 2 tsp. lemon zest.
• 1 tsp.lemon juice.
  1 plump tbs. organic honey.
  1 tsp orange zest.
  1 tsp fresh orange juice.

Combine all these ingredients in a large bowl, tossing and mixing them by hand and…adding the bread last.

In our previous post we pointed out that at 350 degrees fareheit, it takes about 20 minutes per pound to cook a turkey.

If the central void (cavity) is tightly packed, then add 5 minutes per pound to the cooking time.

So, if you have a 15-pound turkey, really well-stuffed, expect to wait about 6 hours and 3 or 4 minutes before removing the bird from the oven. Every 15-25 minutes brush the bird with its own juices using an ordinary small paint brush (preferabley one with natural bristles).

But…it’s nice to have veggies too so cut up some carrots, potatoes, onions, parsnips and be ready to place them into the roasting pan for the last hour of roasting. At the 6-hour mark, remove the turkey to let it rest…and leave the veggies to roast an extra 15 minutes at 400 degrees farenheit, so they are nice and crispy on the outside.

The bird should rest for a half hour and then you carve it.

Tags: Christmas, country, HOLIDAY, MEAL, Thanksgiving