After drawing the turkey, rinse out with several waters, and in next to
the last mix a teaspoonful of soda. The inside of a fowl, especially
if purchased in the market, is sometimes very sour, and imparts an
unpleasant taste to the stuffing, if not to the inner part of the legs
and side-bones. The soda will act as a corrective, and is moreover very
cleansing. Fill the body with this water, shake well, empty it out,
and rinse with fair water. Then prepare a dressing of bread-crumbs,
mixed with butter, pepper, salt, thyme or sweet marjoram. You may, if
you like, add the beaten yolks of two eggs. A little chopped sausage
is esteemed an improvement when well incorporated with the other
ingredients. Or, mince a dozen oysters and stir into the dressing. The
effect upon the turkey-meat, particularly that of the breast, is very
pleasant.
Stuff the craw with this, and tie a string tightly about the neck, to
prevent the escape of the stuffing. Then fill the body of the turkey,
and sew it up with strong thread. This and the neck-string are to be
removed when the fowl is dished. In roasting, if your fire is brisk,
allow about ten minutes to a pound; but it will depend very much upon
the turkey’s age whether this rule holds good. Dredge it with flour
before roasting, and baste often; at first with butter and water,
afterward with the gravy in the dripping-pan. If you lay the turkey in
the pan, put in with it a teacup of hot water. Many roast always upon
a grating placed on the top of the pan. In that case the boiling water
steams the underpart of the fowl, and prevents the skin from drying too
fast, or cracking. Roast to a fine brown, and if it threaten to darken
too rapidly, lay a sheet of white paper over it until the lower part is
also done.
Stew the chopped giblets in just enough water to cover them, and when
the turkey is lifted from the pan, add these, with the water in which
they were boiled, to the drippings; thicken with a spoonful of browned
flour, wet with cold water to prevent lumping, boil up once, and pour
into the gravy-boat. If the turkey is fat, skim the drippings well
before putting in the giblets.
Serve with cranberry sauce. Some lay fried oysters in the dish around
the turkey.