The secret in having a good roast turkey is to baste it often, and to
cook it long enough. A small turkey of seven or eight pounds (the best
selection if fat) should be roasted or baked three hours at least. A
very large turkey should not be cooked a minute less than four hours; an
extra hour is preferable to a minute less. If properly basted, they will
not become dry.
With much experience in hotel life, where turkeys are ruined by the
wholesale, I have never seen a piece of turkey that was fit to eat.
Besides being tasteless, they are almost invariably undercooked. First,
then, after the turkey is dressed, season it well, sprinkling pepper and
salt on the inside; stuff it, and tie it well in shape; either lard the
top or lay slices of bacon over it; wet the skin, and sprinkle it well
with pepper, salt, and flour. It is well to allow a turkey to remain
some time stuffed before cooking. Pour a little boiling water into the
bottom of the dripping-pan. If it is to be roasted, do not put it too
near the coals at first, until it gets well heated through; then
gradually draw it nearer. The excellence of the turkey depends much upon
the frequency of basting it; occasionally baste it with a little butter,
oftener with its own drippings. Just before taking it from the fire or
out of the oven, put on more melted butter, and sprinkle over more
flour; this will make the skin more crisp and brown. While the turkey
is cooking, boil the giblets well; chop them fine, and mash the liver.
When the turkey is done, put it on a hot platter. Put the baking-pan on
the fire, dredge in a little flour, and when cooked stir in a little
boiling water or stock; strain it, skim off every particle of fat; add
the giblets; season with salt and pepper. If chestnut stuffing is used,
add some boiled chestnuts to the gravy; this is decidedly the best sauce
for a turkey. Besides the gravy, always serve cranberry (see receipt,
page 204), currant, or plum jelly with turkey. These are more attractive
molded the day before they are served. The currant or plum jelly is
melted and remolded in a pretty form. Roast turkeys are often garnished
with little sausage-balls.
[Illustration]
STUFFING FOR BAKED TURKEY, CHICKEN, VEAL, AND LAMB (_New York
Cooking-school_).
Soak half a pound of bread (with the crust cut off) in tepid water, then
squeeze it dry. Put three ounces of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot
stir in a small onion minced (one and a half ounces), which color
slightly; then add the bread, with three table-spoonfuls of parsley
(half an ounce) chopped fine, half a tea-spoonful of powdered thyme, a
little grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and a gill of stock. Stir it over
the fire until it leaves the bottom and sides; then mix in two eggs.