Recipe by Phil Harrison
Ingredients
- 1 whole turkey, about 5kg
- 1.5 litres turkey or chicken stock
- 4 rashers bacon
- 1 bunch fresh sage
- 1 large onion
- 750g butter
- 1 loaf sourdough (cut off all crusts, slice and allow to go stale, then grate into crumbs)
- 2kg roughly chopped carrot, onion and celery
Method
I have used this recipe for years, here and in England, and it has never failed. It’s actually my Aunt’s recipe; I’m sure she won’t mind me giving it to you.
First, to make the stuffing, fry off your diced onion and bacon in 500g of the butter until the onion is soft. Add the sage and the breadcrumbs until you get the right consistency. It should hold its shape when you squeeze it in your hand, without being oily.
Preheat the oven to 160C. Next, get your turkey, give it a wash inside and out and rub it down with a paper towel, remove any feathers that might have been left when it was cleaned. Check the cavity is clean and stuff your bird.
I always oil the wings and cover them with foil so they don’t burn before the bird is ready.
Put the roughly chopped vegies into your baking tray and sit your turkey on top, this will stop it from going soggy on the bottom. Pour in 2 cups of stock and rub the remaining butter into the breast. Loosely cover with foil and pop it into the oven.
It will take about 5 hours to cook, and I baste it every 30 minutes. If the liquid is too low, add more stock, one cup at a time. Remove the foil after 3½ hours.
If you have a meat thermometer, insert it into the meat (not touching a bone) and the bird will be ready at 180C; otherwise, the old method of cutting where the leg joins and seeing if the juices run clear still works for me.
Allow the turkey to rest for at least 45 minutes before you carve. The butter helps to keep the bird really moist.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
