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HOW TO COOK TURKEY THE EASY WAY The day before your turkey dinner, stew the neck and giblets until tender. Save all, including the broth for gravy, in refrigerator. Have your turkey thawed, washed and dried off. Use your favorite dressing. Salt the bird generously inside. Fill with dressing at both ends and sew up. Smear margarine or butter over entire outside and salt thoroughly. Tie wings and legs to the body. Put a trivit or rack in the bottom of a roaster or reasonably deep pan. Put the bird on the rack breast up and cover with heavy duty aluminum foil (heavy duty freezer foil is best) or use 2 or 3 thicknesses of regular. Tuck it down around the sides of the bird, not over the edges of the pan. Do all this after supper on the day before you plan to serve the turkey. By the time the bird is ready for the oven, it will be time for bed. Set the oven at 275 degrees or 300 degrees, no higher. The lower temperature is best for birds over 15 pounds. Figure to cook the bird about 30 minutes for each pound of weight, up to 6 hours, which is about right for birds up to 12 to 13 pounds. If the bird weighs more, figure on 7 or 8 hours. Put your turkey in the oven about midnight and it can go all night. It will be ready by 9 or so the next morning. Turn oven down to keep warm. An hour or so before serving, remove foil to see if it has browned. If not, baste a while with drippings. Recover with foil if necessary so it won't dry out. Use rest of drippings to put in gravy. This is an excellent way to prepare turkey for Thanks- giving if you intend to eat at noon. Otherwise, if you are eating late, you could start it about 8 in the morning and let it go all day for dinner at 6. On a bird about 20 pounds, this is a perfect method. It is well done and juicy. This is a recipe from our database at Cookbooks On/Line! 1,000,000+ free recipes and free software at: http://www.cookbooks.com Accuracy is believed to be good, but is not guaranteed. This recipe posting is intended for personal use only. You can print a copy for yourself and/or your friends, but you cannot publish it or post it to any Internet or other public site without our permission. |