Focus on food: November 17, 2008
Roast Turkey
• 1 turkey, approx. 15 lbs.*
• Juice of a lemon
• salt and pepper
• olive oil or melted butter
• 1/2 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
• tops and bottoms of a bunch of celery
• 2 carrots
• parsley
• sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme
1. Remove the neck and giblets. Use the heart and gizzard for making stock for the stuffing. The neck can be cooked along side the turkey or saved for turkey soup.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Wash out the turkey with water. Pull out any remaining feather stubs in the turkey skin. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Lather the inside of the cavity with the juice of half a lemon. Take a small handful of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey.
4. For flavor, put in inside the turkey a half a yellow onion, peeled and quartered, a bunch of parsley, a couple of carrots, and some tops and bottoms of celery. You may need to cap the body cavity with some aluminum foil so that the stuffing doesn’t easily fall out. Close up the turkey cavity with either string (not nylon string!) or metal skewers. Make sure that the turkey’s legs are tied together, held close to the body, and tie a string around the turkey body to hold the wings in close.
5. Rub either melted butter or olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle pepper over the turkey.
6. Place turkey breast down on the bottom of a rack over a sturdy roasting pan big enough to catch all the drippings. Cooking the turkey breast down means the skin over the breast will not get so brown, however the turkey will not dry out. Add several sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary to the outside of the turkey.
7. Put the turkey in the oven. Check the cooking directions on the turkey packaging. Start checking temperature with a meat thermometer a half hour before the turkey should be done. The dark meat in the thigh should be about 175 F. The white meat in the breast should be160 F to 165F. Allow turkey to rest for 15-20 minutes before serving.