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11/01/2018 12:01 AMFor more years than I can remember, I have been writing about turkey at Thanksgiving. I get every food magazine every month and every single month, in October, a turkey is on the covers.
My mother never cooked a turkey. We had Thanksgiving at an aunt and uncle’s home in Kinderhook, New York. There was no gravy and no stuffing and the sweet potatoes were stuffed into oranges, which made the sweet potatoes taste like oranges. The first Thanksgiving with my husband and daughter was in Houston, and I ordered turkey and sides from a restaurant. The gravy was white. In following years I made the turkey and sides myself, sometimes for 20 or more friends and family. The first few times, I called the Butterball Hot Line for help.
Some years later I stopped using the throwaway aluminum pans and bought a $200 roasting pan, which I still use for every kind of roast I have ever made. It was one terrific buy. Over the years I brined turkey in a huge cooler. I bought organic turkeys. Last year I went to a friend who made a heritage turkey. I made all kinds of stuffing and once placed slices of bacon on top of the fowl. A few times I put buttered cheesecloth on the turkey.
These days I buy the least expensive turkey I can get and I buy it frozen. I make my stuffing the night before and put it in the refrigerator in an enormous plastic bag. The next morning I stuff as much dressing as possible into the thawed (but cold) turkey’s cavity. I put the rest in a casserole and when the roasted turkey come out of the oven, I add some juice to the casserole and bake it.
Forget all those other “new” ways to make turkey for Thanksgiving, which is early this year, on Thursday, Nov. 22. Here is my favorite recipe. In two weeks, we will talk about some stuffing and some new sides. The day before Thanksgiving, I promise some turkey leftover recipes. Then on to Hanukkah and Christmas.
Turkey and Gravy
1 14- to 16-pound turkey
salt
1 stick butter
½ cup good white wine
Gravy
¼ cup all-purpose flour
cold water
Gravy Master (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Remove giblets from turkey (I don’t use them; instead, I boiled them for the kitties, less bones). Rinse and dry turkey inside and out. Rub salt inside cavity of bird. Fill cavity with cold stuffing made the night before or early morning. Place bird in a rack (or on an upside-down glass pie pan) atop a large, heavy-duty roasting pan. Place in a 350-degree oven.
Add butter and wine in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Open oven, pour wine-butter over turkey and close oven. Every half hour baste liquid over turkey. Bake until turkey is done (when the thermometer plunged into the thickest part of the thigh registered 175 to 180 degrees, 10- to 12 minutes per pound if not stuffed or 12- to 15 minutes stuffed).
Turn off the oven, remove turkey from the oven. Place the turkey on a platter and spooned the stuffing into a bowl; cover each with aluminum foil and return both to still-warm oven. (Extra stuffing can be heated in a casserole dish; it is not as tasty, but if you spoon some juice on the dish before heating, it’s pretty good.)
Remove grease from roasting pan and place the pan on the stove. Turn heat to medium. In a large jar, add all-purpose flour and about 2 cups of water. Screw jar cover and shake. When the brown bits are hot, add flour-water mixture and, over medium-high heat, whisk constantly. If you need more water, add some. Once the gravy is ready, add and stir in Gravy Master to taste (optional). Add salt and pepper to taste.