HOLIDAY RECIPE - Turkey with Stuffing Dinner PROLOGUE

Holiday turkey dinner has always been very important to me....from earliest memories when I wondered what made the windows steam through my first chance to help in the kitchen all the way to present day, this meal above all others holds great significance. I'm not alone in this, either.

Entire magazines, television programs and even newspaper sections are year after year dedicated to the cause of sharing the latest craze, gizmo and secret so it must be important to somebody!

The goal is to make a turkey that is moist, tasty, savory and at the same time pleasing to a wide range of palates. Luckily for us, this particular breed of poultry lends itself to any number of expressions be it Cajun, Deep Fried, Curried, Roasted, Grilled or Stewed...to name just a few.

Guinea Hen

Originally known as a Guinea Hen, the birds of our forefathers were most likely not so plump and juicy as our present day, domesticated Tom or Thomasina. But they, nonetheless, served as a good and available food source.

Present day turkey

Back in 1621, when the original Thanksgiving celebration occurred, the tables were laden with these critters to be sure, but also there was seafood, corn, nuts, berries, squash and foodstuffs that never make it to our modern celebration. Although I'd not be surprised if there were a few traditionalists that included such things as venison as part of the festivities.

As far as stuffing goes, in the middle ages it was known as "farce," from the Latin "farcire" (and French "farcir") meaning to stuff. The term "stuffing" first appears in English print in 1538. Around 1880, it seems the term fell out of favor with the Victorian upper crust, who began referring to it as "dressing."

Happily we've come to terms with who we are and what we do with our food and are more tolerant with what things are called.  And I'll argue that stuffing by any other name would still taste good, so long as it is made right!


Everybody has their own "Classic" or "Traditional" recipe.  Far be it from me to say that mine is better than any body's, because that's certainly not the case!  This method and recipe is being shared not in an attempt to change any one's ways, but to simply have it out there on the off-chance that someone might want to try it.

I also publish this in homage to my mother and the things she taught me in the kitchen, to her mother who taught mine about the secret to making turkey brown and moist, to my sister Carolyn...my culinary cohort, to Jan and Vincent and my other cooking companions and collaborators through the years, to my home economics teacher who taught me to be courageous in the kitchen, to PBS, the Food Network and other food channels who through the years have added to my culinary education and to all cooking blogs and websites.
 

Warning to all - this is a multi-day, multi-stage process....not for the fainthearted or any one rushed for time.
But if you're willing to invest the time and put forth the effort, you'll be pleased with the results.


Due to the lengthy nature of this preparation, I'm breaking it up into a few blog entries....much like how it happens in real-time, spread over a few days.     


This entry covers a few thoughts and a few basics.  The thoughts we've already handled, the basics?  Here they are in Q and A format.


How much turkey should I buy?
That depends on how many people you're planning to serve and how much leftovers you want.  The rule of thumb is 1 lb of turkey per adult, anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 lb per adolescent or child....after that it's all leftovers.   Again, that's a general rule of thumb.  This doesn't include your dear Cousin Ralph who can eat a 25 lb bird all by himself...so if you are inviting Ralphie, make sure to buy two turkeys so that others have a chance at something to eat!


What are the proper turkey cooking times? 

TURKEY COOKING TIMES AND TEMPS
Turkey Oven Roasted at 325°F
Type     Weight     Approximate Cooking Time
                               Unstuffed              Stuffed
Turkey (whole)     8 - 12 lbs.     2 3/4 - 3 hours     3 - 3 1/2 hours
Turkey (whole)     12 - 14 lbs.     3 - 3 3/4 hours     3 1/2 - 4 hours
Turkey (whole)     14 - 18 lbs.     3 3/4 - 4 1/4 hours     4 - 4 1/4 hours
Turkey (whole)    18 - 20 lbs.     4 1/4 - 4 1/2 hours     4 1/4 - 4 3/4 hours
Turkey (whole)     20 - 24 lbs.     4 1/2 - 5 hours     4 3/4 - 5 1/2 hours
Breast (half)     2 - 3 lbs.     50 - 60 minutes   
Breast (whole)     4 - 6 lbs.     1 1/2 - 1 1/4 hours
Breast (whole)     6 - 8 lbs.     2 1/4 - 3 1/4 hours
Drumsticks     3/4 - 1 lb.     2 - 2 1/4 hours
Thighs     3/4 - 1 lb.     1 3/4 - 2 hours
Wings     6 - 8 oz.     1 3/4 - 2 1/4 hours
Note: Start with turkey at refrigerator temperature. Remove the turkey from the oven when the
meat thermometer reads 175°- 180°F; the temperature will continue to rise as the turkey stands.


Grilled Turkey
(internal temperature 180°F)
Type                                                      Weight   
                                                 Approximate Cooking Time
                                                  Unstuffed     Stuffed
Whole turkey (indirect heat)     8 - 12 lbs.     2 - 3 hours   
Whole turkey (indirect heat)     12 - 16 lbs.     3 - 4 hours

Note: When grilling with Indirect Heat generally the coals (or burners on a gas grill) are heated to a high heat.
When grilling with Direct Heat the coals (or burners on a gas grill) are heated to a medium heat. Use these heat settings unless you have a recipe that states something different. See how to test the grill temperature.


Turkey Cooked at 350°F in an Oven Bag
 Type                                Total Weight       Approximate Cooking Time
Regular-Size  Oven Bag 10" x 16"       
Whole turkey (unstuffed)     8 - 12 lbs.     1 1/2 - 2 hours   
 Whole turkey (unstuffed)     12 - 16 lbs.     2 - 2 1/2 hours
Whole turkey (unstuffed)     16 - 20 lbs.     2 1/2 - 3 hours
Whole turkey (unstuffed)     20 - 24 lbs.     3 - 3 1/2 hours

Large-Size Oven Bag 14" x 20"     Turkey-Size
Whole turkey (stuffed)     8 - 12 lbs.     2 - 2 1/2 hours   
 Whole turkey (stuffed)     12 - 16 lbs.     2 1/2 - 3 hours
Whole turkey (stuffed)     16 - 20 lbs.     3 - 3 1/2 hours
 Whole turkey (stuffed)     20 - 24 lbs.     3 1/2 - 4 hours

Oven Bag 19" x 23 1/2"
Turkey breast (bone-in)     4 - 8 lbs.     1 1/4 - 2 hours   
Turkey breast (bone-in)     10 - 12 lbs.     2 1/4 - 2 3/4 hours
 Turkey breast (boneless)     2 1/2 - 3 lbs.     1 1/4 - 1 3/4 hours   
Turkey breast (boneless)     5 lbs.         2 - 2 1/4 hours
Turkey breast (boneless)     8 - 12 lbs.     3 - 3 1/2 hours
Turkey drumsticks     1 1/2 - 2 lbs.     1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours   
Turkey drumsticks     2 - 3 lbs.         1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours

Oven Bag Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add 1 tablespoon flour to the oven bag and distribute evenly on the inside of the bag prior to inserting the turkey. Brush the turkey with vegetable oil or butter. Remove the turkey from the oven when the meat thermometer reaches 175°- 180°F. If using a turkey-size oven bag for a turkey smaller than 12 lbs., gather the oven bag loosely around the meat allowing room for heat circulation; then close the bag with a nylon tie, and cut away any excess oven bag.

Next installment, Bird Prep!


As always, please feel free to share your recipes here...you'll be given full credit for your contributions.
Happy holidays!
Enjoy!

LIVING AND COOKING - Stuff and Stuffed Cabbage

Live goes on....and so it goes.
Sometimes it's so crazy
sometimes it just flows...

Been going through the aging process, aren't we all?  Remembering when things were so different.  Laughing at sounding so much like the "old heads" from our yesterdays. Funny how this window/mirror thing we glance through from time to time knows just which buttons to press. And when.
Gravity's no friend, either.
But what the heck.

Someone asked me the other day if I wanted to die my now grey flecked hair.  I want to wear the process of my living, and what better place than my head?  Doesn't mean I won't trim the bangs now and then. But hey. The grey hairs are mine.  I earned 'em!

This is the kind of stuff that goes through my head some nights when I can't sleep.  Err, well....I mean when I am still awake past 3 a.m..  Of course other nights hold different thoughts.  Tonight I'm thinking of my mother....the first person who taught me how to cook.

She had a large brood to feed on a limited budget but managed to not only feed us, but instill in us a good relationship with food, and interest in cooking and the importance of sharing meals with loved ones.  Her hair is the same soft, snowy white her father wore to his last.  It is beautiful to me.  Should I ever have the great fortune to sport the same feature, I'll grow it long and proud.

Anyway, one of Mom's dishes was a version of Stuffed Green Cabbage. I wrote a recipe for Stuffed Purple Cabbage in the blog "Fifty Five Is The New..." .  This dish uses the tight-headed green cabbage available at most grocery stores, farmers' markets and green grocers.

It's the one Mom prepared for us with her own special flair. She used canned tomato soup with 1/2 can of water per soup can, made her meat mix with ground beef, rice salt and pepper.  I believe she may have diced some onion or used some onion flakes in the meat mix too.

I remember the first time helping her steam the cabbage.  She showed me how to cut the great round things in half after taking off the outer leaves.  The halving not to occur 'til after a proper washing under some cool running water, of course.

There were carrots to cut in quartered lengths, onions to be coarsely chopped and, the funnest part of all, rolling the meat/rice mixture into steam limped leaves and tucking them sweetly into the bottom of a cabbage leaf-lined and sauced oval baking pan.  Mom would toss a few carrot and onion chunks hither and yon about the pan and between the swaddling morsels. Then she'd add some remaining liquid, cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake it for 45 minutes in an oven set to 350 degrees.  After 45 minutes she'd remove the foil and let it bake for an additional 15-18 minutes.

Anyway, we were in the mood for Stuffed Cabbage so I set about making it with what we had on hand.
Our last shopping foray garnered, among other things, a nice firm head of green cabbage so we were on the right track.

Oval pan

A quick pantry check showed no tomato soup around, but a can of chopped tomatoes.   Close enough.
We had plenty of rice, onion, carrots - even an oval pan!  Well, all-reet!

The plan was to make something similar to Mom's original.  I was using ground turkey, diced tomatoes , a few fresh tomatoes, some left over broth from a previous evening's roast as the broth, so there were going to be differences.

TURKEY AND RICE STUFFED CABBAGE with TOMATO and STOCK SAUCE

Ingredients for Stuffed Green Cabbage

3 lb ground turkey
1 1/2 cups cooked white rice
6 -10 carrots cut in quarters - reserve tips to grate into meat/ rice mixture
1 - 2 yellow onion(s) coarsely chopped
salt (optional) pepper (optional) to taste
2 fresh tomatoes, diced fine
1 large can diced tomatoes -
     if you prefer, 2 cans of tomato soup plus 1 can of water
1 large head of tight-leaf green cabbage
2 cups stock


Remove the outer cabbage leaves.  Wash the cabbage under cool water then chop it in half. Notice the hard section at the base of each half?  That has to be removed.  There will be some other hard features that will require surgery as well, but more on that in a bit.
The trick here is to use your knife more like a scalpel than a chopper for this maneuver.
You might consider using a smaller rather than larger blade for better control. Other than that, it's a matter of cutting around the stem base and inner core. You'll end up with something that looks like this picture.  It's a bit helmet-like, or even "brain-like."

 
Get the steamer water boiling and add the carrots. Put the steamer on the pot and start adding raw cabbage leaves to the steamer until it is only 1/2 full. Cover and steam for 5 to 7 minutes while you prepare the filling.

If you don't have a stacking steamer you can soften the carrots a bit by par-boiling them. I just like to partially cook them ahead of time so everything else doesn't turn to mush waiting for the carrots to be done.

The filling is simple.  Put meat in a bowl, add the cooled cooked rice, add spices to your individual taste, grate carrots this mixture. As the cabbage leaves soften, take them out of the steaming basket and lay them out on a large flat surface.

Pour some of your stock into the oval pan, so it just covers the bottom. Take any small pieces and line the bottom of your pan with them.

.  Put this ball in the center of one of the cabbage leaves and wrap the meat like a holiday parcel!   If you run into any hard pieces of cabbage....veins, bits of leave, etc. discard them.  They will not soften with cooking.

Stuffed Cabbage with Carrots and Tomaties

You may have more meat mixture than cabbage, that's okay.  Just form little balls and place them round the pan. They will cook in the soon-to-be bubbling broth.  Distribute the carrots and diced onion around the pan, Pour the remaining broth over everything then top with diced tomatoes.

Wrap in aluminum foil and cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, then remove the foil and allow to cook for 15 minutes more.  Serve with buttered rice.

Making and eating this dish dissolved the miles and other things between us. It was tasty and familiar, even with the differing ingredients.

As always, please feel free to share your recipes and ideas!

Enjoy!