This is the turkey for Thanksgiving. It’s late for the American holiday par excellence, which was last November 28, but the recipe, with its ritual, can be handy at Christmas, or for next year.
Our turkey this year was about 20 lbs. Lauren got up at 4 am to take it out of the fridge: it needs to be at room temperature when it goes in the oven. Between us: I think I’ll invite her to teach a class for our cooking program in Florence.
I offered to debone the turkey, as I have done in previous years, so that I could stuff it. Lauren preferred to follow tradition: whole turkey with bones and stuffing strictly served on the side.
Lauren goes back to bed. One more hour of sleep before seasoning and baking.
The day before Lauren had prepared the manipulated butter: butter, salt, pepper, grated orange peel and juice.
At 5 the alarm rings again: this time for me too and we won’t be going back to bed.
Meanwhile, the oven is turned on: 200° C, 400 F.
The patient seasoning of the turkey begins: the orange butter is spread on the surface and also inside, between the skin and the muscles.
The turkey is placed on a trapezoidal rack, inside a rectangular pan. Then it is covered with a large cotton gauze. It is time to go into the oven. The first timer will ring at 6:30. The first of a series of 16. Every half hour the oven is opened and the turkey is checked.
This, which looks almost like a medical pump, is a drippings vacuum. It is used only for the Thanksgiving turkey and is part of the ritual cooking tools, along with the thermometer and the special pan I mentioned above. Every half hour, a little of the drippings is scooped out or sprayed onto the surface of the turkey.
After four hours the gauze is completely burned. It is removed and cooking continues without gauze. Its use was used to ensure that the skin and the upper layer of meat did not burn: we must consider that cooking a 10 kg turkey lasts about 8 hours, i.e. 16 half hours, with relative checks and distribution of the stock over the entire surface.
Don’t forget to have prepared a good chicken and beef bone broth the day before. It will be used both to baste the turkey during cooking, mixed with the stock, and to prepare the final sauce, the so-called “grevy”.
There is no recipe for grevy. This is also part of the ritual. In America everything is standardized: cooking recipes follow precise doses and the non-rule, that is all Italian, of “a little of this and a little of that” is not considered. Well, turkey grevy is an exception. As Lauren says: “There is no recipe.” You need butter, flour, deglazed turkey stock and chicken broth.”
Once the turkey is cooked (it’s about 2:00 p.m), the jus at the bottom of the pan is collected and put into a graduated fat separator, like the one in the photo above. The lighter fat separates and floats. From the funnel, which comes from the watery and protein substance of the bottom, only the deglazed and tasty part will come out, which will be used for the “grevy”.
I haven’t talked about the filling yet: here are the ingredients to mix carefully.
About 2 kg ( 4 Lb) mixed ground beef and pork (or sausage)
a large handful of button mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 eggs
a handful of pecans, roughly chopped
a handful of raisins
an onion and a couple of celery stalks, chopped
a couple of cups of broth
optional: chopped sage
salt and pepper
Mix well with your hands
The most classic cooks put a part of it in a gauze bag inside the turkey. The rest of the stuffing is cooked separately in a baking dish, previously greased with butter plus some pieces of butter distributed on the surface.
The gauze bag is removed at the end of cooking, the filling is served separately, as per protocol.
I have to say Lauren’s Turkey came out amazing this year….
…as fantastic were her table and her group of friends.
Thanksgiving is the most emotional holiday of the year: it makes us think about what we have had, what we are grateful for and confess it at the table. It helps us realize how lucky we are and how beautiful life still is.