Now this recipe is totally from memory, but that's how you want it. You want to stuff your turkey as a fine chef. Mixing and stirring and stuffing and baking and presenting your turkey to your guests with a steely eyed look of judge.
You will need one turkey. Figure two pounds for each guest. Let the turkey defrost overnight in your sink or if fresh, unwrap it, rinse it out, pull out the packaged giblets, rinse the pouch to be stuffed well and give your turkey a lemon juice wash, about a fourth of a cup. Put your turkey in the roasting pan and let sit in the fridge until you are ready tomorrow gobble day to stuff it. If your turkey is fresh, you can start work on your giblets. If you bought the frozen kind, don't despair, it will melt. And you can use a small English roast for your stuffing. Don't be fooled by some with a keen sense of humor to use liver in your rice stuffing. Bitter.
To prepare your stuffing, cut into fine bits, your English roast and your turkey giblets. Cut off and discard the rough skins of the giblets, scraping some of the skin off if you can. Many grocers offer packaged giblets and those make a fine stuffing, they just need lots of time to prepare. Put your cut up diced really fine meats in a pot and cover the meat with water. Boil. Discard the water and put your meat into a large frying pan. Add two tablespoons butter; don't use margarine as the artificial concealers in oleo react poorly with the turkey meat. Brown the meat and stir in the melting butter. Add one large onion minced fine and stir. Add one tablespoon salt and one tablespoon pepper. You should have used about two cups of meat. It will cook down. Add a handful of pine nuts or if you can't find them add a half cup of boiled, peeled and cut fine chestnuts. Add two cups rice and two cups water. Mix and boil. Do not experiment with spices as the turkey meat absorbs different chemicals from these spices and they will be noticeable in the meat. If you insist one or two whole cloves may be thrown in. Turn off the heat and cover pilaf.
Now let's look at your turkey, the turkey should be stuffed both in the body cavity and in the neck. The turkey both fresh and thawed out frozen should be thoroughly rinsed and patted dry with paper towels. Place the turkey in the roasting pan, I never used a rack as I liked my turkey basted with its own juices. When your rice has thoroughly absorbed the water and this should be in about twenty minutes begin to stuff your turkey. Stuff the body cavity first. I never bother to sew up the turkey. What I use is a large apple, unpeeled and uncut. I insert the apple behind the stuffing. My mother did use metal hooks to seal the turkey but I consider that a waste of time. You, then, stuff the cavity that is formed by the skin at the top of the turkey. Don't forget rice grows. I use a peeled onion the size of the hole and insert it in behind the stuffing.
Now, you may season your turkey with salt and if you want a crispy skin, butter the turkey. Bake the turkey in a preheated hot oven 400 F for 30 minutes. Baste the turkey with its juices using a long handled brush. Lower the oven temperature to 350 F and continue cooking and basting for about 20 minutes per pound. Figure about 4 hours of baking time for a turkey of ten pounds or more. Carefully after about 3 hours of cooking pull turkey out of oven and pour on one cup of white wine. Cover with aluminum foil or leave uncovered and add water if the turkey dries out before fully cooked. You do not want a raw turkey and you do not want an over cooked turkey as the raw turkey would taste like flesh and the overcooked turkey like shoe leather. Really the leg of the turkey is the best indicator of doneness. Pierce the leg with a long three pronged fork. If no blood spurts out and a clear juice does , then your turkey is done.
When turkey is cooked remove from oven and let sit on range top for 15 minutes. Remove the apple and the onion and discard. With ladle remove most of stuffing and place in decorative covered bowl. If you are going to carve your turkey at the table, lift the turkey out with a spatula and quickly transfer to turkey platter. A turkey is carved from left to right. Cut off the drumstick and the joint connecting it to the thigh. Cut off the wing. Turn your turkey and slice through the rest. Enjoy.
