Heritage Turkey and Dressing recipe - our favorite

Today we have further "perfected" our Thanksgiving turkey and dressing recipe for heritage turkeys.  Here are the details of what makes it the best turkey you will ever taste. The actual recipe is at the bottom of this long list of necessities. although this may seem like a lot of work, if each step is followed as stated below, you will not be disappointed. to achieve the best end result, you have to have a combination of all of these elements. One missing will alter the finished product significantly.

1. start with a heritage breed

our preference is by far the Narragansett breed. This breed is one of the larger heritage breeds, resulting in a nice size body cavity for dressing, and a good even balance between white meat and dark. It is the breed we have chosen to raise and sell, and our favorite in taste tests thus far.

2. raise naturally:

It is critically important that the birds be raised in a natural environment. By definition this means not cooped for most of their life, feed mostly consisting of grass and bugs freely foraged on their own, only light supplement with organic bird food when necessary. They need to spend their life in the sunshine and grass, free to fly when necessary, nest under the moon, and forage under the sun.

3. allow to mature:

Non-genetically altered turkeys (real turkeys) need to be allowed to mature to at least 5 to 6 months.  The best age is between 6 and 9 months. less than 6 months and the fat does not develop, more than 9 months and the meat gets tough. That magic windows of 6 to 9 gives a bird full of moist flavorful and healthy fat, that cooks up tender in a short time.

It is important to note here that this is utterly impossible for factory produced birds. The genetics in these birds do not allow them to live long enough to develop healthy fat.  If they did, they would be unable to walk due to genetic deformities.

It is also important to not, in this day of fat-fear that the fat which develops on these birds is healthy, if the above 3 items are followed. If, on the other hand, the bulk of the birds diet consists of artificial foods, than this is not the case and fat should be avoided.

4. humane and healthy processing

the actual processing of the birds must be done as stress free as possible. If the birds experience stress during the act of butchering, the body releases stress hormones that do affect the meat quality.  the best way to avoid stress (we have found) is quite and efficient catching, tie the legs together to prevent thrashing, followed by placing a full size dark bag (such as a feed bag) over the entire bird. this keeps them calm while awaiting the inevitable.

Killing the bird is best done by placing the bird upside down in a kill cone, and slitting the artery on the side of the  neck at the base of the head  with a very sharp knife, allowing the bird to bleed out quickly. The faster the blood leaves the body the more humane the act is, and the more tasteful the meat is. for this reason we do not chop off the heads. The goal is to drain the blood as quickly as possible with as little movement in the body as possible.

Lastly, the processing must be done cleanly. We do hot water bath scalding, followed by defeathering in a drum. Then the bird is placed in an ice water bath to drain off the body heat quickly while awaiting the next step.

Evisceration must be done quickly and carefully under running water to ensure that no contamination of the meat occurs. This is then followed by another ice water bath.  This second bath is then followed by a third clean ice water bath to ensure that the body tempo of the birds drops to about 35 degrees as quickly as possible in clean water.

5. aging

The best meat is aged meat. Just as an aged steak required proper aging so does poultry. We have found 24 to 48 hours of aging in a refrigerator yields the best meat.  We place a clean damp towel over the meat while aging to prevent drying out.

6. storage

Freezing does alter the quality of the meat, so the best end result is achieved by using fresh - never frozen birds. This  of course requires that the processing be done within a few days of cooking, as stored non frozen poultry only has a shelf life of a week or so at best.

now... what you have after these 6 steps is the best quality meat available  ready for cooking.  to make the best turkey and dressing, here is the actual recipe we use:

Brine

Brining further moisturizes the meat and adds flavor deep into the meat evenly. You can alter the brine recipe to include any flavors you prefer, just leave the water to salt to sugar ratio the same.

 container - 5 gallon plastic drink thermos
3 gallons water
6 cups salt
3 cups sugar
herbs - thyme or rosemary - if dried, about 3 or 4 tablespoons
1 entire garlic, crushed and peeled

Directions - mix the salt, sugar, and herbs in a large saucepan with a gallon of water and heat until it dissolves and steams. Then let it cool back to room temperature. Pour this into the thermos and add the rest of the water as cold as possible. The resulting mixture should be about 45 degrees. If your water temp does not allow this, substitute some ice for water in the thermos to bring the total to 3 gallons within the thermos. Rinse the bird and drop it into the thermos. If the water does not completely cover the turkey when it is held down, add a little more water.  Then fill a gallon size zip lock bag half way with water and place it on top of the water / turkey. This bag needs enough water so that when the lid is tightly fitted on the thermos, the total level of liquid rises to the top and just spills out.  Let this set in a cold place for 24 to 48 hours (we prefer 36 hours).

---- wait 24 to 48 hours

Giblets

We prefer to use the giblets in the stuffing because it is healthy, and if done right quite tasty.

Place giblets (heart, liver, gizzard, neck)  in a small sauce pan of water. add half an onion chopped in quarters, and a few black peppercorns. Sprinkle with a half a teaspoon of sea salt. Bring to a light boil and let it boil for about 2 hours. If the water level drops, add more to maintain the level above the giblets.

After 2 hours strain the  mixture in a strainer, retaining the liquid (to be used in dressing). Chop the giblets finely.

-- now is a good time to preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Stuffing mix

For each10 lbs of  bird, we use one box of stuffing mix (2 - 6 ounce packages). If you need more, its best to make no more than 1 box at time to make mixing easier.

1 box (2 6oz bags) unseasoned stuffing mix (croutons)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
giblets from above
1 cup of liquid from giblets above
1 cup of slightly melted butter (half softened, half melted)

Mix the chopped veggies with chopped giblets in a large bowl. add in the semi melted butter and mix thoroughly to coat all evenly. Then mix in the liquid and again mix until uniform.  Then pour in the bread crumbs and fold it all together gently. Continue only until everything is uniform again.

bird preparation

Remove the bird from the brine and rinse it inside and out. (don't worry, the flavor is now in the meat, not on it). Drain thoroughly and sprinkle a little black pepper inside the bird.

Now it is time to prepare the oven bag. I suppose a turkey roaster would do as good a job, but i don't own one, so we use the oven bags.  Open the bag and drop a spoonful of flour inside. Hold the neck closed and shake violently to spread the flour evenly. Place the bag into the pan and open it. inside the bag place 2 carrots chopped into 1 inch pieces, and 1 onion chopped in quarters and 2 celery stalks, chopped into 1 inch pieces.  Spread the veggies evenly across the bottom so the bird can rest on them.

Slide the bird breast up, neck end first into the bag and place it on the veggies. Then rub some semi melted butter or olive oil across the top of the bird and legs. This aids in browning.

stuffing the bird

Now open the bag enough to reach inside and place the stuffing mixture into the neck cavity. Pack it loosely and cover as much as possible with the skin.  When this is full, start stuffing the large opening with the rest of the stuffing, again loosely. If you have any stuffing left and both cavities are full, I like to stuff the extra between the legs and the body. If you still have leftover (you shouldn't now) it can be placed in a glass casserole pan and covered with foil to bake later.

baking

The oven should be preheated as above to 450 degrees. just before baking, poke 6 half inch holes in the bag across the top. Then place the bird in the center of the oven and immediately adjust the temp to 325.  The initial high heat helps to seal in the juices a bit without overcooking it. this of course depends on how quickly your oven looses heat. every oven is different in this so adjust the starting temperature as necessary.

Bake for 2 to 4 hours.  You know its done when 3 things happen;

1. The skin has nicely browned
2. The legs are completely free in the sockets, so when you push or pull on one it literally falls away from the socket.
3. The temperature of the deepest meat reaches about 175 degrees and the stuffing is about 165 degrees

The most critical one is actually #2, even if the tempo shows done, don't remove the bird until the leg sockets give little to no resistance when moved.

Presentation

Remove from the oven and cut the bag open, being careful to watch for the steam, its hot! We like to remove the stuffing from the bird and place it in a serving dish covered with foil. this lets it rest, voids some moisture through steam, and just balances the flavors while the bird is carved.

Remove as much meat as possible. If all above steps were followed, the meat should fall away from the bone. instead of carving most of the meat can be removed with a fork.

Lastly, sprinkle some of the juice from the bottom of the pan (bag) across the meat, especially the white meat. this gives a nice shine and keeps it moist and hot for serving.

Soup bones?

the bones make an excellent turkey stock, just drop all the bones in a large soup pot with enough water to cover. then add tablespoon of vinegar for each gallon of water.  drop in a few peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves, lightly salt it, and perhaps a half an onion. bring this to a simmer and hold at simmer with a tight cover on for 2 to 3 days. the bones should more than half disappear.  strain the mixture and you have excellent turkey stock for soup or cooking. it can be canned while hot and stored in the fridge for a few weeks. this is a great source of calcium and minerals in our diet, not to mention much better tasting then any store bought broth.

Enjoy! You have just created the world's best turkey and dressing, and it is healthy for you!