Reflections on a Turkey Past and Future Part 2

For the past 20+ some years, my wife Cindy would never know what the turkey might taste like because I loved creating new cooking sauces and basting concoctions for the annual Christmas feast.

Then a few years ago I began to focus on using several key ingredients and have spent the last few years refining this particular way of roasting the Christmas turkey.

I want to share the ingredients and if it seems like a tasty adventure to embark upon do so and let me know how the adventure turns out.  Send me any questions while you are creating and maybe we can share back and forth.

Note -- I will bring this post back into play come November of this year as we prepare for our annual Christmas journeys in the holidays.

Life should be about trying new things and sharing the joy of the adventure.  This turkey is now becoming a favourite of mine and next time I write I will try to remember to tell you about the reduction sauce I made to baste this turkey in and how the butter rub creates an amazing gravy.



Basic Ingredients

Turkey

10 thin slices of Prosciutto Ham

Herbed Butter

Dehydrated Mushrooms

Whole Garlic Cloves if you have them.  Marinated or not.  Enough to place 4 or 5 rows 4-5 wide in roaster pan and turkey will rest on the cloves.  The aroma is wonderful and you can eat them with the meal.

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees or 365 if oven cooks hot.



Instructions

 Cindy and I used a 12-14 lb fresh turkey this year and shared Christmas dinner with two valued friends.

That amount of Prosciutto Ham, will just cover a 12-14 pound turkey (if paying about $7 for this is too much, try to find a good bacon that should cost less).

For the Herbed Butter,  I have used Costco's Organic No Salt Seasoning and  Clubhouse Garlic Plus as my seasoning for the butter.  Plus more garlic to taste.  As my cooking class students have come to know I believe that there can never be enough garlic.  Note of warning or sadness depending on how you receive the news, the Herbed Butter doesn't really work with margarine.  Sorry.  :)

Prepare the herbed butter if you can at least 2 days in advance.  Note -- I intend to try a butter with fresh herbs mixed into it for our next Christmas turkey.

 I used a combination of dehydrated mushrooms purchased from Costco.

Carefully lift skin and rub butter over as much of the meat as you can reach.  Wear thin gloves.  Less mess!
Place the dehydrated mushroom under the skin also.  So the number of mushrooms used varies.  Rub inside the cavity and place mushrooms there also.

With the size turkey we used that meant about 12 mushrooms which vary in size because of the combination of mushrooms used in the mix.  So the number of mushrooms used varies.

Note-- it is best if you can do this the night before but all is not lost if you do this the morning of.

Place Prosciutto Ham over turkey.  I do not tie the turkey or place a dressing in the cavity as I put the Prosciutto Ham pieces in the cavity halfway through the roasting time so that the product as easily chopped and makes a tasty side addition to the meal.

Place garlic cloves 4 or 5 rows at 4-5 wide in roaster pan and turkey will rest on the cloves.  The aroma is wonderful and you can eat them with the meal.

Place turkey in roasting pan and cover and place in Oven for 25 minutes at the preheated temperature.

After that time, turn temperature down to 300 degrees or as high as 325 degrees depending on how over cooks.

Baste the turkey at least 3 times after the initial 25 minutes.  Remove cover and allow skin to get crisp.

After removing turkey from oven.  Let rest for 15 minutes at least before trying to carve.

I did not take a picture of this recent creation but if you want the skin to be crisp, the turkey should look something like this.

Happy Eating!