Recipe: Roast Turkey

An enjoyable, worry-free "turkey dinner" begins with proper preparation. Although turkey is a great menu idea, especially around holiday time, there is always the possibility of salmonella poisoning with any poultry dish, so you have to be sure to properly prepare and cook the meat.

PREPARING THE TURKEY

If you are using a pre-basted turkey (one with butter already added), wash just the exterior of the turkey and pat dry with paper towel. If your turkey is unbasted, wash out both interior and exterior well with cool tap water, prior to adding the dressing (stuffing) and cooking procedure. This will help to ensure less chance of salmonella bacteria from ruining your turkey dinner.

Once you have cleaned and dried the turkey well, you can now add the stuffing (check out my recipe for chicken/turkey dressing from scratch(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1292960/recipe_turkey_dressing_from_scratch.html?cat=22 ).

*caution: Be sure to clean your preparation area well after you have prepared your turkey, being sure that you have left no possible traces of salmonella that can then cross contaminate to other foods. Wash the area well with lots of soap and water.

Set your oven at 325 degrees.

ROASTING THE TURKEY

Set your turkey into an ample sized roasting pan. If it is not a pre-basted turkey, you will need to add butter, oil or margarine at this point, brushing it liberally onto the turkey. If you are using butter or margarine, be sure to take out enough from the onset. Never scoop out a bit of butter from the container, butter the turkey and then add more, putting your knife or brush back into the container. This will leave traces of salmonella in your butter/margarine which can then be transferred onto other foods.

Roasting time for Turkey

You will need to roast the turkey for 20 minutes per pound. For example, if your turkey is 15 lbs, you will need to cook it for 5 hours (15 lbs x 20 min = 300 divided by 60 min = 5 hours).

Cover the pan with either a lid or tin foil and roast for the designated time.

Approximately an hour before your turkey is ready, you can take it from the oven periodically to baste. Pour the juices from the pan over the turkey to keep it from drying out. This will also help to brown the turkey evenly. You can now continue to roast the turkey for the remaining hour, uncovered. Continue to baste it approximately every 15 minutes.

MAKING TURKEY GRAVY

Ingredients: salt and pepper to taste, 1/4 cup flour, potato water (approximately 3 cups) or 3 cups of water and 1 or 2 tbsp corn starch

Once your turkey has been cooked, take it out of the roasting pan and place onto a serving tray to cool (be sure to scoop out the dressing and add it to its own serving dish). You can now make your gravy.

Directions:

Place the pan, in which you cooked your turkey, on a low to medium heat on the top element of your stove. Add enough salt and pepper to taste. Now add approximately 1/4 cup of flour to the pan. If you have also made potatoes with your meal, save the left over potato water after draining it from the potatoes, and use this to add to the pan to make the gravy. If you don't have potato water, add a couple of tablespoons of corn starch to approximately 3 cups of water. Add the water in thirds while continuing to stir. This will give the gravy its thick consistency. Stir continuously so that the gravy mixture does not burn or stick to the pan. Once it has the desired consistency and coloring, you can pour it into your gravy boat (you may want to strain your gravy at this point so that you do not have any remaining bits of meat chunks in your gravy).

Bon appétit!