TIPS FOR A PERFECT THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Less than a week time is left for Thanksgiving. Stuffed turkey is the great star of the festive table.

There are many different variations, but the traditional turkey recipe for Thanksgiving Meal is filled with a mixture of toasted bread, chestnuts, bacon or sausages, berries, raisins and apples. The key ingredient for the dressing and the spices, used in baking, is sage.

Usually – at least for me- stuffed turkey is a dry, tasteless food that just encompasses a delicious stuffing, that eventually steals the show.

But the mood around a Thanksgiving family table is usually so warm and festive that the turkey manages to go unnoticed as a delicacy. It, however, retains its leading role as a custom.

 Although, if we peek in a few secrets and pay some special attention, we can manage to elevate its taste and make it juicy and tender:

·      If you bought a frozen turkey, then you must be proactive; make sure to thaw it well before baking. Leave it in the fridge for a few hours or even a day, if it is big. Keep in mind that each kilo of turkey takes about 6 hours in the fridge to thaw. Also, before you put it in the oven, the turkey should be at room temperature, around 72 °F.

·      To achieve a crispier turkey skin, unwrap your turkey the day before and leave it in the fridge without a cover. Make sure to always defreeze your turkey in the fridge and not out of it, because this way you will make sure that its meat does not develop any bacteria.

·      Unless you are a trussing boss, it is preferable not to truss the turkey before baking, because without trussing the bird will cook more evenly.  

·      It is a good idea to place the turkey on a baking sheet covered from a thick layer of chopped onions, carrots and garlic. Besides the fact that this way the meat will absorb many flavors and aromas, it will also be cooked evenly from below.

·      Try to avoid opening your oven door as often while you cook the turkey.  Each time you do that, you are disturbing dramatically the temperature of the chamber, so cooking will slow down and the meat will eventually become very dry.

·      The turkey should be smeared before entering the oven with a mixture of olive oil or butter (I prefer olive oil for a more delicate taste) along with salt, pepper and spices of your choice. A delicious and healthy mix can be made from olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard, thyme, garlic and sage. Do not forget to smear the mixture inside the bird, before adding the filling.

·      An alternative instead of smearing your turkey, would be to cover its entire surface with large slices of bacon, which will protect the skin from being burned, while providing the fat needed to make it juicy - and a little fattening of course, but it’s a holiday so let's just ignore it. You can remove them after baking.

·      Once the turkey is cooked, remove it from the oven, sprinkle it with a little olive oil, cover the entire pan with foil and allow it to rest for about half an hour before serving.

Either it is our whole family, our friends or just a dinner for two, the people that we love and we want to thank -for one or more reasons- gather around a decorated table in the colors of autumn, enjoying a unique meal, made with love. No gifts needed.

The only gifts exchanged are words. Kind, loving words. The messages we often forget to send to our own people, just before the beginning of one of the most beautiful seasons of the year. Christmas!