Thanksgiving Turkey

Name: Thanksgiving Turkey
Ingredients: 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted; 1 fresh turkey (18 to 20 pounds), with its giblets; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; Freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 1 cup tawny port; 1 onion, quartered; 3 ribs celery, halved crosswise; ¾ cup tawny port; 3½ cups water; 1 large carrot, peeled and quartered; 3 cups chopped celery with leaves; 1 cup Berta’s Chicken Stock or canned broth, well seasoned with salt and pepper; Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; ¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon crumbled dried sage leaves; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves; 6 cups stale bread cubes; 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and chopped; 1 cup dried pitted cherries*; 2 tart apples, cut into ½-inch cubes; 1 pound bulk country pork sausage, broken into small chunks; 2 cups Chopped onions

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The New Basics Cookbook

By Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso

Published 1989

About

We’ve made the traditional meal a little lighter and a little crispier. Besides sausage, celery, and onions, the stuffing is flavored with toasted hazelnuts and dried Michigan cherries. We’ve left out the butter, and moistened the stuffing instead with tawny port and seasoned broth. The turkey is cooked on a bed of vegetables, which flavor the pan juices for the gravy—and we’ve added less flour than usual to the gravy. It’s all new and delicious.

Ingredients

Main course

Ingredients

Method