The Co-Op BlogELIZABETH HOY’S TRADITIONAL TEXAS TURKEY
November 24th, 2009 by Annie
Whether you’re looking for a recipe for this Thanksgiving or this Christmas, I am happy to share a piece of my family’s tradition with you. This is the recipe that has been passed down from mother to daughter through generations on my mother’s side of the family. I will never forget that warm feeling of waking up early on Thanksgiving and Christmas to the smell of onions and celery cooking for the turkey stuffing. I always jumped out of bed so I could help squish the bread the stuff the turkey.
As I write this, I realize that for the Hoy’s, the turkey was just the vehicle for the stuffing…and the gravy. What follows is taken from a scrap of food-stained paper where she wrote in her own words the narrative for our holiday bird recipe. She sent it to me when I cooked my first Thanksgiving away from home in 1973 when I was 20 years old.
STUFFING
Use 1 loaf of bread (not sourdough, but white or wheat will do), preferably somewhat stale, for a 12 pound turkey. Wet the bread with milk, water, or broth and goosh it all up in a large mixing bowl until the crust is all blended in with the rest. Sometimes I put in 1 egg and mix in well; sometimes not. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mince one medium onion, and 2 0r 3 stalks of celery. I really like the stuffing cooked in a large skillet before stuffing the bird, but if I’m in a hurry I just put the onions an celery in and stuff it without cooking. If you do cook the cressing, use bacon grease for the best flavor. If you’re not a bacon eater, vegetable oil works just as well. Cook the onions and celery until transparent, then dump in the bread mixture and cook it until it’s all mixed up and the right consistency, 5 minutes or so. Then stuff the turkey and sew it up. [Note: I never put it in the turkey without cooking and I add a healthy amount of fresh chopped parsley and lots of garlic.]
TURKEY
I cook a turkey in a covered dturkey roaster that I’ve had since 1935. [Note: my nephew got the turkey roaster...darn!] You can do very well with any roasting pan that is at least 3 or 4 inches deep. Make a tent of heavy aluminum foil to put over the turkey and fasten it down as well as you can.
I cook the turkey at 400 degrees for the first hour or hour and a half until the juices begin to come out and cover the bottom of the pan. The juice should be a little brown and look kind of greasy. Salt and pepper the turkey [Note: I usually do this before putting in the oven], add a cup of water or a little more if necessry and turn the oven down to 350 degrees. All you have to do is watch it so the liquid doesn’t boil out. Addd more water if it gets too low. Baste it about every 15 minutes for the last hour of cooking. Allow 15 minutes per pound.
GRAVY
I start making the gravy during the last hour of cooking. To make the gravy, add water to the pan and then make a smooth paste of flour and water in a measuring cup, say 2 or 3 heaping teaspoons of flour. Then fill the cup with water, stif and add it to the water in the pan. If after cooking it’s not thick enough to suit you, add more flour and water paste little by little until it’s just right. Salt the gravy and continue to cook until you take out the turky and let it rest fo 20 minutes before serving.
USE THIS RECIPE AS A TEMPLATE
This is the most simple way to make your holiday feast. My mom could do this recipe in her sleep, and probably did on those early mornings where we planned to have our meal right at noon. You can adjust cooking time and stuffing amounts depending on the size of your turkey. You can brine your bird, or put a flavorful dry rub on it. You can add dried fruit and/or nuts to your stuffing. You can substitute stock for water in the gravy. I usually make a stock from the giblets that I use for my gravy. You really can’t mess this up much.
Please enjoy this recipe and have the happiest of Thanksgivings!
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