Turkey for the Holidays

Thirty years ago, my mom showed me how she prepared our Thanksgiving turkey. I have always prepared ours the same way she taught me. Clean and wash out the turkey, make a flour mask to coat the turkey with. Which is butter and flour. Season with salt and pepper rub on the mask and wrap up in foil. Then turn on the oven and start cooking about 2:00 a.m. and let it cook at 250 for about 8 hours. We always have 18 to 20 pound turkey. It was good and we always enjoyed it.

This year I was watching how a lot of the chiefs on the Food Network Channel prepared their turkey and decided to try something different. Since the Barefoot Contessa happens to be one of my favorites, I decided to try her version and let me tell you it was the best turkey I have ever cooked. This is what I did. Always wash the turkey with warm water inside and out and clean the turkey up. Zest and juice one lemon, 1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened, 1 heaping teaspoon of fresh chopped thyme. Mix these together and run your fingers between the skin and the breast meat to loosen the membrane and then put the butter mixture under the skin covering as much of the breast meat as possible. Salt and pepper the outside skin and rub the rest of the butter mixture over the skin. Now, inside the cavity cut a small onion in half and lay it inside the cavity along with half a lemon, a large bundle of garlic cut in half, and about 12 stems of fresh thyme. Tie the legs together with cooking twine and lay turkey in a roasting pan with a rack in the bottom. I cooked it at 400 degrees for 4 hours and after about 2 hours, once the turkey was golden brown, I layed foil over the top to keep it from burning. I let it rest after cooking for about 20 minutes before it was carved.

My family loved it and they thought it was the best turkey we have ever had. I think next year I will do the same thing but I may lay the turkey on a bed of carrots, celery, onions and apples. I saw someone do that and thought that might be interesting. Happy Cooking!!