Recipes Turkey at 400º with Hurmuses Family Wild Rice Stuffing

When it came to Christmas time, Dad had a lot in common with Prince Charles. In our family, the perogative of cooking Christmas Dinner was held by the eldest male, my Grandfather Hurmuses (Papu), until he died at 93. Then and only then, at the age of 62, was my father finally promoted to the Master of Christmas dinner... which got later and later every year.

With change, came innovation, including this new method for cooking turkey at 400ºF, a big hit with my family, who have always been late to start the actual dinner preparations...we typically had Christmas dinner at 7pm - 8pm...and as late as 9pm once Dad took the helm (a good cook, but not the most timely).

Turkey, the fast way (also for my money, the more delicious way, this produces an exceptionally juicy bird, with a nice crispy skin).

• Turkey
• Salt
• Pepper
• Sage
• Oregano
• Thyme

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Bring bird to room temperature (and definitely NOT still frozen).
3. Remove the neck and innards.
4. Rub the skin with butter or oil to keep it from drying and to help get a crispy skin on the bird.
5. Season the bird inside and out. My family puts a mixture of salt, pepper, sage, oregano and thyme together in a shaker to season our birds with, you can use a commercial poultry seasoning if you wish.

6. Place the bird on a rack in a roasting pan and cook at 15 minutes per pound (lb) for the first 10lbs, then for 7 minutes per lb for each additional lb.

   If your bird is stuffed, add another 10 minutes to the total, an extra 20 if your bird was over 20lbs before being stuffed.

   This means that a 12lb turkey would be cooked for 150 minutes for the first 10lbs, plus 15 minutes for the additional 2lbs, plus 10 minutes if stuffed, for a total of 175 minutes, or 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Best practice for cooking a turkey is to use a good meat thermometer, inserted inside the thickest point of the thigh juncture, where the leg meets the body of the bird, but without touching any bone (bone will be at a different temperature than the meat). This will tell you when the bird is at exactly 180ºF.

Let the bird rest for 20 minutes before carving, or you will lose all of the juices and burn yourself in the process.

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I've lost the family stuffing recipe, so this is from memory, but it should be pretty close.

Hurmuses Family Wild Rice Stuffing

• ¼ C Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Sage
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Onion Chopped (won't put down the real quantities of garlic and onion we used, being a Greek family, it was a lot. You're better off suiting yourself here, but at least 1 onion and 3 garlic cloves)
• Garlic Minced
• Innards (Giblets, Liver, Heart) Minced (Dad used to always get extra over what was already in the turkey, chicken parts if necessary)
• ½ C Wild Rice^*
• 2 ½ C Rice^*
• 1 ½ C mixed currants and Thompson raisins (you could use sultanas, but we always used the dark raisins...towards the end, dad was also adding cranberries, but the purists in the family preferred without)
• 6 Cups Turkey Stock (or chicken stock if you don't have any turkey stock on hand...or water, there's going to be lots of flavour coming from the bird)

1. Saute the onions in the olive oil until translucent add the seasonings, minced garlic and innards and cook until they are browned and fully cooked. This is important. The roasting of the turkey does not get the stuffing hot enough that it will cook these parts...they must be already done.
2. Add the rice and wild rice and stir until fully coated with oil.
3. Add the currants and raisins, stirring into the rice mixture until well-distributed.
4. Add the stock.
5. Cover and cook until the liquid is completely absorbed.
6. Salt turkey cavities (both the gut and under the flap left by the removal of the neck.
7. Fill with stuffing, get as much in as you can and put the rest in a casserole dish with the neck and any extracted fat on top (to get the drippings that this stuffing is not getting from the bird).

Dad used to always sew this up with butcher string, using a curved upholstery needle. I wrap the string around the legs to keep the shape of the bird (and to keep the filling contained) wrapping the neck flap under the bird to allow gravity to hold it together.

^* Rice Select makes an easy and tasty mixed rice named Royal Blend, that combines black rice, red rice and regular brown rice with wild rice.