Christmas Turkey

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 5 kg turkey, frozen, with neck and giblets
• 1 kg onion(s)
• 250 g breadcrumbs
• 15 sage leaves, fresh
• 100 g butter
• 3 m.-large carrot(s)
• oil
• 1 jar chicken stock
• 1 tsp black pepper, freshly coarsely ground
• 3 tsp sea salt
• 200 ml cognac or other brandy
• 2 m.-sized eggs
• Flour for thickening, optional

Instructions

Working time approx. 50 minutes; Rest time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 4 hours 30 minutes; Total time approx. 5 hours 30 minutes

British Christmas turkey with onion and sage stuffing and cognac sauce

I got this recipe from my grandmother, and this is how we’ve been making our Christmas turkey for years. First, thaw the frozen turkey overnight and then rinse it thoroughly. Remove the gland at the top (otherwise it will give the sauce a bitter taste). Set aside the neck, liver, and heart. Then start on the stuffing. Peel 800g of the onions and cut them into eighths. Place them in a pot with plenty of boiling water and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the onions are soft. Add 10 large sage leaves to the pot and blanch briefly. Then remove the leaves and chop them finely, and drain the onions. Then chop the onions using a potato masher, a food processor, or a hand blender. It shouldn’t become mush; there should still be small pieces of onion. Add the chopped sage leaves, pour in the softened butter, eggs, and breadcrumbs, and knead everything well. It should form a firm mixture, similar to making meatballs. Season with salt and pepper. This can easily be done the day before, then add the breadcrumbs and eggs the next day. If all of it doesn’t fit into the turkey, simply spread it 1 cm thick into a shallow casserole dish or pie plate, press it down a little, and bake until the stuffing is nice and golden and crispy. Stuff the turkey with it (if the skin sticks out at the back, feel free to stuff it underneath). Close the opening with roulade pins or sew it up. Cover any open areas with bacon. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius. Brush the turkey with a little oil and rub in a little salt and pepper. Then line the bottom of a roasting tin or deep baking sheet with the remaining quartered onions and carrots, add a dash of cognac, and add 700 ml of water so that the bottom is well covered. Place a wire rack on top and place the turkey on it, breast-side up. Then cover with aluminum foil (you can fold two strips of foil together in the middle for more stability) and make sure that the foil does not come into contact with the bird. Roast in the preheated oven for one hour. After one hour, remove the turkey and reduce the temperature to 130 degrees Celsius. Pour the juices from the roasting pan over the bird, cover again and put everything back in the oven. Repeat this several times within three hours so that the turkey has been in the oven for a total of four hours. In the meantime, sear the neck, liver and heart (definitely not the severed gland) in a pan and deglaze with about 50 ml of cognac and the stock. Let everything simmer for about one hour. Mix the remaining cognac (about 120 ml) with two teaspoons of salt and dissolve the salt in it. It should be very salty, but still tasty and not burn your tongue. After the turkey has been in the oven for four hours, remove the aluminum foil, set the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (grill), and baste the turkey with the salted cognac every five minutes until it is nicely browned and crispy (about 25 minutes). Remove the neck and the rest of the meat from the pot and pour in the juices from the roasting tin through a sieve. If the sauce is too fatty, skim off a little fat. Season with salt, pepper, sage, and cognac, and let it reduce for 15 minutes. Then, if desired, thicken with a little flour. Let the turkey rest, covered, for about ten minutes, then carve up and remove the stuffing. Traditionally, we serve it with buttered carrots and Yorkshire pudding (see my other recipes).