Turkey Stuffing

[BennyB]

Righto chaps, it's that time of the year again.

At some point in a drunken state after the freedive world champs recently I foolishly volunteered to do the Christmas lunch at our place for a bunch of orphaned Aussies in London. Now, seeing as it's a bit cool for the usual prawns, crab and oysters (and bleedingly expensive over here).

A hangover and a trip (translate: scrum pack) to the shops later and I now have a 5kg turkey 2kg ham and am picking up a 2kg pork shoulder tomorrow, all to feed 5 people, 8 if the others turn up.

Roasting I should be fine, have done that before and it's not rocket science. But stuffing... this is quite a personal and intimate thing. I'm thinking cranberries, walnuts sage and onion, but let's have it. Spill your beans on your Christmas turkey stuffing recipes folks! I'm don't want to do a meat stuffing as i'm already up for 4 or 5 hours of cooking and meat stuffing will just make it longer.

Cheerio,
Ben

 

[Pastor]

Spill your beans on your Christmas turkey stuffing

roflroflrofl

Not a combination of words I would have used

Got to have some good sausage meat in there somewhere

 

[island_sands]

all i can say is mmmm

i am sitting in dubai airport, waiting for my flight... on second glass of champagne, merry xmas to you all!!

 

[bluecape]

:friday :friday Where you flying to Sara ??????:friday :friday :friday :friday :friday :friday :friday

 

[island_sands]

hoo hoo!!!

 

[Amphibious]

have never stuffed a turkey, but if you want one done on the quick, and have a big enough pot, try deepfrying it. sooooo gooood

 

[Oldsarge]

Colin has a point. We feel that it is better to refer to the stuff as "dressing" and make it a side dish. Then you can just roast the turkey anyway you want (or deep fry it) make up some gravy and drown the dressing in that. Too many people have given themselves a jolly royal case of food poisoning from incorrectly stuffing a turkey.

The best part of a turkey is the gravy, anyway.

 

[BennyB]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Mmmm, deepfrying a turkey sounds good, but I have neither the room nor the arteries for that, will give it a bash at some point though.

I like the sound of the sausage meat stuffing but dad was always a no-meat stuffing man and it's been passed down to me (though bits of cooked bacon always go in... it's not really a meat is it?). Plus it's damn hard to cook properly and not give everyone yella yella :yack

I'm leaning towards this at the moment.... cranberries, walnuts, sage, onion, cooked smoky bacon and breadcrumbs.

I'm getting a bit nervous, it's getting way out of control - 3 days of shopping and the fridge is full of meat, haven't even bought the veg yet! Seems that our kitchen won't be big enough so while i'm roasting the turkey i'll nip up the road to a mate's place and roast the pork

Cheerio,
Ben

 

[maytag]

BennyB-
Your feast sounds great! Hope you all have a great time. Here in the States, we have dehydrated dressing called "Stove Top." It can be doctored with add'l ingredients (mushrooms!), and it is super fast to prepare.

You are a good soul to host the orphans! A Merry Christmas to you and many happy returns of the year! Cheers,

P.s. is the turkey in the freezer? ours didn't thaw in time one year...

 

[naiad]

Colin has a point. We feel that it is better to refer to the stuff as "dressing" and make it a side dish. Too many people have given themselves a jolly royal case of food poisoning from incorrectly stuffing a turkey.

What you could do is roll the stuffing into balls and roast the turkey and stuffing separately, then stuff the balls into the turkey. rofl

That way you can be sure that the stuffing and turkey are properly cooked.

 

[Pastor]

What you could do is roll the stuffing into balls and roast the turkey and stuffing separately

Exactly!
Damn Aussie heathens roflrofl And to think they came up with the stuff a can of beer up a chickens ar$e idea! Would there be any finer way to cook your turkey?

 

[BennyB]

Thanks Maytag! I love cooking anyway, though it's daunting cooking for a big group there's nothing better than watching people enjoy your food and go back for more. Last weekend we had a Chrissy party and I did a massive beef goulash that cooked for about 6 hours.... a lot of work went into it and it was gone in 2 minutes!!!! I didn't even get to have any, though I did try it the whole way through so I got a bit in. Very satisfying to see people enjoying a good feed.

Mushrooms.... buggar! I was thinking of putting some in but the ones in the fridge were a bit old... should have bought some more. Oh well....

Ahhh, beer can chicken.... I swear you will not find a more succulent way of cooking chicken, it's delectible, and a great excuse to buy a case of beer, you know - for future chickens

Merry Christmas to all!

Cheers,
Ben

ps. yes the turkey is thawed and in the fridge. Dad made that mistake once when we were kids!

 

[samdive]

sausage stuffing - pull sausage meat out of its skin and mash up with salt, pepper, herbs and any other goodies - put it in the turkey cold through the neck

second type - breadcrumbs, chopped onions, sage, parsley, other stuff, salt, pepper, can bind it together with a bit of egg and milk and then stuff it into a cold turkeys bum

all stuffing must be put into the turkey cold

if you like lemons you can also put one of those inside

or you can make a chestnut stuffing out of pureed chestnuts

cover the whole turkey in bacon to keep it crispy

that's what my mum just recommended......

(or you can buy it in a packet)

have a good one

Sam (vegetarian turkey stroker)

 

[BennyB]

Right, stuffing is in, bird is in the oven :friday

I've never violated an animal so much in my life..... I had my hand up it's clacker right up to the elbow - I felt like I had to marry it or something otherwise i'd be arrested!

Now to start the peeling and par-boiling, then off down the road to roast the pork.

I love Christmas.....

 

[Pastor]

Right, stuffing is in, bird is in the oven :friday

then off down the road to roast the pork.

Better that than spilling your beans over the turkey

Merry Christmas everyone :friday

 

[BennyB]

Oops, did it again

I've got birds on the mind!

 

[BennyB]

Ah, 2 days afterwards and i'm still drunk by meat overdose rofl

What a spectacular day - I can't remember the last time I cooked so much for so long but damn it was worth it.

The Turkey was fantastic, cooked perfectly through some stroke of luck, but the seasoning tasted brilliant, really nailed it. The pork was lovely and the ham was pretty darn good as well. The roasties were crunchy and the gravy..... the gravy...... i've always been pretty crap at gravy but this was the greatest gravy the world has ever known (bashful aren't I??), it took 4 hours in it's own right so it should have been good!

It was pretty embarrasing actually - five of us stuffed ourselves stupid and there's still a ton of food 2 days later. Ah well, it'll find a home.

Cheerio,
Ben

Anyway,

 

[Oldsarge]

Even for five college guys that would be a lot of food! Were there any side dishes? Just curious, no criticism meant. Tell you what, you do the next set of meats and I'll bake bread and bring a salad big enough to hide in.

 

[maytag]

Nice job, BennyB! Looks awesome. A bunch of meat-loving guys at work married vegetarian/vegan wives. Every now and then, I get invited as a token carnivorous female to tag along and observe their "National Day of Meat." Your feast sets the new standard.

Thanks for posting the thread - all of you - it made Christmas fun and a lot less lonely as I couldn't make it home this year. Cheers!:friday

 

[BennyB]

Thanks! Sometimes I even surprise myself...

Yep Sarge there were veggies as well but nothing too elaborate - while I was running between houses checking my pork the lovely mrs cut the veggies and par boiled them like I told her before they went in the oven. Unfortunately they were on the boil for too long (by my reckoning anyway) so the potatoes were floury and falling apart, and the sweet potatoes were mushy. I drained them, roughed the normal potatoes with a fork and put them in the oven pan with some melted butter and olive oil, and threw in some whole unpeeled garlic cloves as well and roasted them on full blast. Fortunately, they all turned out fantastic so i'll be continuing that method. The potatoes crisped up nicely and the sweet potato caramelised and turned very sweet.

So all up we had roast turkey with stuffing, honey baked ham, roast pork, roast potato, roast sweet potato, roast pumpkin, steamed broccoli (microwave job), steamed baby carrot (done in oven - wrapped in foil with white wine, honey and thyme... my wife's idea and it came out fantastic), with cranberry sauce (bottle job), apple sauce (also bottle job but doctored a bit) and gravy.

The gravy I made by boiling the neck and giblets for a few hours in water with a few bay leaves, then poured into the pan and added vegetable stock (ran out of chicken stock), picked out the giblets/neck and added cornflour to thicken it up (we had a guest who can't eat wheat). Then towards the end, I picked the meat off the neck, chopped it and added it to the gravy (there you go, that's the secret weapon!).

Bloody ripper!

Cheers,
Ben

ps tonight it's turkey and ham pasta with pesto! Pen's doing that, i'm done with cooking that bird

pps National Day of Meat, Maytag? Aaarrrrrgggghhhh....... :inlove :inlove :inlove