How to stuff your turkey (if you insist)
A stern piece of advice has been issued by the Food Standards Agency warning that British cooks would do well to avoid stuffing their turkeys. You and your guests will be at risk from food poisoning, it says, in the event the stuffing is not thoroughly cooked and contaminated with uncooked turkey juices, and you would be safer baking the stuffing separately, in a tin. It sounds somewhat spoilsport: so is it true?
Like many readers I suspect, I was brought up to enjoy succulent spoonfuls of stuffing scooped from the interior of the turkey. Indeed, they were one of the better parts of the feast: moist and savoury, they tasted like the essence of turkiness, untinged by disappointment while the bird itself was (let’s face it) often dry and overcooked.
Modern turkeys – for instance those by KellyBronze – are far superior to the olden days, and can be cooked to perfection following the on-pack (or on-bird) instructions. So where does that leave us with stuffing?
To return to first principles, stuffing is a savoury accompaniment to a roast, based usually on herbs, chopped onion and breadcrumbs, often bound together with an egg. The flavouring possibilities are endless – at this time of year, sage, sausage meat, chestnuts and dried fruits often play a part. My departed and much missed mother always made a point of making two different stuffings – one sage and onion, the other something outré such as dried apricot and walnut – simply so that we could all agree you can’t beat sage and onion.
Traditionally the stuffing (cold, if the recipe calls for pre-cooking) is placed in the neck end of the turkey. In case I’m the only one who finds the anatomy of birds puzzling, this is the broad end (the opposite end from the legs). The accepted wisdom is not to pack it in too tight. Fanny Cradock – whose Christmas programmes are, as usual, trending on YouTube – uses a piping bag to insert it neatly, but I find a wooden spoon and your hands do just as well.
Weigh the bird once it’s stuffed, then calculate your timings; a 4kg (8.8lbs) turkey (weighed after stuffing) should be cooked at 190C/170C fan/gas mark 5 for 20 minutes per kg plus 70 minutes; helpful calculators can be found online. A more modern approach – suggested by Jamie Oliver – is to place your stuffing between the skin and the flesh of the turkey. It’s an odd feeling the first time you do it, but wiggle your fingers under the skin at the neck end to loosen, then patiently work in a layer of stuffing under each breast.
Timings are useful, but always check the turkey juices run clear when the thickest part of the turkey – the lower thigh – is pricked with a skewer. An even better guide is a digital probe thermometer, as beloved by chefs. Mine is made by Thermapen and I’m looking for a reading of 70C, after which the bird will be rested out of the oven for at least half an hour to finish cooking. As long as the turkey is properly cooked, the stuffing will be too.
Stuffing cooked inside the bird is deliciously moist and rich in turkey juices. Remove any leftovers at once and chill separately: turkey, stuffing and “grayo” (cold gravy beaten into mayonnaise) sandwiches are tipped to be big this year.
For those who prefer their stuffing springy, or with a crunch, it should be baked in a loaf or baking tin, either in a slab or shaped into balls. Make sure the tin or foil is well greased or the stuffing will stick. For those who wish to go the whole hog – and if not now, when? – America’s Test Kitchen suggests a hybrid method, in which the cavity of the turkey (the larger space at the leg end of the bird) is lined with cheesecloth before you spoon in the stuffing. Once the turkey is cooked, the bag of stuffing is emptied into a tin and baked till crisp and golden – the best of all worlds.
