While readers are on task and topic, thinking about "stuiffing", I'll repeat this once more, as it draws few criticisms at home...
If we agree to brine the turkey, we have access to the neck, heart, giblets and liver well in advance...
So, in a smallpot, perhaps the night before, lets cook the neck, heart, and giblets in about 2.5 cups of gently salted water at a low boil for about 20 minutes...(you might add a quarter cup of chopped garlic)
Then add the liver and continue cooking for an aditional 30 minutes.
Allow it to cool, remove the neck, strip the meat and discard the bones...strip the gristle off the "giblets"...
Toss the whole lot, water and garlic included, into a blender "osteriser" and reduce to watery "pulp"...reserve for the next day, when you will "do" the turkey...
(The following is based on a 14 lb turkey..increase as needed for bigger birds)
I use about a loaf, to 1.5 loaves of Dempster's 12 grain bread, and cut away all the crust material, tearing up the bread, into small pieces, indeed around the size of packaged croutons...
Set that aside, and feed the birds and squirrels with the discards (its Christmas for them, too!)
In a cast fry pan, melt a half cup of margerine over low heat...when this is reduced to a liquid, a 3" diameter yellow onion, finely diced, (garlic, if you did not include with the organ meat the night before) and a stalk of celery very finely sliced and chopped...(I'm still thinking on the carrot addition, but it would work!) sauteed until translucent, and turn off the heat...stir in your ground up sage, or poultry seasoning spices (I'm down to using poultry seasoning, but stubbornly remain "sure" if I could just manage to be able to "smell" a bit better, I could gauge the Sage properly, and go that route instead...
I can "carefreely" add in some parsley, oregano, marjoram and ground rosemary to this mix, and stir very thoroughly, that the retained heat will "sweat" the spices into the mix...
Start ladling the bread crumbs in and swirling and mixing, that they are "infused" with the spicing and flavouring that I'm trying to attain...
Note that a number of other Members report adding walnut meats, probably ground up, to this...I haven't tried that, but before "blood pressure" became a family eating issue, I would at this point be adding several dashes of the "nutty" taste of soya sauce, and again, spreading it around...
Pull that "soup" of water/stock, garlic and organ meat out that was "prepped" last night and again, mix thoroughly...
Continue adding the bread crumbs until depleted and mixing that all are saturated in "goodness" and the flavouring is consistent throughout...it should seem almost "pudding-like" in consistency, but somewhat drier...because, of course, the turkey fats are going to leak into it to give it the true "stuffing" texture...
Stuff this into your bird when you are immediately ready to cook (if you stuff the bird ahead of time, you are risking food poisoning!)(through the abdominal cavity, and the rest into the neck area, pinning the skin into place) and slam it into the oven, with the "skewers emplaced", breast side down, of course, "flipping the bird" after 90 minutes...yadda,yadda.yadda, we've been through that part of it, enough, surely?
And roast until the breast meat is about 150-155, the thigh meat is 170-175, and the stuffing is at least 140, measured with your digital meat probe...then pull it out, allow it to continue heating until the meat is optimized for temperature...and IMMEDIATELY dig out all the stuffing...place in a bowl and cover...
Carve your bird, and transfer all the "leakage" back to the gravy pan (there will be "lots") and create your gravy in the fashion you favour...
But you will REALLY like the stuffing!
GoodWeed, my friend, you will undoubtably hit a few memory prompts from this unto your parent's recipe and methodology, and I hope you go for it, guy!...
Sorry, but I'm sending another body up to SSM Ontario this week, as am just too tied up myself, otherwise, I'd be PM'ing you to pick out a decent restaurant where we could meet and have me buy you dinner, and we could both bitch about what could have been "tweaked" to make it better...
Lifter