Perfect Slow Baked Turkey

by Annie
(New Mexico)

I wanted to give you a recipe for PERFECT turkey every time. I got this from a friend in the early 1970s and it has NEVER failed, and I have made it dozens of times; one thing I love the best is waking up early in the morning to the fabulous fragrance of turkey!!! The recipe came from a 1950s Adele Davis cookbook.

1: turn oven to 350 degrees.

2: stuff turkey, place in pan and put in oven.

3: bake one hour

4: USING OVEN THERMOMETER, turn oven to 180 degrees
(VERY important to have 180 degrees!!)

5: bake one hour per pound of turkey

6: ENJOY!!!!!!

IMPORTANT--CALIBRATE your oven to 180 degrees BEFORE the big baking day..... when your oven reaches 180, put a dot of red nail polish, or a scratch, on the exact spot on the oven dial--if you don't pre-calibrate the 180 degrees it will take too much time to find 180 and the oven will be too hot or too cold for your Perfect Turkey.

165 degrees kills all common pathogens, and 180 degrees really kills all! stuffing will be yummy-gooey, so you may want to make some ''dry'' stuffing as well. you do NOT cover the turkey, no basting, no fussing! the skin becomes somewhat of a ''cover'' that keeps the juices in. there is not the volume of drippings when cooked this way (it stays in the meat), but there is plenty to make lots of yummy gravy! and yes, a 22 lb turkey will be in your oven for 23 hours.

And if you have not tried Susan Stamberg's Mom's cranberry relish, it's a must! It may sound strange, but everyone loves it, albeit in small amounts! It's great with ham too! Recipe on This Page! I still make the Cranberry Sauce and Cranberry Relish found on the Ocean Spray cranberry package.