I usually buy fresh young turkey, and marinate it just before I want to put it in the oven.

Marinate: (make a day earlier)

Add a ½-tea spoon of each of the following: grind black pepper, poultry- seasoning, sage, thyme, 1teaspoon of salt to one stick of butter, well softened, and mix well.

Wrap the butter in a roll in wax paper as best as possible, and refrigerate it for the next day.

Just before you want to put the turkey in the oven, slice the butter in 1-inch disks. Try to insert the butter disks under the washed turkey’s skin as much as possible. The best areas to insert the butters are top of the breast, entering from the neck skin and thigh and lower part of breast from the skin under the thigh. The trick is to be patient and very gentle not to break the skin and just loos the skin from the meat. Leave some butter to rub the outside of the bird before putting in the oven and then brush from time to time while in the oven.

Stuffing:

Normally I have stove-top stuffing and stuff the bird for flavouring. Season birds cavity with salt and pepper and then stuff it with cut up pieces of carrots, onions, celery, flat leaf parsley(with stem, the stem has more flavour), and couple of garlic. This will give the turkey a great flavour and the vegetables can be used on the side.

For the stove-top stuffing, I just used a store bought turkey stuffing and added bacon bits to create my own version.

Tying the turkey:

The way I do it make it very simple to remove the bird from the pan. Double tie the wings to the body, try to make the tie on the middle leave some extra string. Double tie the legs to the body, again make the tie on the middle with some extra string. Tie the two extra strings together and you have a handle for your bird.

Cooking:

Preheat the oven to 350° place the bird on a rack in a shallow pan and put it in the oven, on the bottom rack. You want to cover the bird the pan’s lid or some foil for the first two hours of cooking. After two hours remove the lid or foil and continue roasting. Check the oven from time to time and baste the bird whenever you see it looks dry about every half an hour. You can baste with the bird’s juices and brushing the bird with the marinated butter. After about 3 hours check the temperature in the meatiest part of leg or breast, if the thermometer shows 176° the turkey is cooked. Remove the turkey from oven and let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes depending how big is your turkey and then it is ready to serve.

Enjoy,

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