All right, so for the turkey,
all you have to do for the make ahead portion
of the turkey is put two cans of hard cider,
or two bottles of hard cider.
Two times 12 ounces.
And 2 cups of cloudy cider with some herbs.
Bay, parsley, thyme, your usual suspects.
Whatever you bought for the holiday.
1/4 cup of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper
and an onion and some Worcestershire sauce.
Throw it all in a brine bag, put it in the lowest
part of your refrigerator.
And do that a few days ahead.
Day of; all you gotta do,
take the bird out, put it on a flat pan,
and look how this bird is shaped.
He's flat, right?
That's called a spatchcocked bird.
All it means is the spine was removed,
your butcher can do this for you.
And it means that this turkey will cook
in one hour at 450 degrees.
(audience wowing)
Which means that you can sleep until you
want to get up!
(clapping)
So I'm going to throw the bird,
I just greased the top with a little oil.
Or you can spray it down with a little cooking spray.
Or you can rub it with some butter.
Put some fat on the skin so it gets nice and
deep golden.
Throw it in the oven, and do not mess with it.
An hour later it should be perfect at 165.
Both the white and the dark. (clapping)
Done!
For the stuffing, every single year,
my mom, since I was a little girl has
made apple, celery and onion stuffing.
So as many days ahead as you want,
cuz you can freeze this or throw this in the fridge.
Chop up some apples, celery, and onion.
Throw 'em in a skillet.
A whole stick of butter.
Three apples, a couple of large onions,
and the heart of a celery, chopped.
Couple of bay leaves, salt and pepper.
So, I can turn him off, I cooked him
up with some bay leaves.
They're tender.
For the stuffing, you can buy good
old Pepperidge Farm cubes.
My mom used these several years.
But more often than not, we have ends of bread that
we save in our freezer.
Cube 'em up, toast them, just dry them out
in the oven, and then season them up
with universal yellow box of poultry seasoning.
So I have your usual suspects for poultry here.
We have bay already cooked up with the
apple, celery and onion.
I have parsley, sage.
Alright so we are going to take all
of our fresh herbs,
mix that in.
This year I decided to mix it up a little bit.
And use a hair or less bread,
and add in one of my faves.
Some diced butternut squash.
And then I put in all of my seasoned bread.
This is a mix of sourdough, whole wheat and
peasant or white.
All that together.
And then once you get this all together,
add just enough stock to moisten this.
So you let this sit here and absorb
all of that stock.
Then you but it in a buttered baking dish.
With extra butter up on top.
That's it.
Fridge or freezer day of.
Shove it in the oven and bake it off.
(clapping)
Done.
Alright so over here, I'm just doing,
It smells really good right there.
I'm just making turkey gravy.
The number one thing to remember whether you are
doing make ahead or cooking that day
is always keep stock in a box.
Turkey stock is available this time of year of course,
or chicken stock is a great go to.
Stock in a box is your friend.
It can fix anything.
All you do to make the gravy is equal amounts
flour and butter, per quart.
Four tablespoons of butter, four tablespoons of flour.
Toast it to a light brown color.
When it starts to get a little nutty,
add black pepper, your stock.
I never add those you know, gravy enhancers, right?
Enhancers.
Gravy enhancers
Right.
I add a little Worcestershire sauce,
cuz it's delicious.
And it's fun to say Worcestershire.
Haha! (audience laughing)
I just stick mine up and I add a little
Worcestershire sauce.
And you can always make some more
if you get your turkey drippings going, great.
But this is your go to.
And you can make this days,
Just put it in a deli bucket,
shove it in the fridge.
Takes 5 minutes to make by the way.
For your gravy, do it days ahead,
throw it in the fridge.
Last minute, I do what my mom called
glossing the sauce.
You take one egg yolk, throw it in a bowl.
Take a ladle of gravy to temper the egg
and raise the temperature.
Add it to the egg yolk, then add the egg yolk
back to this, and it will make it glossy and shiny
and extra rich and delicious.
(clapping)
Yum!
Buy the cracked cranberries,
one bag or box of cranberries
3/4 of a cup of sugar.
Water.
You're done.
Turn it on, when they pop,
it's done.
Turn it off.
Put it in a dish.
Cranberry sauce.
See ya.
That can be done many days ahead too.
(cheering)