Roast Turkey Wayside Inn

"Let the board groan, let the belly bulge, let our hearts be thankful – lest we forget what our ancestors went through to achieve that first Thanksgiving. The fullness of our fields and fruit trees, of our dairies and hatcheries load the table, and this is a day for family and friends to make welcome the stranger." –- A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price, page 281

As a long-time movie buff and recently christened cast iron cook, I've had a great respect for famous horror and B-movie actor Vincent Price. Not only was he an unforgettable presence in film history (known from such classics as Otto Preminger's Laura and The Invisible Man Returns, and especially such horror classics as House of Wax, The Fly and Return of The Fly, The Raven, and many others. However, he was also known in social circles as a gourmet cook, and his labor of love was A Treasury of Great Recipes. This was a lovingly constructed and written cookbook he made for his wife. This book has since been accepted as one of the great cookbooks of the 20th century…and in early 2015, I acquired a copy of this magnificent tome.

A Treasury of Great Recipes is a compilation of recipes from great restaurants around the world, "adapted for the American kitchen." This wonderful tome contains recipes from all around the world, certain to suit any palate; though it especially favors meat-laden dishes brimming with delicious decadence. However, if there is one recipe from this book that has seen far more kitchens than any other, it would be Mssr. Price's recipe for Thanksgiving roast turkey. This recipe comes from the Wayside Inn of Sudbury, Massachusetts. The book includes several recipes from this country inn, and for personal appeal it certainly grabbed me. I happened to grow up in the town adjacent to Sudbury, and when my brothers and I were young, we spent many a Saturday or Sunday trekking across town to play in the woods surrounding the Wayside Inn and its accompanying grist mill. In my later days, I returned to the same town and once again lived within a stone's throw of this marvelous place that gave me so many memories. As such, I absolutely could not pass up the opportunity to make this dish, presenting it here in a tribute to the great Vincent Price.

(This recipe is not a word-for-word transcription of the recipe from the book, so as to avoid any copyright issues.)

Roasted Turkey

• 12-pound turkey, thawed (I brine my turkey for 24 hours before preparation, even though brining the bird isn't mentioned in the original recipe.)
• 8 cups Wayside bread stuffing (or your own stuffing, if you prefer)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup butter, softened or melted
• 2 slices bacon
• Basting mixture:
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 onion
  • 9 whole cloves, stuck into onion (The original recipe called for three cloves, but that seemed insufficient; so, I increased the number to nine.)
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 sprigs parsley
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rub inside cavity of turkey with 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stuff the turkey with Wayside stuffing (see below). Rub the skin with 1/2 cup butter, and sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Truss the turkey, tying the legs and wings close to the body. Place the turkey into a shallow roasting pan, breast up, and arrange 2 slices of bacon over the breast.

Stick cloves into onion. Add basting and roasting mixture to the pan: water, onion with cloves, celery, carrots, bay leaves, parsley, and thyme.

The original recipe says to cook the turkey in the preheated oven at 325 degrees for "10 to 20 minutes per pound," but that doesn't produce the desired time of "3 1/2 to 4 hours" listed in the recipe. For a twelve pound turkey, this would be closer to 17 to 20 minutes per pound. The recipe also states to baste the turkey every 30 minutes with drippings from the pan, though this is more to produce a crisp brown skin rather than to keep the bird from drying out.

It's actually a simple recipe, as it doesn't call for temperature adjustments or other additions that we see in most modern-day roast turkey recipes.

Giblet Gravy

• Turkey giblets
• 1 quart water
• 6 tablespoons flour

This recipe calls for using the giblets to make a good gravy for the turkey, by simmering the giblets in water for two hours. Strain the liquid out, then let it settle and the fat will rise to the surface. This fat is what is used in the gravy. After the turkey has been removed from the roasting pan, use a turkey baster to remove the fat and put it into the roasting pan. This will deglaze the pan, and you can scrape the entire pan contents – including all of the vegetables – into a large saucepan. With medium heat, stir and cook the mixture for five minutes. Strain the gravy from the pan, discard the giblets and vegetables, and return the gravy to the pan. Stir the gravy over medium heat until it is thickened and smooth, and ready for serving.

Wayside Bread Stuffing

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 cup finely diced cooked ham
• 1 cup finely diced cooked chicken meat
• 1/2 cup Wayside country sausage (or your own sausage)
• 6 cups bread crumbs, plain or unflavored (The original recipe calls for "day-old bread crumbs." For a large amount of stuffing such as what we see here, at least half the bread crumbs should be panko bread crumbs or other large-grained crumbs.)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon crumbled sage
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon mace
• 1/4 teaspoon marjoram
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chicken stock

Melt butter in a (cast iron) skillet. Add chopped onions and celery, and cook over low heat for ten minutes, until the onions are soft and caramelized. Add diced ham and chicken, and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove this to a large mixing bowl. Add additional ingredients: bread crumbs, eggs, sage, pepper, thyme, mace, marjoram, salt. Mix it all together, and stir in chicken stock to moisten.

Wayside Country Sausage

• 1 pound pork shoulder (with excess fat trimmed away)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon crumbled sage

Trim the excess fat from the pork shoulder, and grind the pork in a meat grinder. Mix in seasonings. If you're using this as the ingredient in Wayside bread stuffing, simply mix this mixture in with the stuffing. If you want to serve this as a sausage, shape the mixture into patties, and fry or broil slowly for 15 minutes, or until well browned on both sides.