Before we get to the recipes, a few words on selecting and preparing the bird:
Commercial markets generally sell birds plucked and cleaned, and many remove the neck as well (you may find it within the cavity, and if you do it's very good stuffed (if from a goose or turkey), or, if from a chicken, is an excellent addition to the stock pot).- Let your eyes be your first judge in selecting a bird. Feathers plucked cleanly, no tears in the skin, and no funny spots of discoloration or areas with unusual hues, either on the skin or within the cavity.
- The hole from which the guts were extracted should be even, with no tears in the skin that will shrink and pull apart to expose the meat as the bird roasts, and the same holds true for where the neck was: Ideally, there should be a flap of neck skin that you can use to seal the opening.
- Smell too; the bird should smell of flesh, but with no acrid or off aromas indicative of spoilage.
- And finally, the flesh should feel firm and compact.
Others like to bone their birds as well, the reasoning being that if the skeleton is removed there's much more space for the stuffing that is (for many) the high point of a roast bird.
I'm of two minds on boning: While it is true that a boned bird can be filled with more stuffing, if there is no skeleton to hold the breast meat up, the meat settles as the bird roasts, pressing down on the stuffing, whose texture is more compact than it would otherwise be. Therefore, if you are using a bread stuffing and want it to be light and airy, you should perhaps not bone your bird.
If a firmer bread stuffing doesn't bother you, or you are using a stuffing that's firm from the outset, for example an Italian meat-based stuffing that serves in part to extend the bird as it were, increasing the amount of meat available, by all means bone the bird. You'll be able to fill the bird with much more stuffing.
Carving? If you've stuffed your bird with a bread stuffing carve it as you normally would, taking slices off the breast. If, on the other hand, you have a firmer stuffing, you can simply slice the bird thinly crosswise, so each slice consists of some bird and some stuffing.
Never boned a bird?
Peggy Trobridge, About's Home Cooking Guide, shows how to debone a turkey, using a classic technique that leaves a slice up the back of the bird, and is therefore best suited for roasting the bird in a pan and carving it the way one traditionally carves a turkey, with slices of breast meat and dark meat.Adriano Alti (my father-in-law) sold poultry for a living and employs a technique that leaves the skin intact. Birds boned this way are also excellent roasted, and are better suited for boiling or use in some oriental dishes that require the skin's being separated from the flesh.
Finally, Cooking Technique:
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Bird Safety:
Dianna Rattray, About's Guide to Southern US Cuisine, has put together comprehensive instructions on bird thawing, handling and stuffing a bird, cooking a bird (many of these pointers will seem obvious in retrospect), using a meat thermometer (obvious if you're experienced, but less if you're not), and keeping the roasted bird safe (to eat) until it's carved. - How Much Stuffing Will You Need?
Peggy Trowbridge has a handy chart you can use to figure out how much stuffing you'll need for a bird of a given size. - The Actual Cooking
The oldest, most traditional way to roast a bird is over the coals, and BBQ Guide Derrick Riches gives detailed instructions, saying, "Once you've taken your turkey out of the oven and put it on your grill, you won't go back." If you're feeling really brave he also gives instructions for smoking a turkey. - Don't have a hearth or grilling station large enough to grill a bird?
An oven will also give excellent results: Truss the bird, rub the skin with whatever the recipe calls for, and follow the recipe's instructions for roasting the bird.
