Roast Turkey with Meat Stuffing - Two Pinedo recipes

It's time for a Pinedo recipe!  And this time, it is a twofer.  I had a turkey to roast and I wanted a different type of stuffing for it.  Miss Pinedo did not fail me.  (Look at the keyword "Pinedo" to see more of what is going on here.)

On page 113 is her recipe for roast turkey.

My Translation

The word "malbarda" I translated as being "albardar", which means to wrap in bacon.  Using the idea that "it can be filled with mince of all kinds", I looked at her mince or stuffing recipes.  I chose this one on page 226, because I have never tried meat stuffing before (it was always bread-based):

My Translation

While the oven was heating to 450 degrees F, I worked on the stuffing.

My Redaction of the Turkey Stuffing

1 lb, 5 oz pork loin, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)

8 oz. Roma tomatoes, chopped to about 1/2 inch cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 teaspoons crushed garlic

4 oz ham, chopped (about 1 cup)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 teaspoon capers, drained

10 black olives, chopped

3 tablespoons parsley, minced

1/4 teaspoon ground saffron

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Mix the pork loin, tomatoes, and garlic.  Add the rest of the ingredients except the wine and the vinegar.  Mix well.

Add the wine and the vinegar.  Mix well.  

Stuff the interior of the turkey with as much as possible (it will shrink).  Include a lot of the liquids.  Any leftovers can go into a covered casserole dish to be baked separately.  

See the turkey recipe to finish this up.

My Notes

Chopping the pork meant trying to break up the big pieces into small pieces that would mix well with the other ingredients.

Pork before chopping

Chopped pork

Pork, tomatoes, and garlic

Everything but the liquids, pre-mixing.

Everything mixed.

My Redaction of the Roasted Turkey with Notes

1- 14 lb turkey, fresh or defrosted

1 pound bacon

1 batch stuffing

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Rinse turkey inside and out, removing the giblets and neck.  (Save or discard; they are not being used in this recipe.)  Dry the turkey with a paper towel.  Place in baking dish.

Stuff the interior with as much stuffing as possible.  It won't expand like bread stuffings do, so pack it full.  I used about 2/3 of the stuffing mixture to fill this bird.

This turkey did not have the usual flaps that would cover the stuffing, so I used Miss Pinedo's recommendation to cover the stuffing with a slice of bread.  

Tuck the wings under the back.  Cross the legs and tie them together over the bread slice.

Cover the outside of the turkey with slices of bacon, tucking the bacon ends into the sides of the baking dish.

A bacon mummy

Put the turkey in the hot oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F.

Cook until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 180 to 185 degrees F and the stuffing to 165 degrees F.  This *should* take 15 to 20 minutes per pound.  However, mine cooked a lot faster than that.  It should have taken about 4 hours.  I'm glad I checked it after about 2 1/2 hours, because it was done, almost overdone.  I noticed that the bacon smelled done after 2 hours, and I wondered if that was a good cue to check the bird for doneness.  (I really don't know.)

Too far?

Allow the bird to rest for 20 minutes before carving.  I used some of the juices in the pan to baste it while it was resting.  Cut off the string on the legs and use a spoon to remove the stuffing into a bowl.  Carve away!

The Verdict

The turkey meat was pretty good.  I thought it was a little overcooked, but my guest tasters disagreed.  We all agreed that the breast meat was moist and not dry.  The dark meat seemed a little dry.  I think I would douse it with pan juices before serving it, next time.

The bacon was crisp and much of it stuck to the skin.  I like chewy bacon, so this did not appeal to me.  I wasn't going to serve it, but my guest tasters really wanted to try it.  They liked it broken up and sprinkled on the stuffing.

We all thought the stuffing was dry.  I believe it needed more fat; it could have dried because the missing flaps weren't there to trap the moisture or I didn't get enough of the wine and vinegar liquids into the stuffing while I was filling the bird.  This is why I recommend specifically getting those liquids into the interior.  

But we did agree that the stuffing had a good flavor.  It was meaty, which was interesting because we all had experienced only bread-based stuffing.  In fact, the meat was the dominant ingredient; it overpowered the raisins and olives.  (We all thought it needed more raisins and possibly more olives.)  One guest taster said, "The raisins were good to find, but they didn't last long."  

The seasoning added a good depth.  It was not strong, but it was well-balanced, and we liked it.  The almonds added an important crunch.  When I focused on it, I could taste the vinegar, which was good.  The acid bite (slight as it was) was the right addition to keep it from being "just meat."

Success!  Twice!

Meanwhile the extra stuffing was placed in the oven at 325 degrees F.  I drizzled on some olive oil first (because I didn't want it to be dry), then covered it for the first 30 minutes of baking.  I uncovered it for another 15 or so minutes since it looked too wet.

Prebaking

Done and very moist

This was also good!  It was, most definitely, not dry.  I didn't need to put the olive oil on it.  The wine and vinegar flavors came through, and they made the whole mixture very moist.  We all liked this better than what came out of the turkey because we could taste the seasonings more, although it still needed more raisins.  I could taste the saffron and tomatoes more, too.  

I never tasted the capers, so I could probably have put more in.  Try it, if you like capers.

Success again!