Brining

Yes - long time, no see. Hi all 
Would any of you, by any chance, have an old traditional recipe? (or a modern one) that is tried and true please?
I would be very grateful and will post a .pdf of the finished calligraphy for you all to use.
Smiles
Eff.

Wild Turkey With Apple Dressing

You can either stuff the bird or cook this on the side.

Preheat oven to 300F. Roast turkey for 30 minutes per pound, if stuffed. If not, cut back to 25 minutes per pound and adjust accordingly at the end.

For the dressing:

1/2 lb pitted prunes
1 lb blanced almonds, halved
10 green apples, peeled and quartered
1/4 lb butter
1/2 lb pound cake, crumbled
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cup apple cider

Soak prunes in water until plump. Blanche almonds by pouring boiling water over and let stand five minutes. Then pop 9out of their skins and slice in half lengthwise.

Warm butter over low heat in a large pan. Saute apples until transparent and tinged with color. Add cake crumbs, almonds, prunes, sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg and apple cider. Mix and stir. Let cool and stuff into turkey, sewing up openings.

[QUOTE=HistoricFoodie]Welcome back, Ann.

That's a rough one, as we don't know the sort of thing you did with the birds, other than brining (which, btw, is not a traditional method).

If you could give us some idea of the flavor lines, method of cooking, etc. it would limit the field a bit.

 
From memory after we dressed them. I made up a bucket full of brine, it was boiled and cooled and had some spice but I don't recall what, the turkeys were totally immersed for I think 48 hours, with a bit of turning.
Then I stuffed them with sage and onion stuffing made with our own sausages (the stuffing recipe is in my head) I made up a cranberry butter (Jamie Oliver recipe) and shoved that up in between the skin and the breasts (I have small hands - that part is easy) self-basting. Then I trussed up the legs and wings so it was a nice tidy solid lump and roasted for about 20 min per pound - but I have a meat probe these days so I would go for an internal temp of 150°C. After roasting I wrapped in foil and rested 30 minutes before breaking apart and slicing the breast meat.
I am fine with the stuffing/roasting part, it is the actual brine I can't remember - how much salt to how much sugar to how much water - and what spices? Although I have some juniper berries in my cupboard which I don't often use - maybe I bought them for the brine?

Thanks Tom, I will give that a go for myself - I have a domestic turkey in the freezer.

But, for the purposes of the twenty-first gift page I would like to give him a recipe that I have trialled out and which I know from experience will work.

I expect it is as much about the method as the actual flavours, I am sure we have all had tough dry game bird meat at one time or another, I want to give the lad a method to prevent that.

BAY LEAVES! Yes that was it!  I have a bay tree and I put a small branch in the cavity before submerging the bird. I remember now.
It was a large gobbler and he was in the bucket for nearly 2 days,  I had to empty the beer fridge to fit him in.
Thank You.