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Don’t know if this makes me an expert or not, but I’ve been cooking turkey and dressing for 50 years and haven’t killed anyone yet.

If you live “up North” you may prefer a dressing different than us Southerners, but here goes-—(Southerners use cornbread in their dressing—not as “slimey” as Northern dressing where they use mostly bread crumbs and sometimes oysters and other disgusting things—ugh!)

The turkey is the easy part. Bake at 350 degrees in open roasting pan—about 20 minutues per pound. (DON’T cover with foil, lid, or use a roasting bag)

Drop a stick of REAL BUTTER into the pan and use it to baste the turkey every thirty minutes, using a pastry brush. (Forget the olive oil—too anemic) The skin will develope a nice mahagony color as it bakes and the butter will seal in all the juices. Meat thermometer should read 165 degrees when properly done, inserted in the thickest part of the thigh.

The Dressing————————

Bake a 10 inch skillet of cornbred—iron skillet preferred, and then:
Toast an entire large loaf of bread—can use part leftover bisquets, rolls, etc.-—Bread along with cornbread should total about two gallons of rough bread crumbs—torn toast, etc. Use a very large pan or dishpan.

The cornbread

Mix:

1 and 1-2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 and 1-2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 forth cup of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
About 1 cup of buttermilk—can use milk.
Half stick of butter, melted
Batter should be the consistency of thick cake batter
—use the other half stick of butter to grease the skillet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

The Broth:

Boil a FAT hen or fryer— about 2-5 pounds— in two or three quarts of water enough to barely cover, along with salt and pepper to taste as in making chicken broth, for the broth you’ll need to moisten the dressing and make the giblet gravy. Add the drippings from baking the turkey along with the left over melted butter that has mixed with the drippings, Or can use canned broth and even chicken bullion cubes—one teaspoon for each cup of water

Remove the boiled hem and use for other uses. Take the the chicken broth and use it to cook:

One large onion chopped
One entire bunch of celery, chopped
Boil abut 25 minutes ‘til veggies are clear.

Pour cooked veggies and broth over bread crumbs.
Cool before adding: (unless you like scrambled eggs)

Seven raw eggs
one-forth cup sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
Half teaspoon of pepper
1-2 Teaspoons of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of celery seed
4-6 tablespoons of rubbed sage—can use more or less to taste. Don’t be afraid to taste the raw dressing to get it right. It hasn’t killed me yet-—better to get the dressing just right.

It’s sometimes difficult to judge the amount of broth you’ll need. May need to make up more broth using chicken bullion cubes, but keep adding broth until the dressing is “mushy” about the consistency of loose mashed potatoes—may need to add even more broth—place in shallow roasting pan or casserole—(You may need two pans—I use 2 of those disposable foil pans they make for lasagne)

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes—dressing should be slightly browned on top—still somewhat soft in the middle.

Never, ever stuff the turkey with the dressing—it won’t cook throughly and you may also find the turkey will still be raw in the middle. People have gotten food poisoning doing this.

The Giblet Gravy-—here I use a short cut...

I use Campbell Cream of Chicken soup thined with half and half chicken broth and milk. Use as many cans as needed. Chop cooked giblets ( heart, gizzard, and liver—go lightly on the liver as it’s pretty strong.) into “gravy” and add chopped boiled eggs. (a couple or three eggs will do.)

The giblet are usually found under the skin at the base of the neck—the turkey neck is usually in the body cavity—hard to get out until the turkey is completely thawed. Giblets can also be bought seperatly in packages in the frozen food section—since in some of the cheaper turkeys they’re missing. Cut the gizzard meat away from the tough grisle as it’s too tough to use. In the “bought” giblets you may find no hearts. Unfortunatly, that’s the best part of the giblets.

write me if you get into trouble. Or I might be persuaded to part with the pumpkin and pecan pie recipe. LOL