Roast Thanksgiving Turkey Wayside Inn
Thanksgiving is barreling through the calendar toward us and if you’re anything like the rest of the home cooks in America you are thinking about Thanksgiving turkey. And if you are anything like the 50 bajillion first-time turkey cooks, you are terrified you’ll foul up your fowl. Fortunately, I have made that mistake already so you don’t have to. Also, there’s a great Thanksgiving turkey recipe below, beloved by Vincent Price.
Thanksgiving Turkey Disaster
The first time I cooked a bird was in 1995. My wife and I had just purchased this beautiful cinder block mansion (tiny one-story house) in Audobon Park, in Orlando. It had hurricane shutters, terrazzo floors, jalousie windows, and a flat cement tile roof. And a galley kitchen. If you’ve never been in a galley kitchen, just imagine the kitchen from a submarine only smaller.
The oven was above the range top, which pulled out like a drawer. The oven door opened vertically. I cooked with my ass wedged up against the sink. It was a nightmare.
So we invited people over and I obtained a large frozen turkey and I pulled it out of the freezer early Thanksgiving morning because a 20-pound turkey thaws in like five minutes, right?
We ordered pizza.
Secret tricks from ancient cooks
These days I’m partial to the secret technique imparted to me in the meat section of Publix in the early 90s when I was staring at a turkey and a grizzled old voice said: “I use an orange on mine.”
I turned around and a legend was standing behind me: Mr. Birdsong.
Just outside Orlando is the legendary township of Eatonville, the first incorporated townships in the U.S. which was governed entirely by African Americans. In 1887! Zora Neale Hurston grew up here. When you read Their Eyes Were Watching God, you’re in Eatonville.
It’s also the home of a couple of roadside barbeque joints, mostly cooked on front yard grills and smokers. You just pull over and hand a guy three bucks (1990s money) and he handed you a paper plate with grilled chicken or ribs, a piece of Wonder Bread, and maybe if you’re lucky, some slaw. Mr. Birdsong ran one of these joints only his was legendary. It wasn’t just the ribs and chicken that he cooked over a converted 50-gallon drum that made him kind of famous. It was his sauce. My God, it was something else.
Right there at the meat counter of Publix, Mr. Birdsong walked me through his method for prepping a turkey. He told me to cut a tomato in half and rub it all over the skin. Then season it and pop it in the oven. I guarantee this works, The skin comes out golden brown and crispy.
Vincent Price’s Favorite Thanksgiving Turkey
Wayside Inn is in Sudbury, MA which is barely two hours from Plymouth where the first thanks were given over a bird. The Inn was established in 1633, only 12 years after those Pilgrims and Wampanoag sat across from each other screaming about politics. It is very likely they ate turkey or guinea fowl since the colony’s governor, William Bradford, sent his men a’fowling to bag the main course. The pilgrims were regular consumers of ducks, geese, and swan so who knows which bird sat mid-table, festooned with the bounty of their gardens. They didn’t stuff their birds with bread. They filled their fowl with nuts, herbs, and onions. Their sugar supply ran out by Thanksgiving.
There was plenty of corn. However, they didn’t eat it off the cob–according to historians. But what do historians know? I can’t imagine someone looking at a cob of corn and not wanting to bite right into it.
The Wayside Inn’s turkey is stuffed with a classic bread stuffing loaded with celery and marjoram and sausage. The instructions tell us to stuff the “body and neck cavities” with their stuffing mix.
About this Thanksgiving turkey recipe
I have included it in the exact order and in similar wording as it appears in the Treasury. However, don’t go in the order listed. You make the stuffing first which means you cook the giblets first. To be clear:
- cook the giblets
- make the stuffing
- Stuff the turkey
- Make the gravy
Bone appeteeth.
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