Once you have procured a good, preferably organically grown, turkey and stuffed it with your own invented mix of nuts, raisins, cornbread, etc., you can rub it all over with a layer of cold honey after brushing on a mild soy sauce or sherry. Bake the bird at no more than 325 degrees until the meat thermometer indicates it is done, then let it stand at least twenty minutes before slicing. It will continue to cook from its own heat as it cools, so can be as much as 5 degrees under its finished internal temperature of 160 degrrees when you take it out of the oven.

The honey gives a very brown, crisp skin. You can cover it with a foil or brown paper tent or a cheesecloth drape for the last hour or so if the top is getting too brown.

If you must baste, use a mixture of honey, oil, water and a little soy warmed and stirred together. 

How Long?:
As a rough guide, a medium stuffed bird will take about twenty minutes per pound at this low temperature. If you are cooking a very large one, and have a roasting rack and someone to help you turn the bird you can get very moist white meat by roasting it breast side down for the first half of the cooking time, but always be careful not to puncture the skin or all the efforts will be wasted.

Turkey's last stand - Soup
The entire carcass, together with any left-over stuffing, gravy, skin, mashed potatoes, vegetables, etc., goes into a soup pot with the chopped top of a bunch of celery, several cut up carrot and some peeked onions stuck full of cloves.

Let it simmer in water for several hours until the bones fall apart. Pour the whole conglomeration through a colander, then put the liquid back on to boil down to a rich consistency while you pick out any recognizable bits of meat from the solids remaining. Throw the rest away, it is completely gone.

Add the meat, some thinly sliced onions, carrots and noodles or cooked rice to the condensed broth.

If you add a few tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar to the cooking water, usable calcium will be pulled out of the bones into the broth. This works for any bones (the sour taste disappears as it cooks).

A large turkey will only make about two quarts of concentrated soup, but what a soup it is! It freezes well.

A note about turkey protein