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Blogs / On the Table / February 2008 / Thanksgiving recipe: Do not eat this

Thanksgiving recipe: Do not eat this

At one point in my life, I was the unofficial "turkey girl" at the Dallas Morning News.I wrote regularly (free-lance) for the paper's Food section when DottyGriffith was Food editor, and I did a lot of the food-styling for thephotography for my articles and others.

This was a time when I was rarely without a package of candiedviolets in the styrofoam cooler that lived in the trunk of my car. Justin case of a garnish emergency, you know.

Somehow, I was always called on to style the turkey for the annual inevitable photo of the perfect Thanksgiving bird.

Here's how I did it: Thaw the turkey. Remove giblets and that weirdlittle thermometer thing that come in some frozen birds and wipe offthe skin. Truss it attractively. (Kitchen twine looks nicer than thoseplastic manacles that come on national-brand birds.) Preheat the ovento 425 degrees. Put the turkey on a rack in a roasting pan. Stirtogether equal amounts of peanut oil and Kitchen Bouquet and paint itall over the turkey, then put the turkey in the oven. Cook the turkeyjust till the skin crinkles slightly, about 30-40 minutes, basting itwith the Kitchen Bouquet oil every so often and using aluminum foil tocover places that start to get too brown.

Remove the turkey when it is the right color—it should be anunnaturally even, perfectly burnished golden-brown all over, even inthe nooks between the legs and breast.

Place the turkey on a fashionable platter and garnish it with fresh sage before photographing.

Then throw it away.

Your own turkey, however you choose to cook it, will never look thisperfect. But remember, you're aiming for delicious, not beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Originally published 2007-11-21