Pam's Paper Bag Turkey

My grandmother, Lillian Mays, was famous for her paper bag recipe for turkey. She used a brown grocery bag covered in butter as a way of sealing in moisture. This old fashioned method also helps one to avoid brining and basting. Both tedious, time consuming tasks.

My sister, Pamela, called me for a turkey recipe and I have a few, but I recommended this method, because it is a quick fix for a non-brined bird. The following is Pam's take on Grandma Lillian's method for a moist, juicy bird. I threw in a stuffing recipe.

1 whole turkey, 23-25 pounds
1 large brown paper bag (grocery bag)
Butter, soft but not melted
Salt, garlic salt, pepper to taste

Remove neck and giblets from cavities. Rinse the turkey and pat dry with paper towels. Stuff, if desired (for a good stuffing/dressing try sauteing sliced apples, chopped onions, chopped celery, red bell peppers, and minced garlic in butter with salt, cr. bl. pepper, sage; add 1/2 loaf leftover crumbled cornbread, 2 chopped hardboiled eggs, and 2 beaten eggs, mix well; stuff as much as possible in turkey cavity, before baking; bake the rest of the stuffing at 375 until done, about 25 minutes - a stuffing is basically a savory bread pudding).

Thoroughly coat the turkey with butter using your fingers or a paper towel. Season generously. Place the turkey in the paper bag. Seal the bag with staples, paper clips or a needle and thread. (Use 2 bags if 1 is too small.)

Place the turkey on a sturdy shallow baking pan. Bake at 325° for about 5 hours. Reduce the cooking time to 4-4 1/2 hours for an unstuffed or smaller turkey.

No, the paper will not burn, and the turkey will not taste like paper. But you will enjoy all those little gasps of appreciation when you ʽunwrapʼ your perfect paper bag turkey.