Recipe(tried): Mom's Restaurant Chicken or Turkey Salad (quantity recipe)

This is the recipe my mother served at a small local restaurant she owned. She was famous for this recipe. The restaruant has been featured in many publications including Southern Living. This was one of her few recipes she refused to divuldge. After she passed away, we published a cook book with many of her recipes including this one. We donated the proceeds to her favorite charity. Sorry for the rambling, this recipe makes me remember all the times she and I made it together. I miss her very much.

This is a very good and simple chicken (turkey) salad recipe. It works very well for making finger sandwiches.

1 14 to 16 pound frozen turkey (do not use Butterball brand)
8 to 10 boiled eggs peeled and chopped
about 4 or 5 stalks celery finely chopped
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
1 Tbsp. GROUND celery seed
salt and pepper
Hellmann's mayo (about 1/2 gallon)

Thaw turkey in frige. Place turky in large stock pot and add water to cover. Add a bunch of celery leaves or a few stalks celery, one medium onion peeled and halved, 1 T. salt a 2 tsp. black pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a slow boil, spoon off any foam from top. Simmer for several hours until tukey begins to fall off bones. If turkey isn't completely covered with water, turn turkey over after cooking for one hour. It will take several hours for turkey to cook. Remove turkey from broth and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, pull meat from bones, discard bones and skin. Use kitchen sissors to cut meat into small pieces. Use both white and dark meat. Lightly salt meat add ground celery seed, eggs, celery and pickle relish. Stir in enough mayo to moisten well. Taste and adjust seasonings. Best if mixed while turkey is still warm. May need to add more mayo before serving. This should make close to 50 (1/2 cup servings) or sandwiches depending on how thickly you spread it on.
*I received several calls after the people who purchased the cook book tried to make this recipe. They would say it didn't taste at all like my mother's. I go over to see what happened only to find they used salad dressing instead of mayo. (Salad dressing made this salad taste truly awful) Or they didn't use Hellmann's mayo. I could be a spokeswomen for that company. It is truly the best mayo around. Some people used a butterball brand turkey which changes the texture of the salad. (I don't know why) Sometimes they just needed to add a little more salt and pepper. It takes both white and dark meat to make the salad good and using turkey is less time consuming than picking over smaller chickens and makes for a better "chicken salad".

You can decrease the eggs to 6, the pickle relish by half, and cut the turkey in bigger chunks. Add toated pecans or almonds, grapes (add just before serving) coconut, and/or pineapple tidbits. Stir in some whipped topping or whipped whipping cream just before serving. This is best served as a salad on lettuce leaves.

To make 1 1/2 to 2 gallons: use two 12 pound turkeys or 1 20 pound turkey. Increase eggs to 16, gallon mayo, 3/4 cup relish and half of a large bunch of celery.

Gosh the wedding will be over before you finish reading this. Sorry I tend to give too much info. Good luck and let me know how it turns out.