Recipe: Turkey Stuffed with Dried Fruit and Nuts (Pavo a la Catalana)

Turkey Stuffed with Dried Fruit and Nuts (Pavo a la Catalana)
rec.food.cooking/Claudia Kale (1991)
serves 6-8

1 turkey, preferably a hen, about 9 lb.
salt and pepper
butter or dripping for roasting

stuffing:
12 oz. sausage meat*
4 oz. chopped onion
4 oz. blond raisins (sultanas)
5 oz. chopped, pitted, dried prunes
5 oz. chopped, pitted, dates
5 oz. chopped, dried apricots
5 oz. chopped, dried figs
2 oz. whole almonds (blanched or not, take your pick!)
2 oz. pine nuts (pignoli)
4 fl. oz. port (or substitute brandy)

Fry the sausage meat gently with the chopped onions, drain off the fat that tries out. Stir in the dried fruits, nuts, pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste, and the port. Mix it well and stuff the washed and dried turkey.

Truss the turkey, rub with butter or dripping and roast in the way you normally do a turkey, allowing 20 minutes per pound of bird in a two-phase oven: have the oven at 425F (220C) when you first put the bird in. IMMEDIATELY turn the oven down to 325F or 170C, and leave it at that temp for the duration of roasting.

* NOTE: I deviated from this recipe in only one item: I used lean ground (minced) pork instead of sausage, and then added in some sage and pepper and a bit of nutmeg to compensate for the lack of sausage spicing in the pork. I did it because it's less fatty, and I was afraid of killing my dinner guests with a stuffing that was already quite rich with dried fruit and port if I used sausage.

This should make just the right amount of stuffing for a 9 lb. bird; incidentally, this is the first time (out of at least 30 other stuffing incidents) that the entire amount of stuffing fit neatly and completely into the bird with no part of the bird left unstuffed and no homeless stuffing!