Jacob Brown's version of Thompson's Turkey

Ingredients

• 5 kg turkey

Crust:

• 6 egg yolks
• 100ml water
• 1 Tbsp Colemans mustard powder
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 3 Tbsps onion juice
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• enough flour to make a paste (consistency of glue)

To prepare the paste (that will form the crust), mix all the above ingredients together and put aside.

For the stuffing:

• 14 slices of frozen white bread (diced into small cubes)
• 8 rashers of bacon
• 3 onions (diced)
• 10 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 15 sage leaves (chopped)
• 1 Tbsp rosemary (chopped)
• 200gms rendered duck fat / or butter
• 1 bunch parsley (chopped)
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• rind of 2 oranges
• salt and pepper

Melt butter in a heavy based pot. Saute onion and bacon over a medium heat until onion is soft. Add garlic and diced bread. Cook gently for 4 - 5 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add cayenne pepper, sage, rosemary, parsley, rind of oranges and season with salt and pepper.

Method

To prepare the turkey:

Heat the oven to 220C.

Stuff the turkey with the stuffing, and use a needle and thread to sew it up.

Put the turkey in a roasting dish and place in the preheated oven. Cook for 20 - 25 minutes (or until golden brown).

Remove turkey from oven and using a brush paint the entire bird with the paste. Put the turkey back in the oven for a few minutes and the paste will set.

Remove the turkey again from the oven, cover with the paste, and return to the oven again.

Keep doing this until you run out of paste.

Turn the oven down to 175C and cook for 4 - 4.5 hours.

Remove the bird from the oven and leave to sit for 20 minutes.(The crust on the turkey will be completely black.)

Using tweezers pry loose the crust and cut with a spoon!