Ingredients:
- 1 Perdigão turkey (approx. 3.5kg)
For the marinade:
- 1 bottle of dry white wine (750 ml)
- 2 large Tahiti lemons (220 g)
- 1 bunch of fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary and sage) (100 g)
- 1 medium onion (150 g)
- 1 medium carrot (200 g)
- 4 cloves of garlic (10 g)
For the filling:
- 6 scoops (soup) Claybom Creamy (120 g)
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (10 g)
- 1 large grated onion (260 g)
- 3 ½ cups (tea) flake cassava flour (biju) (250 g)
- 1 medium grated carrot (360 g)
- ½ pack of green scent (parsley and chives) (35 g)
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste (to smear the meat) (50 g)
For the salt dough:
- 10 cups (tea) salt (1360 g)
- 10 cups (tea) cornstarch (600 g)
To serve:
- ½ cup (tea) of tomato sauce
Preparation:
Thaw the turkey the day before, leaving it in the underside of the fridge. Remove it from the packaging, remove the bag with the giblets from inside the bird (reserve them for the preparation of broth and farofa).
Prepare the marinade: place the turkey in a deep container, leaving the breast side down. Drizzle with white wine, squeeze the juice from the lemons and add the remaining coarsely chopped ingredients together with 4 cups (tea) of water (800 ml). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Make the filling: heat the Claybom in a large skillet and saute the garlic and onion, add the manioc flour and let it brown lightly, stirring occasionally to brown evenly. Turn off the heat and add the carrots, herbs and season with salt.
Remove the turkey from the marinade, place it on a board and fill the entire cavity with the crumbs. Remove the plastic that holds the thighs and also the thermometer.
Gently separate the skin from the flesh with the help of your hands. Smear the turkey meat with the tomato paste, rubbing well with your hands.
Salt dough: mix 5 cups of salt, 5 of starch and 5 of water in a pan. Heat this mixture, stirring occasionally, until it turns into a malleable mass.
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Repeat the process with the rest of the salt and starch, make one dough at a time as it is a heavy dough and it stays difficult to cook more than one at a time. (tip: cover the dough with plastic wrap, as soon as you give it no point dry out).
Assembly: Take a roasting pan slightly larger than the dimensions of the turkey, make a bed with a third of the salt dough, squeezing it with your hands. Place the turkey on top of the dough and cover with the rest of the dough, which was rolled out with the help of a rolling pin until it is wide enough to cover the turkey. Smooth the dough with wet hands and, if you like, decorate with designs made with a knife or cookie cutters.
Roast the turkey in a preheated oven (180ºC) for 2 hours.
When serving: cut the salt crust with the help of a bread knife, discarding all the dough. Remove skin and smear turkey with tomato sauce.
Cut the breast into slices and serve with the stuffing. Serve with rice and vegetables such as peas and carrots, buttered.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings.
Preparation time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Oven time: 2 hours
Tips:
- Cooking turkey in a salt crust makes it soft and juicy.
- The crumb inside the turkey gains all the flavor of the meat and is very moist. To have a looser option of farofa, fill with half of the farofa and serve the rest separately.
- Lemon peel and pomace can also add flavor to turkey. Brush the lemons and after squeezing them, use the peel to intensify the flavor of the marinade.
- If you prefer, you can blend the marinade ingredients in a blender (minus the lemon) instead of chopping them.
With information from BRF - Brasil Foods, owner of the Perdigão, Sadia, Batavo and Elegê brands.
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SILVA, Marina Cabral da. "Turkey in a Salt Crust"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/natal/peru-crosta-sal.htm. Accessed on June 29, 2021.
