Making the stuffing is my favorite part of preparing the turkey. I pick my fresh-killed free-range organic turkey up from a local poultry farmer at the Thursday morning market in the small town in Northern Provence where I live. I also buy the ingredients to add to the stuffing, which is made of several types of bread I have been letting harden for a of couple of days. I add sautéed wild mushrooms, farm-made sausages, celery, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs with lots of parsley, mix them into the bread with my hands in a large earthenware bowl that belonged to my grandmother and add yogurt, raw eggs, dried cranberries, walnuts and anything else that may have tempted my fancy at that morning's market. Then I stuff the inside of the bird and add the stuffing under the skin and between the flesh. This flavors the meat and keeps it moist. I soak a large piece of cheesecloth into clarified butter mixed with Madeira and wrap the bird in that, keeping it moist and ensuring the skin browns evenly and well without having to baste the turkey often at all. That's my stuffing--and it's always stuffing, never dressing.
