Christmas Turkey!

M1k3H

M1k3H

M1k3H

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Hello fellow food lovers!

This year I will be attempting to roast a whole turkey for the first time.

I usually roast chicken or beef, but have done leg/shoulder of lamb as well as just turkey's legs and thighs.

Main reason I never attempted turkey is that it's a dry meat and have been too scared to try it! :p

Any suggestions on what turkey to buy (I only recently discovered there's more than one breed of them :p) or where? How best to cook it? I've seen Jamie Oliver's Christmas cooking show last year and he covered the whole turkey with butter and foil and then halfway through remove foil and add bacon lattice on top.

Also as a side note, I have been looking for a more square roasting tin for ages, but can't find any. Reason is when I have a lot of people round I struggle to put all the potatoes, veggies and meat in 3 tins, plus I have to keep rotating them or else the top and bottom get burned from the elements as they are extremely close/sat on top of them. Looking for something that can utilise both the depth and width of a standard oven!
 
I'm a noob with turkey myself so I'll pay attention to this thread (supposed to be cooking at my Mum's this year). But I'm pretty sure that if you're cooking a whole bird it needs so long to rest you could almost have it out, then put your potatoes etc. in. You can really rest a whole bird for 1hr30+ or so. If you cover with foil it'll still be fairly warm, just make sure you have piping hot gravy and hot plates and you're golden. No stress about everything being "ready" at the same time.
 
Scam said:
But I'm pretty sure that if you're cooking a whole bird it needs so long to rest you could almost have it out, then put your potatoes etc. in. You can really rest a whole bird for 1hr30+ or so. If you cover with foil it'll still be fairly warm, just make sure you have piping hot gravy and hot plates and you're golden. No stress about everything being "ready" at the same time.
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That's true.. forgotten about resting time.. I guess with cooking smaller cuts (only 2 of us usually) I don't tend to rest them for more than 10-20 minutes, but with something as big as a whole turkey, I could cook it first like you said and whilst it's resting start the veggies/potatoes/etc.
 
you can pre cook a lot of stuff that way you have more than enough time while resting.

best way to cook turkey is to swap it for something else and cook a small crown for boxing day sandwiches :p

check out seriouseats on how to tackle turkey. The one stop website. Spatchcock it, thinner and more even.
 
Try to get a decent free range turkey. Preferably from a local farm (though they're probably all sold by now). Mass produced Christmas turkey is particularly cruel. Fattened so quickly their legs break etc.

I'm quite the meat eater, especially at Christmas but I won't eat it anymore.
 
I am going for just a crown this year I think, however have done many full turkeys over the years.

I stuff the neck with sausage meat (tis the best bit of the christmas dinner :)), then stuff the cavity with onion, orange, salt, pepper and anything else that takes my fancy.

I then loosen the skin and place about 100g of butter on each side of the bird (on top of the skin is pointless, under it or dont bother), then I cover in bacon (cheap streaky is best IMO), then place in the tin on a rack or a load of root veg and then cover the whole thing with tin foil.

I then cook at 160c in a fan assisted modern oven for about 30ish minutes per kilo. The tin foil comes off with about an hour to go and then the temp can be increased to 180/200c for the final 30 minutes to colour it off.

Usually results in a nice juicy turkey.
 
inogen said:
Try to get a decent free range turkey. Preferably from a local farm (though they're probably all sold by now). Mass produced Christmas turkey is particularly cruel. Fattened so quickly their legs break etc.
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I told my Mum to order a turkey crown for the 3 of us this year. She came back and said "yes that's fine it's about £20". I thought that sounded a little low so made her go back and ask him if it's free range. I'm guessing a 2kg ish crown would be more like £35? :confused:
 
Scam said:
I told my Mum to order a turkey crown for the 3 of us this year. She came back and said "yes that's fine it's about £20". I thought that sounded a little low so made her go back and ask him if it's free range. I'm guessing a 2kg ish crown would be more like £35? :confused:
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Yeah, I've paid more than that for a crown. Though it was a fair size. Which is another reason why I don't bother.
 
thanks for the suggestions so far!

Glaucus said:
best way to cook turkey is to swap it for something else and cook a small crown for boxing day sandwiches :p

check out seriouseats on how to tackle turkey. The one stop website. Spatchcock it, thinner and more even.
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Last year I did wellington beef and wanted to do it again this year, but some of my guests are not keen on beef (or lamb for that matter)!

Will check it out thanks!



jsmoke said:
Cover turkey in tin foil. The best advice I could give. Will keep jiuces in, otherwise even drier than usual.
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Yeap that is the intent!

inogen said:
cover it in bacon :)
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First foil (and butter), and then bacon for the end :)
 
Low temp cook so you don't overdo the breasts. Long "rest" (not really needed so much for lower temperature roasting however). After you take the potatoes out, stick the bird back in on highest for 5 mins to brown/crisp the skin.

Don't cover in foil or bacon whilst you roast. You should be roasting at a temperature and time that doesn't cause it to dry out rather than attempting to replace moisture. Ideally, at least.

Edit: also consider spatchcocked if people aren't going to be funny about it. It will help you cook the thighs and legs enough without overdoing the breasts.
 
100% recommend spatchcocking it, everything cooks much more evenly.

Use a thermometer if you have one available(and if you don't I recommend buying one anyway. IMO the best kitchen tool), cook the breast to 65.5-68C/150-155F and the thigh to 73-77C/165-170F.
Let it rest while your cooking other bits in the oven, then as above crisp up the skin for a few mins once you're done.

No need to cover with foil, bacon or butter. Just some olive oil will do, keep the skin exposed so it gets brown and crispy!

Season GENEROUSLY with salt and pepper plus fresh herbs of your choosing.

Enjoy your moist turkey.
 
Hmmm looked into spatchcocking... I think for my first attempt I'll do it the traditional way of stuffing... but will definitely try this next

As for the thermometer, I've already added one in my basket at the rainforest :)
 
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Fair enough - it's not that hard but I can see how it might be a bit daunting the first time :)

Rather than stuffing the bird I'd also strongly suggest cooking stuffing separately. It's pretty simple to add sausage mince to some generic stuffing packet and then cover in bacon and cook in the oven for 30 mins or so. Alternatively you could cook the turkey slightly raised and then have a layer of stuffing beneath it. If you essentially let all the turkey drippings combine with the stuffing you'll end up with an amazing result. This will mean you won't have those drippings to add to the gravy but to be honest if you use a high quality stock this isn't an issue.
 
if you haven't got it yet, then the bitcher will happily spatchcock it, never understood stuffing, it just increases cooking time and more likely to over cook it. a lemon and some herbs is fine, but a normal meat stuffing, just cook in balls separately, it also tastes much nicer and are crispy.
 
Heading to the butcher's today after work, hopefully will have some nice turkeys!

Thanks for suggestions, I am now leaning towards spatchcocking :D

Just have to convince the missus! :p
 
Not sure that stuffing in the crop (would not put into body cavity, just a potato) increases cooking time much
- moreover will give some internal juicing on the breast, in particular if you invert it during cooking
- it is not next to the legs anyway, that are the hardest to get the heat into, so could balance the breast cooking.
 
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