Christmas Turkey - hints and tips

Many of you will be thinking about preparing for the Christmas festivities
soon so I though you might be interested in a few hints, tips and ideas that
you might want to try this year.

Christmas is fast approaching and thoughts will be turning to preparing the
traditional family roast turkey. With the price of gas and electricity rocketing
buying a large whole turkey can be very expensive to cook compared to last year. Many traditionalist put the "thoroughly defrosted turkey if using a frozen one" in the oven the night before on a very low light. If that what you prefer then no worries but you could try this method if you want. At the same time as saving fuel on cooking it also cuts down on the chances of partially raw meat where the leg and the breast meet and over cooked turkey.

It does not matter if you are using a frozen turkey or a fresh turkey (free range or battery) for Christmas you can save on cooking time and energy cost by removing the legs and cooking separately. If you have the time, a reasonable knife and the confidence you can take the legs of the turkey and de-bone them yourself. If not you might consider buying a crown of turkey and either have it without leg meat or buy legs separate and roast them along side the crown. If you have a good local butcher he or she might be willing to remove the legs for you and de-bone the legs and roll them. The choice is up to you according to your budget.

For the purposes of this exercise we will assume that you have a crown of turkey and the legs boned and rolled ready for cooking.

Because we are removing the legs from the turkey the cooking time will be reduced because the heat of the oven will be able to flow around the crown of the turkey more freely. To cook your turkey place in a suitably sized roasting tray with the thin narrow end of the turkey crown pointing down and the fat end up in the air. It is a good idea to wrap the thin end in tin foil to prevent over cooking. Wrap about 4 or 5 inches of the thin end with the foil. To also aid good air flow around the turkey cut large flat chunks of potatoes and place them in the bottom of your roasting tray and set the turkey crown on them as described above. You can also put large chopped roots vegetables in as well. If you do not want to do this then use the bones from the legs to rest the crown on and the bones can be used for the home made gravy.

Give the skin of the turkey a good coating of oil/melted butter and season to your taste and also put about half a pint of water or stock in the bottom of the roasting tray. I also lay slices of bacon on the breast meat to protect it and providing you remove it before it gets to over cooked it can be served with the turkey. You can cover the turkey breast with what ever you fancy and some people coat it in mustard, herbs and spices.




I have not mentioned stuffing the center of the turkey because that is no longer allowed in a kitchen that caters for the general public. If you wish to stuff the center of the turkey then that is up to you but it does slow cooking time and can cause under cooking. If you stuff the turkey or serve the stuffing separate why not be a little more adventurous and mix in chopped dried apricots, orange or satsuma segments and diced chestnuts if you have them. One place I worked at we put fresh oysters in the mix as well. Tinned oysters will do just as good and you might be pleasantly surprised with the results. There is nothing wrong with packet stuffing mix but you can make it a little less boring.

The legs that have been boned and rolled earlier are placed in a smaller tray for roasting and prepared just like the crown unless you have a big enough roasting tray then they can be cooked along side the crown and removed when cooked. They should be cooked before the crown has finished cooking. Remember when I said place the turkey on a bed of chunky flat potatoes / root vegetables well there are two reason for that. Firstly the air flows under the turkey for ease of cooking and also reduces fuel costs and the chances of the turkey drying out underneath, but secondly it provides a tasty treat for the Chef once the turkey is cooked. If you have cut big enough chunks of potato and put stock in the bottom the tray you will have gorgeous tasting potatoes that are soggy and crispy at the same time. Yuuummmmyy. Bad for the heart but delish.

A good idea for cooking your turkey is to allow 15 minutes cooking time per 1 LB/pound weight and add 15-30 minutes on top for good measure. Start the turkey off in a pre heated oven at a temperature of 220C/425F/gas mark 7 and after about 10-15 minutes turn down to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for the rest of the cooking time. These are guides and you know your oven better than me. During the cooking time it is a good idea to baste the turkey breast with the juices from the bottom of the roasting tray. The juices are poured over the breast to prevent drying out during cooking and also impart extra flavour. This method of roasting your turkey should ensure that it reduces cooking time, keeps the meat as moist as possible and greatly reduce the chances of the turkey not being fully cooked.

The end result from this method should produce a tasty properly cooked turkey that is moist and easy to carve and serve. It also give the cook/chef/slave a bit of breathing space when it come to oven management and at the same time save a little money. It also allows the person cooking the meal a chance to have a little drinky poos whilst keeping on top of things. Having gone to all the trouble to prepare the perfect turkey for Christmas Day don't do what I did one year.

I put a very large turkey in the oven which was being used for one of the center pieces on the Grand Buffet on Boxing day. I proceeded to get on with the many tasks allotted to me on that day and totally forgot about the turkey cooking in the oven when the Chef allowed us a couple of hours break to take us to the local pub and treat us to a few beers. I was enjoying the refreshments when it suddenly dawned on me on what I had done. When we got back to the kitchen the very large turkey was dried up that much it had shrunk to the point that the breast bone was protruding well above the meat and was totally ruined.
..ooooppppps did I get it in the neck and The Chef was not a happy bunny. Fortunately we had spare turkeys and another was roasted in time for the buffet.

For a selection of books on cooking and recipes for Chritmas and gifts for friends and family why not try the Gite book store below or if you are looking for more blogs on French life see here-
www.french-gite-creuse.co.uk