This site saved Christmas dinner last year when I did beef, can you help with Turkey?

MrsRogers

Hi OP

I personally have Delias Christmas Book and follow hers ... HOWEVER

Today I watched Phil Vickery's 'Christmas Turkey' on the 'This Morning' and thinking im going to give his version a try this year. He guarantee's it to be moist.


http://thismorning.itv.com/thismorning/food/christmas-feast-every-pocket

check out the link off the 'This Morning' website - you could even see the demonstration on IPLAYER

Good luck :T

Essex-girl_2

i always put loads of seasoned butter on my turkey & cover the breast with streaky bacon, last year I bought wrap and roast from Lakeland and it was my best turkey ever.

Hope this link works - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/wrap-!AMPERSAND-roast-roll/F/keyword/roasting+bag/product/10668

Pink.

MrsRogers wrote: »

Hi OP

I personally have Delias Christmas Book and follow hers ... HOWEVER

Today I watched Phil Vickery's 'Christmas Turkey' on the 'This Morning' and thinking im going to give his version a try this year. He guarantee's it to be moist.


http://thismorning.itv.com/thismorning/food/christmas-feast-every-pocket

check out the link off the 'This Morning' website - you could even see the demonstration on IPLAYER

Good luck :T

Hi MrsRodgers,

Like you, I always did mine a la Delia. Last year I cooked it following Phil Vickery's recipe and it was the best turkey I ever cooked. :j I'll be doing the same again this year and would highly recommend the recipe.

Pink

Geenie

My advice is don't get a turkey! It is an American thing and not British. I am going to my brothers this year and they have at last given up on tasteless turkey. They are getting a lovely piece of lamb and chicken from a local farmer, so there is white meat for those that need it, and the stuffing etc. None of my friends are cooking turkeys anymore.

Last year when my turn, I did beef and chicken from a neighbours farm. It was delicious and moist. The year before I had a goose from a local farm. It was delicious but ever so expensive, and truly was no better then a good joint of red and an organic chicken. Like a turkey you end up trying to use it in meals for days, and then give it to the dog to end your misery.

Prepare as much ahead as possible. I do Delias parsnips in parmesan from her Xmas book, which I freeze in advance. Also prepare red cabbage a week before and swede (if mashed) the day before. Just reheat on the hob or microwave before serving. My stuffing would be in the freezer now, ready to cook on the day, and everything prepared the night before. I have even in the past cooked the vegetables the night before or early on Xmas morning, then quickly cooled in ice water, so it is only a matter of the microwave to get hot before serving. I think this is what a lot of restaurants do.

I am no longer a slave to Xmas dinner, and do things now so that I can have a good day and am not exhausted by it all. A happy mum makes for a happy day....ask any dad or kids!;)

Good luck OP and all.:)

strawberrypud

That is great advise thank you everyone:j. I'll try Phil Vickery's recipe, that looks like a really good site. I'm cooking for 6 adults so not a huge gathering but it is a bit stressful.

angeltreats

I'm not doing a turkey either, I'm not a fan and I'm already sick of looking at turkey at work anyway, so I'm doing a chicken and probably a small ham as well. We'll have roast potatoes, steamed carrots, braised red cabbage (in the slow cooker), Yorkshire puddings (not traditional but DH will beg for them), stuffing balls, gravy and I have to have marrowfat peas because my mum always made them and it's a tradition Pickled silverskin onions is another one that I've always kept going since I left home. We have friends coming for dinner and they are cooking sausagemeat and pigs in blankets and bringing them along. Dessert will hopefully be a chocolate yule log.

To be honest, I won't be doing much prep in advance. I'll probably make the stuffing balls on Christmas Eve ready to go into the oven the next day, and the braised red cabbage I might do on Christmas Eve and then reheat it. The chocolate yule I'll also do the day before. Everything else I'll do on Christmas Day. We'll probably eat at around 3pm so the chicken can go in at about 12:30 and come out around 2pm, sit resting in tinfoil for an hour while the spuds and yorkshire puds cook and I can make the gravy, steam the carrots, reheat the cabbage etc. While the chicken is in the oven, that gives me plenty of time to peel and parboil the spuds and get them ready for the oven, make yorkshire pudding batter, peel and chop carrots etc. I'll do the ham in the pressure cooker, it will only be small so half an hour or 40 minutes will do it and I'll time it so it's ready at around the same time as the chicken, throw a few cloves and bay leaves in there with a bit of apple juice, sit the ham on a trivet and it'll be lovely. I'd be surprised if I actually spent much more than an hour or so doing stuff in the kitchen on Christmas Day (as opposed to waiting for stuff in the oven, which will obviously take longer).

I might also do a pannetone bread and butter pudding, haven't decided yet, and if I do I'll make that on Christmas Eve and let it soak overnight before throwing it in the oven when we sit down for dinner. The custard will be ready-made bought stuff because life is too short to make custard (bit like puff pastry). Oh and there will also be Vienetta which has always been a tradition in both DH's house and my house when we were growing up. We used to think it was so posh

When I lived with my parents, my mum spent hours and hours in the kitchen on Christmas Day. She was paranoid about making sure the turkey was cooked properly so it went into the oven at about 9am when we weren't eating until about 2pm :eek: needless to say it was dry as a bone. And she fussed about so much that by the time she sat down to eat, everything was stone cold. Bless her...

Sorry this reply is so long, I got a bit carried away :rotfl:but anyway really it's not that much different from a bogstandard roast, maybe just a few extra bits and pieces.

Geenie

angeltreats wrote: »

When I lived with my parents, my mum spent hours and hours in the kitchen on Christmas Day. She was paranoid about making sure the turkey was cooked properly so it went into the oven at about 9am when we weren't eating until about 2pm :eek: needless to say it was dry as a bone. And she fussed about so much that by the time she sat down to eat, everything was stone cold. Bless her...

Sorry this reply is so long, I got a bit carried away :rotfl:but anyway really it's not that much different from a bogstandard roast, maybe just a few extra bits and pieces.

I love your post.:D It reminds me of my poor old mum now in her 80's, getting up at 6am to get that dam bird in the oven ready for lunch. She is Italian, but felt she had to do the "English" thing for my dad and her kids at Xmas.

She adores now the fact we don't do turkey and enjoy real flavour at Xmas. A celebration of our local meat and heritage.:)

CupOfChai

I agree with lots of people above. It's only a giant roast dinner, if you can do a roast you can do this. I'd find it very helpful to figure out all the timings the night before and write them all down in order to keep handy by where you're working to refer to, like time & first thing, time & next thing, and so on, like the magazines do. But then maybe that's because timings are my weak point.

In our house, and I know we're not the only ones, the Christmas Eve Big Peel is traditional. Everyone helps prep all the veg ready (and lay the table) and it goes in its water in the pans, or in bowls of water, so just needs to be put on to cook at the right point.

No shame in a well-placed bit of cheating either. Above all, DON'T PANIC

ETA: Tidy as you go (where you can without interfering with your timings and serving). UNLESS you've got a concrete promise from someone else to do all the clearing up in return for your cooking efforts! In that case, hang doing any clearing up as well, instead of them!

furr

Hi there, we have always (I say we, I mean my mum!) cooked our turkey upside down for the first half of cooking time, then turned it over for the last half. Our bird is always lovely and succulent, I can't stand it dry!

jools27_2

The turkey is always cooked on christmas eve here and sliced cold....love the smell of dinner a day early and the veg is all prepped with a wee glass of cava