Dear Tom,
The turkey... it is just a large chicken really, and you can manage to do that quite well so this should be the easiest bit for you, although if you over cook it you will get complaints about dryness and if you under cook it there will be more problems than complaints to worry about!!
You need to know how much the turkey weighs to work out how long to cook it for
The general rule is that if your turkey weighs between 6-10lbs = 20mins per lb plus 20mins gas 4 / 180'c
2.7- 4.5kg = 20mins per 450g plus 20mins extra
10-18lbs = 15mins per lb plus 20mins
4.5 - 8.1kg = 15mins per 450g pus 20mins
The three golden rules are make sure that your turkey is thoroughly defrosted when using a frozen one
Wash your hands thoroughly after handling the raw meat
Make sure that it is cooked properly all of the way through, a meat thermometer is handy but as most of us don't have one.... When it has been cooking for its allotted time, use a sharp knife and pierce the bird in its fattest part, if the juices that run out are clear then it is done, if there is blood in them then it is back into the oven for another 20 minutes and try again.
There are endless recipes, methods of cooking and general advice about cooking turkeys that you could probably miss the entire Christmas period reading them. I can't tell you which one is best, I can only tell you the way that I will be doing it.
Ingredients
1 Turkey, (mine is about 4kg, enough for 6)
Red onions
Bacon
Thyme
Butter
Carrots
Lemon
Seasoning
Method
* Work out how long your turkey is likely to take, and work backwards from the time you want to serve it, confused? I want my turkey on the table at 2, so... It needs an hour resting, therefore needs to come out of the oven at 1. By weight it should take about 2 and a half hours so need to go in by half 10 You also need to factor in getting it out of the fridge and getting up to room temperature which takes a couple of hours. In other words for a two o'clock finish it will need to come out of the fridge at 8ish
* The oven needs preheating to gas 4
* You could just plop the bird into a roasting tray, straight into the oven for the allotted time and that's it, however that is unlikely to get the best out it.
* Cut your onions in half length ways and lay in the roasting tray flat side down, add the carrots in chunks too, this is going to make a platform for your turkey to stand on
* Rub your turkey all over with butter, place sprigs of thyme on to the top and cover in bacon. Put the lemon, halved, into the cavity, plus an extra onion or two if you have some to spare
* Put your turkey onto the roasting tray upside down. This helps the juices to flow through the breast meat whilst cooking instead of coming straight out of the bottom, and in theory you will get juicier flesh that way
If it doesn't want to balance that way you can press down firmly on it to break the back bone.
* Cover in tin foil and pop into the oven
* Check every half an hour and baste with the escaped juices.
* If you like you can turn the turkey too, when checking on it, turn it onto its side, then the next checking time onto its other side, then for the final time back onto its back.
* For the last half an hour of cooking time you should remove the tin foil, turn the turkey the right way up and baste again
* When the turkey is finally cooked it needs a good long resting period, this helps all of the juices to go back into the meat and the meat relaxes a bit. Obviously you will be wanting to keep it warm too. Remove your turkey from the roasting tray, onto a carving platter, saving all of the juices and vegetables for the gravy. Wrap it i tin foil and then place a couple of towels on the top, this will do a fantastic job of keeping he heat in :)
I hope this all makes sense?
Yours
Ruth
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