To dread cooking the blasted turkey every year?

I have just bought a fresh turkey off the shelf (i.e. not pre-ordered) from Sainsbury's for £15 using my nectar card.

Try Raymond Blanc method of cooking turkey, always very good. Succulent and tasty.

Frozen turkey really should be brined, Nigella Lawson recipe online.

Are you letting it rest for 45 - 90 minutes after cooking? That's what keeps it moist. If you cut into it too soon it loses the moisture. You need to let it rest in order to reabsorb its own juices.

Basically, yes. I still make the gravy from the juices (day of cooking) and portion it up into tupperware with the gravy so I'm only reheating what we need (queen of leftovers). The rest is frozen in gravy and reheated whenever (quite handy on a january week night when it only takes 25/30 mins to heat up).

Only two things are worth doing in my opinion.

1. Get your turkey boned and rolled. Much simpler to cook and fit in the oven. The stuffing helps to stop it drying out.
2. Cook a chicken instead. Or a ham. Or anything but turkey.

Plus, make a foil steam tent over the turkey in the roasting tin- it really does make a difference.

I think 72 degrees is too high. Did one last week for another meal and at 65 degrees it was perfect. No pink juices, but really very moist.

If you definitely aren't going to do another meat, then this is how I get good results:

1. I do stick with a crown - easier to get an even cook all over than a whole bird, and easier to manouvre and carve.
2. The night before, make a mixture of salt (I prefer to use Maldon salt flakes), crushed black pepper, oregano and any other herbs you fancy. You could also add some lemon or organge zest. and rub the mix all over the inside and outside of the turkey. This is a 'dry brine' method that essentially draws out the liquid of the turkey and which is then reabsorbed with the salt/herbs infusing it. The salt tenderises the meat and both the salt and herbs flavour it. Let the turkey rest in the fridge overnight - uncovered (this allows the skin to dry out and become crispier).
3. On the day of cooking, remove turkey from the I don't do stuffing inside turkey but stuff it if you like. I tend to just pop some halved oranges in the cavity - the juice will steam during cooking. Rub the excess salt off with kitchen towel. Cream some butter with black pepper, lift the skin carefully from the breast, using a knife to pry it away from the body. Using your hands, gently push it under the skin on each breast and massage it down so that there's a thin layer of butter between the meat and the skin on each breast.
4. I don't stuff the turkey but you can if you like. Would suggest if you stuff it do so with a stuffing that will create moistness rather than soak up moistness - so a sausage meat stuffing rather than purely breadcrumb/paxo based.
5. I line roasting pan with a double layer of foil - one going lengthways, one going width ways, making a cross shape. Leave lots of foil on both strips. Lay the turkey in the pan, pour in chicken stock to about a third of the way up the pan. Then bring the four sides of your foil together to make a sort of tent. There should be plenty of room between the turkey and your 'tent to allow steam to circulate.
6. Don't overcook it. Don't worry about basting it - the butter will do that itself. Don't worry about browning it (you'll see why). Just cook until a meat thermometer is reading about 65 degrees celsius. For a mid sized crown you're talking maybe two hours.
7. When it's cooked, or close to cooked, gently peel off the skin in one piece (this is easier with a crown than a full bird, and is made easier because it's already been prised apart from the mean before cooking). Please it on a baking tray with some oiled foil. Cook it in your oven until it is fully crispy - you're aiming for a crackling type texture. About 15 minutes on a high heat should do the trick, but cook as long as you like to get it to your preferred level of crispiness. Separating the skin and the mean was a gamechanger for me.
8. Let the crown rest for half an hour before carving. Easiest way to carve is to carve off both breasts first, and then slice them, rather than cutting slices straight from the crown.
9. Pop your turkey slices into a pan with some of the cooking juices and leave them until about 15 minutes before they are ready to serve. Give them another blast in the oven to get them piping hot before serving.
10. Break up the skin crackling into shards and sprinkle over the turkey slices.

The biggest thing for me was separating out the crispness of the skin from the moistness of the meat. To get crisp skin means high, dry heat. To get moist meat means moderate, wet heat. They're not compatible objectives. By removing the skin and cooking high and dry at the end, you can do your meat in a steamy, wet heat environment that won't dry it out.

Also, by doing it in advance and having your turkey slices carved, ready to go and reheated (with liquid so it doesn't dry out in reheating) you aren't trying to time everything perfectly (and you don't have to worry about the reheating stock making the skin soggy).

Here is BBC Good Food's recipe for slow cooker gammon in coke, @Mrswhatsit40.

I'm sure you can cook the gammon in the slow cooker, @Mrswhatsit40 - but I don't have the instructions to hand. Hopefully someone better informed will be along soon.

If you do want to do the wet brining, you absolutely don't have to use all of Nigella's ingredients - salt, water, onions, clementines, and some herbs/spices would do.

Why do you cook it? It's a horrible dry meat. I'd have something else, a goose or a ham.

"Think I'll have to risk the frozen turkey as I don't fancy lugging it back to Waitrose and I just looked at the fresh ones from Kelly's - start at £90 for 3kg!!!!"

The frozen turkey will be absolutely fine!!

My kids hate turkey - we had roast beef

"I went to Waitrose today and there were none, only two frozen ones left. I have a Tesco delivery coming Monday but they've no fresh turkeys on there despite me doing it about 2 weeks ago. I'm guessing you have to order a fresh one from the butcher?"

@Mrswhatsit40

No you don't have to get one from the butcher, but whether you buy from the butcher or a supermarket you need to order. They have cut off dates.

With Tesco you can order from when you get your Christmas slot I believe up until a date in early/mid December. It's then locked in on the cut off date, and you will definitely get your turkey. You can then add to your order everything else you normally buy for Christmas up until the day before your delivery as you would any other order.

Aldi and Lidl operate differently. The turkeys come in on a particular date just before Christmas and you just need to go and get one on or just after that date. Aldi turkeys are very good ime although I haven't bought one for a few years.

We had to have a frozen turkey one year, was worried but it was delicious.

Tips:

• defrost the turkey on Xmas Eve in a bucket of cold water so it's not taking up fridge space for days. Plus it will definitely be defrosted within 4 hours
• leave turkey in packaging - change water every 30 mins or so.
• We used a cleaned kitchen bucket.

• Put turkey straight in fridge once sure it is defrosted.
• Take turkey out of fridge 1/2 hours before cooking to get it to room temp.

DO NOT OVERCOOK THE TURKEY - Turkey is only dry if you've overcooked it.

Ignore the timings from the packet and use the timings from:

britishturkey.org.uk/

Make sure you include resting timings.

Lots of people say that you can cook the turkey first and let it rest while you cook the rest. I've never done this as not needed to but if you struggle for oven space, it would make things easier. Plus you are juggling fewer things.

Good luck.

Buy a fresh Kelly Bronze and cook to the instructions it comes with - shorter than you would think as the birds have a higher fat content.

I never do turkey. It's beef this year, last year lamb and I have even been known to offer up a salmon en croute. Which I bought from M and S. If you absolutely have to have turkey I would wrap it in bacon and don't cook it for too long. Lots of gravy too, turkey is often dry.

I just smear the outside generously with butter, then put streaky bacon over the breast and double wrap in foil. I don't baste it just take the foil off half an hour at the end of cooking before resting for at least 1 hour before carving, it has never been dry.

Cook the turkey breast down, it will stay in all the juices and the breast will stay moist.
Next year get a butterfly or crown... No pissing around and no bones.

We wrap it completely in foil with air space then take it off for the last 30 mins to crisp up

It's a Delia Smith way of cooking it

@Mrswhatsit40 if they want turkey they can cook a turkey…

do a pork belly and crackling instead. That’s what we have and love it. Chaps started doing a ham as well but there’s only him out of 5 adults eat it on the day but the meals he creates in the days after with it are delicious.

Yes, bought a free range bronze from Aldi for 75 quid today, plenty there.
Have very successfully done Delia's method for decades, might try Jamie Oliver this year with the veg trivet.

Use a thermometer and then rest it for AT LEAST an hour.

My husband is a chef. We cover with foil quite tightly and don’t remove the foil until the last half hour of cooking. Turkey is never dry.