To dread cooking the blasted turkey every year?

When I last cooked turkey, I covered it in butter then wrapped it in foil. Took the foil off for the last 20 mins of cooling time. I also let it rest for a while and it tasted really nice. Agree about not using a frozen turkey though

Phil Vickery's way works every single time

Beef Wellington.

Same, Butterfly Turkey from the butcher, so easy and no faffing about with the carcas after.

Some people forget to rest the bird before carving. It needs at least 30 mins for a crown and 50 mins for a whole bird.

The point of resting the turkey is to let the juices go back into the meat. If take out the roast from oven and then carve it, the juices go everywhere but the meat making it dry. Also don't be tempted to cover the meat tightly with foil as its being cooked still.

Why not have something else instead of turkey?

I have been cooking turkey every year for Christmas for thick end of forty years. One year I cooked goose because I had always fancied it - never again.

Honestly my turkey always comes out well. Basically I just follow the way of St Delia of Norwich (Blessed Be Her Name.) You can probably look it up on Delia Online but, for my 5.5k turkey, it will be:

• take out of fridge before bed the night before to get to room temperature;
• stuff sausage meat in the neck end and under the skin on the breast;
• smear it all over in butter then season;
• put streaky bacon over the breast;
• enclose the turkey in a big tent of foil, so air can circulate;
• give it a blast on very hot (200 fan) for 35 minutes
• turn down to 160 fan for rest of cooking time - dependent on size of turkey - in my case (5.5k) about 3 hours
• take foil off and then give about another 30 minutes basting occasionally
• take out of oven, wrap in foil and rest for at least 30 minutes before carving

As to the frozen versus fresh argument. I was in the fresh is best camp for many years. We always ordered our bird well in advance and collected on Christmas Eve. Then about 3 years ago I saw a consumer programme just before Christmas all about the various seasonal things we get and what is worth the money, taste tests and so on. They covered the fresh v. frozen thing and said that while fresh might have been better years ago (when St Delia wrote her gospel) these days with improved ways of freezing this was no longer necessarily the case. In fact a frozen bird could actually be "fresher" than a fresh bird. Anyway, we tried for the first time two years ago and, honestly, we cannot tell the difference and it is less than half the price. Just get it out of the freezer about 3 days before you want to cook it.

Either buy a fresh turkey or turkey crown.

Get a cheap meat thermometer so you don’t overcook it.

Don’t put stuffing it it, just some veg around it. Season the skin but I don’t put extra butter/ oil on either. Cover it for most of the cooking and turn it half way through. Brown the skin for the last half hour.

Rest it for bloody ages.

But mostly don’t overcook it and rest it afterwards, that’s why it’s dry.

YABU

Roast the turkey upside down. Don't baste it. Give an unstuffed turkey 13-15 minutes per pound at 180. Start much hotter to seal it for 20 minutes, then lower the oven. The oven should be very hot to begin with.

If you like, you can brine the turkey in buttermilk overnight, which will yield a very tender and moist bird. You'll need a large, clean bucket and a cold spot to leave it all in.

Do you have a meat thermometer? Your turkey is done when the thermometer inserted through the thigh into the breast registers 75 C. It needs to be taken out and covered tightly in foil at that point. Then you rest it in the foil for about half an hour before carving. Turn it right side up to carve.

While it's resting you can make gravy, finish the veg, etc.

Lol, fair enough! I have done this before and it was great as turkeys were very much reduced. But I get that this is not always a realistic option for reasons you mentioned. Anyway, if you absolutely have to do frozen. Very, very slow cook and lots of butter.

When I use to buy whole turkeys I cooked it upside down, all the juices ran to the breast. Turn for last half hour to 45 mins to brown skin.

I now buy turkey crowns or a boned and rolled turkey. The boned and rolled is much more moist because you have the legs rolled into it.

If cooking in a turkey bag remember that the cooking time decreases, the bag speeds up the cooking time . You can find timings online when using a turkey bag.

Personally I prefer using tinfoil, I find the bags dry out the turkey.

Does it have to be turkey ,why not choose a meat everyone likes ?

If we have turkey a get a butterfly breast wrapped in bacon from the butcher. They're huge. Pretty much impossible to dry it out, and cook it for under the supermarket label recommendations. You need to pay for decent turkey imo and I understand not everyone is in hte position to do that but I wouldnt buy a frozen one.

We're having beef this year anyway. No one will miss the turkey.

You should never cook a turkey without any covering on it - foil or roasting bags. Maybe for half an hour to brown the skin.

Put a lemon cut in half in the cavity and an onion, If your family eat bacon, put some streaky bacon on the thickest part of the breast. Its lovely crispy too.

Do not put stuffing into the bird as it will dry the meat out.

I find frozen turkeys from experience are not flavoursome. Since my DF got fresh turkeys as part of his Christmas box at his then employer, we always preferred them. Including the 15lb one we had between the 3 of us.

https://www.vickery.tv/recipes/phils-perfect-roast-turkey/

As I suggested that above try this method and don't skip the resting - every year my husband fails to remember that it is still very hot after being out of the oven for an hour and a half.

I think you need to start with better raw ingredients. If we’re having turkey I order a Kelly Bronze free range one and follow their instructions.

No faffing around with butter/bacon/stuffing/basting/brining. Just season and stick in oven, turn over half way through, leave to rest while you do the potatoes.

Expensive but worth it, never been dry and cooking time is short.

The best way is to not buy one and have beef instead. That's what I do.

Using sausage meat stuffing inside helps keep it moist, as the fat comes out and into the bird. We don't eat this stuffing at the end, though, we have Paxo type stuffing to eat. Keep it tightly covered with foil to start with, covered with lots (and lots) of streaky bacon. I've tried doing some of the cooking breast-down, but it's a 4-handed job to move it around again. Best bet is get a meat thermometer and check temps - remember it's big, so will retain a lot of heat when you take it out of the oven (covered with many tea-towels). Good luck!

Oh no, it absolutely does make a difference to taste.

I don't know where you are but absolutely Tesco where I am has only just begun to stock fresh turkey and there's loads so I don't think you will have problems sourcing them this week.

Good luck and go with fresh.