anyone doing, or has done the Nigella brined turkey?

[flipflopper]

I thought I would try it this year, as it had really good reviews, but picked up my turkey today and it is a lovely free range, cost £50!!! and don't want to spoil it.
Also it seems funny not to stuff if and not sure if the juices can be used for gravy?

Need someone to talk me into it (or out of it!)

I've done it a couple of times and its worked really well! I think it's still worth doing with a free range turkey - I have. It adds a little bit if flavour but the main thing I noticed was how much juicer the meat was. I also really like her allspice gravy which makes use of the giblets. You can still use the juices from the turkey once you've drained the fat off.

oh goody, thankyou. How long did you soak it for? Did you get it out of the water on xmas morning and cook straight away?

I've done this twice and it's lovely, really lovely. There is also something magical about the preparation. I brined for the full 48 hours.

I've brined it for somewhere between 36 and 48 hours. It was cold enough to keep it outside. I take it out of the brine first thing Christmas morning and let it come up to room temperature which takes a good hour.

I've done it three years running and it's fantastic. Mine in brining now. I would say go a bit easy on the spices, especially the cinnamon and cloves, I put in less than the recipe says, but definitely do it. You won't regret it.

It's also worth doing the glaze to give it a good colour.

Did it twice (last 2 years we hosted not this year as going elsewhere). Its great and a really fun thing to do with the DCs. We put the turkey in a bucket (?!) with all the herbs and spices and left it overnight. Has been fab both times. Trust Nigella on this one....

It's yum. Take it out of the water to warm up a bit before it goes in the oven. It's not dry at all.

Is that the one that Mick does in Gavin & Stacey?

great, thankyou very much, going to put it in tonight!

Was going to say the same... Think I've seen Mick do this on Gavin and Stacey

Must just add that the meat juices do come out very salty/spicy (although the turkey doesn't taste overly salty so don't worry about that) and not really usable on its own for the gravy. A couple of spoonfuls would be ok but used on its own would be a bit much. It's worth buying a small pack of chicken wings/pieces and roasting them tomorrow, then adding plenty of water to the roasting dish and cooking slowly for a bit longer to get lots of lovely stock for gravy. Add this to a bit of the turkey juices so the taste of all the brining flavours isn't too overpowering in the gravy.

Must just add that the meat juices do come out very salty/spicy (although the turkey doesn't taste overly salty so don't worry about that) and not really usable on its own for the gravy. A couple of spoonfuls would be ok but used on its own would be a bit much. It's worth buying a small pack of chicken wings/pieces and roasting them tomorrow, then adding plenty of water to the roasting dish and cooking slowly for a bit longer to get lots of lovely stock for gravy. Add this to a bit of the turkey juices so the taste of all the brining flavours isn't too overpowering in the gravy.

I've done this twice.
Excellent result. Really good.
But I threw the liquor away. Cba with it.

I do it every year too it's great!! Serve it with this:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4968/chestnut-and-cranberry-roll
Best Christmas dinner ever!!

I do it but use a simple brine of salt and brown sugar.
Cba with all the spices.

Well it's been in the bucket since last night.
I didn't bother putting in some of the spices as I think the allspice/star anisde/ cloves are too much sometimes.
Ive already got the Jamie Oliver gravy in the freezer, so I will just add some stock to that tomorrow.

I've done our turkey that way for years, it's lovely.

I used the full spice but it didn`t taste too spicy. It is the brining process that does the magic methinks.