cooking turkey questions

[Woolleymammoth]

I've never cooked a turkey before but we are hosting Xmas this year....

6 adults
2 teenagers
3 children

What size turkey would you get and what temperature and for how long would you cook it?

Thanks!!

I seem to remember from last year that the general advice is 500g per person which gives enough for leftovers.

So I suppose it depends on how much the teenagers and children eat, and how much you want left for boxing day, pies etc.

Maybe a 4.5/5kg bird?

We had 3kg last year for 6 adults and 2 toddlers, which was plenty.

I use Nigella's cooking times, which are much shorter than everywhere else but they're spot on in my opinion.

www.nigella.com/recipes/view/spiced-and-superjuicy-roast-turkey

Timings are at the bottom.

The Kelly Bronze site suggests 500 g per person to allow for Christmas dinner and a sandwich with leftovers after. However it really depends on how much you want left over. We get a 6 kg bird and there are only 4 of us..
I brine ours as per Nigella - and use her timings. A free range, brined, turkey takes far less time to cook than you would expect. Ours last year took under 2 hours. I always use a digital thermometer to check the temperature of the turkey - it's cooked at around 65 - 70 deg c.

Great thank you, that's really helpful.