Not turkey?

[Whathappenedtothelego]

Anyone else considering having something different to turkey this year?

I have to feed 6 meat-eaters. Would have liked goose, but don't think it's big enough.
Mulling over other alternatives.

What do you have if not turkey?

I agree Banana....like you I spent years cooking turkey (which I'm not keen on even when cooked perfectly) and every so often you'd get a dud dry bird, despite cooking it the same way as the moist bird the year before.

Tbh I just find it a very uninspiring meat - the only thing making it special was the trimmings (stuffing, cranberry/bread sauce, pigs in blankets).

Then to add insult to injury you're faced with all the bloody leftovers of a meat you don't particularly enjoy.

Obviously each to their own, but I think there are plenty of much more inspiring and tasty options.

I'm definitely inspired to have something different.
Also, it hadn't occurred to me that if something is too small I could just do two.
I will look into capon and guinea fowl.

We are having either prepared Guinea Fowl (from Waitrose) or prepared Partridges (from M&S). The partridges are one per person so look really amazing (and cute!) on the Christmas table.

I like turkey but if I were to do something different it would be beef wellington.

DH made a hearfelt but polite request this year for either beef Wellington or roast salmon. Hadnt quite clocked how much he disliked turkey. We have been together about 23 years

I would be absolutely no way to venison for Christmas. You can’t eat Rudolph.

We have beef and yorkshires. Also bake a ham (mainly for Boxing Day) and have pigs in blankets. M&S has the last couple of years done a small beef joint wrapped in prosciutto.

@DelurkingAJ what’s that like? They did a rib of beef with truffle two years ago which was just heartbreakingly good. Not ever released again bloody M&S.

We really like it...keeps the beef beautifully pink.

@Whathappenedtothelego - we have goose, and a 5+kg one does generous servings for 5 adults on Christmas Day, and enough leftovers for another meal for the five of us.

Plus you get the best goose dripping, to make roast potatoes with!

I am really drawn to goose. Where do you get yours from?
Is it easy to cook?
I do have vegetarians to cater for too, but perhaps I could segregate the goose fat potatoes carefully.

I would have rib of beef or venison in a flash given the choice. DH loves turkey and tradition so it’s a no go.

Rib of beef.
To stop Turkey drying out I cook it the night before then put slices in a tray covered with the gravy. Just need to heat through in the oven on Christmas day then and definitely not dry.

Lidl do a frozen goose for around £20. It's huge

Beef wellington here

Never have turkey.

Instead we have

Orange and tarragon chicken
Lemon and thyme chicken with stuffing
Peppercorn crusted beef

Rather have a mix

We usually get ours from Sainsbury’s it’s about £45, I think.

It is as easy to roast as a turkey or chicken - I stuff mine with sage, onion and bacon stuffing, and the roasting times are on the bag.

The one I usually get is a Gressingham goose - it comes with giblets, which make nice stock, and it is worth checking the cavity and the opening of the cavity for lumps of fat that just pull off really easily - I render them down, for the fat. You can also prick the breast and legs to let the fat out.

You need to drain off the fat two or three times during the cooking time. You can roast it on a rack, to keep it up out of the fat, but I usually use one of those disposable turkey roasting trays and it’s fine.

I always do gravy and bread sauce - because dh and the dses insist on gravy, and I love bread saucewith a roast bird, but I also do a spiced apple sauce with bramleys because the sharpness cuts through the richness of the goose.

We are ABT at Christmas. Anything But Turkey .

DP, who does most of the cooking, isn’t a fan of turkey, so he refuses to cook one. We sometimes have a rib of beef, sometimes a leg of lamb or a haunch of venison. All delicious.

Can I just say that a decent butcher's turkey will be far superior to supermarket. Luckily I can get one from a friend that produces them or from my very excellent butcher. I've dabbled with duck, goose etc and far prefer goose, but am always shouted down in favour of turkey - I'm not a fan of the flavour.

We've had goose and there's been very little left over from 3 adults - we're obviously greedy.
We have also had rib of beef and beef wellington in other years - there was loads left over from those. Cold beef wellington is actually delicious.

We have goose every year, I much prefer it over turkey

Ive never been keen on Turkey so haven't had ot for over 25 years We used to have goose and got it from a local farm. I used to visit a few times to see how they were getting on . The farmer used to give you a bag with the goose in and one with fat and another with the giblets. I used to freeze the fat in portions to use throught the year.

When it became just the two of us a goose was too much so we switched to a stuffed duck. I used to buy from M+S etc, but most supermarkets for the last few years have been stuffing them with cherrieswhich I'm not keen on so stuff it myself.

We've also had a filet of beef as well as OH doesn't like duck and it does well for Boxing Day

I did Hugh FW Mincemeat and chestnut stuffed Pork Tenderloins a an experiment one Christmas a few years ago..

Now I am never allowed to do anything else for Christmas dinner.
Its fab, also really inexpensive compared to traditional turkey or other Christmas meats and can feed a many as you like. I usually double up for six people as I find it just all gets eaten

Recipe is in the River Cottage meat book, but I have only found it here online

We have chicken, I don’t like turkey. And we do a small pork and ham joint. It’s not the meat that makes the dinner special. It’s those extras like creamy leeks, pigs in blankets and an array of different stuffings etc that make it different to your standard Sunday roast.