Ah please help me with turkeys!

[Takemyhand]

It’s my first year of doing Christmas dinner... at the ripe old age of 29

I’ve never cooked a turkey before. I’m a vegetarian however DH and DD (10 months at Christmas) will be having turkey.

I’m also hosting my parents, brother and sister on Boxing Day and will be doing a buffet so would like leftovers.

Do I get a whole turkey? How big? Or a crown? (I don’t know what the difference is!)

I would just get a crown .
A crown is just the breast no legs or wings so no bones except the breast bone they tend to be a bit dearer weight for weight compared to a full turkey but there is very little waste.
They also tend to cook quicker but can be a bit dry if your not careful .
there will be lots of sizes available so just pick the one you think will be big enough for xmas day meal and boxing day nibbles .

Get a crown and the packet will tell you how long to cook it for

A crown!

I find crowns really dry.

That's what gravy's for @Imustbemad00

I'd do beef! Lovely leftovers too.

We get a turkey breast rolled and boned from our local butcher. Doesn’t take hours to cook and never dry.

Has your DH ever cooked turkey?

I do a whole turkey for Christmas because even though there are only DH, DD (teen) and I, we will get through a lot in leftovers and we tend to freeze a breast to have later in the year as well.

But for Thanksgiving, I buy a single breast from M&S. Last year, DH was away, but I had neighbours in for the meal (a turkey dinner after work on the 4th Thursday in November) - so the breast fed 4 adults and 3 hungry teens, plenty for all but no leftovers to worry about midweek when I couldn't deal with them.

A decent sized breast, or a crown, would be ideal. Plenty of veg and potatoes, stuffing and lots of gravy, can all be used to make the meat go further.

I also find that, while I want a big roasting dish when I am doing a lot of potatoes or a very large joint of meat - when it's only a breast of turkey, I use a much smaller roasting tin and cover it in foil to keep the moisture in, I DO put plenty of flavoured butter (just chopped sage and thyme, salt, pepper and a small squeeze of lemon juice mashed into soft butter) over the top (and put a few streaky bacon strips on top if I think of it), and a glass of white wine poured in around it too - stock or plain water would do if you prefer not to use wine, and to remember to take it out occasionally and spoon up some of the juices and pour them over the breast to keep it moist.

Last year was my first time cooking turkey. I got a turkey crown. I combined butter and mixed herbs and gave it a lovely massage. Then I made a trivet of a large carrot and potato cut up and placed the crown upside down on it in the roasting pan.Finally I put some cut up oranges and limes on it. As it cooks these make it really juicy. I followed the cooking times on the packaging. Half an hour before due to be cooked I turned it the right way up to brown. I don’t like turkey so much but this was nice, and very easy too. I prepared the stuffing separately.