What's in your turkeys?

[rifling]

If you cook your stuffing separately do you put anything in your turkey? Or should I actually stuff it?

I don't, it just takes longer to cook if you stuff it. I loosen the skin and shove some butter up under the skin and try and spread it about as much as possible, then lay streaky bacon over the breasts (I remove them for the last half hour of cooking so the skin can brown)

I stuff the head end, because it looks nice on the table, but not the body cavity. I stuff a halved peeled onion up its jacksie, though, for moisture and flavouring the juices.
Streaky bacon goes over most of it before it goes in the oven.

Don't bother it takes longer to cook

And you would have to dig it out to serve it

I don't stuff my turkey as it slows down the cooking. I DO make stuffing though and serve it alongside. Goes in the oven with the roasties and parsnips whilst the bird is resting. The favoured stuffing is with chestnuts, dried apricots, bacon, sausage meat, sage, fried shallot and seasoning.

I'm having a stuffed turkey crown as just the three of us, but my mum used to make two different stuffings in either end of the turkey. The juices added a special flavour. Oh how I miss her Christmas dinners!

Do you just scrape out the stuffing when you serve it?

Chestnut pork and prune stuffing

Nothing but plenty of good, hot air!

A couple of orange halves and a couple of lemon halves here

An apple and an onion, just to flavour the juices that I then use to make the gravy.

I put sage sausage meat in the neck to help keep the breast moist, but nothing in the cavity.
I serve a couple of other stuffings which have been cooked separately alongside the meat.

Two types of stuffing - one bread and one sausage meat, the bread stuffing in the main cavity and the sausage meat in the neck end.

We have always done this, as my mother did, and if cooked properly there is no risk at all. The stuffing flavours the meat and the meat juices add flavour to the stuffing, it’s delicious. An unstuffed bird does not appeal!