How do you cook your turkey?

[Andsoforth]

….assuming you have one.

upside down? On the bbq? Brined first? With giblets forgotten inside on Christmas Eve and warmed with gravy?

I love hearing what others do.

Ours is quite traditional - stuffed solid with a skewer through it to save us from food poisoning. Seasoned butter under the skin. Outer skin dried and seasoned. And cooked under a tinfoil tent.

I dry brine the turkey (article here) with just salt on the underside and a mix of salt and baking powder on the skin side. Leave for 24-48 hours uncovered in the fridge. We only have a turkey crown, as there are only four meat eaters, but when we roast a chicken we spatchcock it, so there's more even cooking. Garlic and herb butter either under skin or brushed on top just before it's cooked. Then cooked on a charcoal barbecue, partly because my family are barbecue enthusiasts and partly as I'm vegetarian and like to free up space in the oven to cook things I like to eat.

put mascarpone between skin and flesh then roast

allow to rest out of oven for 90 minutes before carving

moist turkey

but don’t have Turkey any more

i have kept a comprehensive list for a decade of weight of turkey and that year’s perfectionist cooking technique and outcome.

Best year though was 2 years ago when I decided fuck it, so now it just goes in the oven and is a bit over cooked but I get to have a large drink and watch a film with the kids and I happily no longer care.

with a skewer through it to save us from food poisoning

Please @Andsoforth what's with the skewering? I've never skewered a turkey before

In a roasting bag. Amazingly quick and moist. We’re only having a crown this year so I don’t know if it’ll work for that… willl update on the 26th!

We loosely stuff, then put butter under the skin on the breast, then cover the breast and legs with streaky bacon, pour in a bottle of white wine

It always stays moist even though DH is petrified of undercooking it and does it until it falls off the bone

An obscene amount of butter under the skin, then covered with a lattice of streaky bacon. Foil on, then whipped off the last half hour to crisp up the bacon.

I brine it for 12 hours the night before after taking out the bag of giblets, then stuff it with sage and onion stuffing made on Christmas Eve and refrigerated.

I roast it with no other seasoning - the brine I use has salt, sugar, two cut up oranges plus juice, allspice berries, peppercorns, bay leaves, bunch of parsley, sprigs of rosemary and thyme, whole cloves, cardamom, onion, and garlic aplenty. This gets boiled in half a gallon of water, cooled to room temp, put in a giant brining bag inside a bucket, ice is added, then the turkey, and it zips closed.

I let it sit for an hour or so after patting it dry, and as soon as its stuffed it goes into a 450F oven for half an hour, then gets roasted at 325-350F until a few degrees below done temp. We take it out and tent it and it gets to the right temp. The gravy I make from the pan drippings is out of this world.

I always do mine following Nigellas instructions in ‘How to Eat’. It’s uncovered and has been bought to room temp in the cool utility room overnight. It takes a lot less time, I butter and season the breast, stick some butter inside and rest it for at least an hour tented with foil and covered in a towel.

@toastofthetown just read that article, how much salt would you use for a crown? Also I normally put streaky bacon over it? I assume you wouldn't do this afterwards then?

I've now got a ninja foodi, so contemplating pressure cooking a small turkey crown and then air frying to crisp up.

Cook it the day before the braise in gravy on the day. My oven isn't big enough for duck, Turkey, gammon and all the veg and pigs in blankets.

@mathanxiety oh my, that sounds absolutely incredible and top marks for effort! Where did you learn this - family recipe or are you self taught?

I don’t fuck about, I’d rather be doing something else. Just the usual butter and seasoning. Slap some bacon rashers on top so it looks fancy and throw it in the oven. I’ve never had a bad one.

Upside down, then flip it over to brown.

Although I do remember the year, sometime in the mid 90’s that my mum accidentally cooked the turkey upside down and when it came to carving my dad didn’t realise so he went on a rant about these fancy free range turkeys being a waste of money because they have no meat on them!

Aww man, my missed comma in the above makes it sound like we butchered my Father on Christmas Day!

Butter under skin (with thyme, sage & rosemary chopped in), on trivet, wrapped in foil, clementine, chilli (1) and herbs in cavity. Little bit of stuffing in neck, wrap in foil, bacon lattice for last 45, out of oven and rest for 1hr.

I clean my oven sometime during the week before Christmas. I have found that it cooks at a more accurate and even temp when clean.
Use a baking tray in the bottom of the oven to put water in to create steam.
The secret is basting, basting and more basting. I remember my mum doing this all Christmas morning and never having dry Turkey meat.
Also the fresher the Turkey the better they cook. We used to have ours delivered the day it was killed ( BIL was gamekeeper and raised turkeys for Xmas for friends and family). There was no time for it to dry out in the fridge.
I’m old school, butter then bacon, stuffing or whole onion inside Turkey. Place on rough chopped root veg. Cover with foil and roast.
Meat thermometer to check temp at end. Baste regularly.

Sausage meat stuffing, plus a whole lemon inside, butter and chopped herbs under the skin, basted every 30 mins. Never had issues with food poisoning yet - I always buy the black or bronze turkey, they cook quicker

We’re only having a crown this year, but will be trying out our Ninja Foodie to pressure cook it after having success with cooking chickens a few times throughout the year. Plan will be to cook the crown on its own, then add streaky bacon rashers using the oven/crisp setting for the last 15 mins.

Brined
Halved lemon and onion inside
Upside down then long rest under foil and tea towel

We have a crown as there's too much waste with a whole turkey.
I cook mine in the slow cooker overnight on Christmas Eve.
In the morning I lay streaky bacon on it, lattice style and pop it in the oven to crisp up

You just reminded me of a work colleague who went home for Christmas for first time after she converted to Islam. Her mum was so excited at having sourced a turkey at a halal butchers. My colleague told her mum not to fuss and she'd happily eat the veggie option.

Anyway, come Christmas Dinner time and the turkey is proudly presented to the family........ With rashers of streaky bacon on top. Her poor mum totally forgot that my colleague couldn't eat bacon anymore and was mortified. However, the dinner was saved because my colleague ate the bacon free turkey legs which were cooked in a separate tin due to space. Always, makes me laugh this story.

@keepcalm11 it’s just that I push a skewer or a metal fork into the stuffing until I hit the bone to make sure I’m conducting the heat through. It’s probably not necessary but every year the food safety messages advise not to stuff the cavity and I get nervous.