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 just smother in butter and loosely wrap in foil - that’s it. Always lovely

Ahh that makes sense thank you

Rub with olive oil, salt and pepper then put it upside down in the tray. Add about an inch of water to the bottom of the tray (or more depending on size of the turkey). With about half an hour to go, turn the turkey, re-season, add more water (and/or stock). I make Nigella's gingerbread stuffing to go with it but cook it separately.

Overnight in the oven on slow.

I use Maldon salt, as kosher salt is harder to get here in the UK, and I usually use two tablespoons salt to half a tablespoon baking powder. I add enough to cover it all the surfaces in a single layer, so there’s salt everywhere, but not forming a salt crust. If you’re using table salt it will be denser so you’d need a lower volume of it. I’ve never wrapped it in bacon so can’t offer advice. The brining doesn’t make the turkey overly salty, but it does season throughout so depending on how much salt you like in your food, it might be too much with bacon too. Maybe a trial run with a chicken thigh or something?

@sittingonacornflake
I found the brine recipe on YouTube

DS had a slice of a brined turkey a few years ago at a friend's house and bothered me for months to do ours like that, so I found the brine recipe and gave it a go. We've never looked back.

Put it in the bottom oven of the Aga around 6pm on Xmas eve. Have too much to drink.
6am Xmas morning. Bleary eyed and hungover try to drain off some of the juices.
11am take out of oven to rest.

Always delicious.

We steam ours the Phil Vickery way been doing this for a few years now. It’s never dry and done in approx 2 hrs!
Do the Turkey first, then let it rest to free up the oven whilst doing everything else.