Do you "marinade" your Christmas Day turkey the night before?

[Sunsetred]

I'm cooking the turkey this year. My MIL has being calling my DH all day to see if I have marinaded the turkey yet. I had no plans on preparing the turkey until tomorrow morning. Now my DH is insisting I marinade it tonight otherwise it will be dry. I was only planning on rubbing butter on it and putting onion and bay leaves inside. Is this wrong? It's my first time cooking the turkey!

No marinading of turkeys occurs in this house.

If she wants the bloody turkey marinating, let her cook it herself! It's rude of her to insist you do it her way when you are hosting. Either tell her to cool her jets and butt out, or fib that it has been marinating since this morning.

Ditto no marinading. Phone back ask if she has found a particularly good method otherwise just say yes and cook it basting lots along the way.

Saying that, mine is currently overnighting in a tub of buttermilk, orange slices and fresh rosemary, but I bet it will be still as try as toast because that it the main feature of turkey.

Ours gets butter, mayonnaise and bacon on it about 9pm. It then goes in the oven about midnight slow and low and is never dry.

I don't have Turkey but I do brine chickens either wet or dry depending on fridge space and such.
I wouldn't bother brining it now though, just pop it in as you have said maybe with half a lemon and some garlic aswell some bacon over the breast and 300ml of chicken stock in the roasting tin to help baste along with the Turkey fat and juices that come off whilst cooking.
I would baste every 30 mins for a large Turkey.

Mine is brining. I can get away with a cheap frozen turkey if I bribe it, which takes a lot of stress out of it.

I’ve had fancy fresh turkeys but they are no nicer.

I use a sugar/salt and spice mixture with water. It soaks while it defrosts.

Never marinated a turkey, what a load of bollocks... loads of butter between skin and flesh, can't vermin bacon, job done

If brining counts, then yes! I find turkey too dry otherwise.

No marinating here. It does get repeatedly basted in sage butter while cooking though.

Mine is brining.
My mum just covers hers in bacon and shoves it in the oven.
I think mine is nicer but it's probably psychosomatic.
I mainly brine it because it is a tradition that my DD and I bath the turkey on Christmas eve. She's 14 and as long as she wants to spend that time with me I'll do it.

How low and for how long? What size turkey? I've never done slow before

Is she meaning brining a turkey OP?

I think if she's a guest in your house for dinner she should butt out

I'm doing mine in maple syrup and some other stuff tomorrow

I took my teeny tiny 2.5kilo turkey out of the plastic this afternoon, spread it out, put herby garlic butter under the skin, a cut lemon and an onion up the bum, salt and pepper and the remaining butter on the outside.
I mainly wanted to see if there were giblets (ugh, fortunately not) inside and get the skin a bit drier to help with browning. I might remove the wishbone for ease of carving before it goes in the oven.

If someone wanted it brined, I’d tell them that ship sailed on Friday!

For those brining (rather than bribing as per previous poster!), what do you do this in, what tub do you use, is it a tub for this purpose, where do you put the tub while this is going on?

We only have some manky buckets about the place and I know if we did this one year, the rest of the year the bucket would be sitting about with crap in it or something

I am ancient and have never brined or marinaded mine and it is always edible.
As others have said, put butter under the skin on the breast, top with streaky bacon and allow it to rest after cooking

I brine mine now. I started a year or so ago and it does make a difference to how moist the meat is. We just get a turkey crown so this really helps. I use Nigellas spiced turkey recipe

A year ago? Surely it's a bit off now?!

😉😂

I use a large pan I use for jam making which sits on my cold slabbed utility room floor with the lid tied down in case of curious cats and dog. You just need 6 litres of water so anything that would hold that

Haha, I mean I started brining a year or so ago

Actually, I can't think how to write that without it sounding like it's been brining that long😬

@bellac11 I use one of these, they come in different sizes with red lids and it goes in the fridge on the bottom solid shelf.

https://www.nisbets.co.uk/hygiplas-polycarbonate-square-storage-container-3500ml/cf021?vatToggle=incvat&cm_mmc=PLA--19658930599--148684579569--CF021&cm_mmca1=go_19658930599_148684579569_647487809739_pla-2235225200842_m&kpid=go_cmp-19658930599_adg-148684579569_ad-647487809739_pla-2235225200842_dev-m_ext-_prd-CF021_sig-CjwKCAiAyp-sBhBSEiwAWWzTnqgnszIMML0ejqNZoM0IeGxraHZLZ2dWX-fdjsEwG3FWm3SS8_jxeRoCmsUQAvD_BwE&plaid=1&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAyp-sBhBSEiwAWWzTnqgnszIMML0ejqNZoM0IeGxraHZLZ2dWX-fdjsEwG3FWm3SS8_jxeRoCmsUQAvD_BwE

@bellac11 you can do a dry brine (salt and baking powder 4:1) and just put it on the rack in the tin you're going to roast it in, in the fridge. Uncovered if less than 24 hours or in a proofing bag if longer.

Thanks for all the replies! She defo means "marinading" and not brining. I will try brining next time. Lots of really helpful tips so glad I posted. I'm going to add lemon, garlic, and chicken stock. I feel like I've got something to prove now! I wish everyone luck with their turkeys tomorrow. Merry Christmas!

P.s. In the end, I rubbed it with butter under the skin and put it back in the fridge to give DH some piece of mind as MIL has really worried him! They both think it's "marinading" now. I'll do the rest in the morning.