Ingredients by

Turkey

Key facts

Let the bird come to cool, room temperature before you cook it (i.e. remove it from the refrigerator, cold garage, shed or wherever the night before if you plan to eat your dinner in the middle of the day). Stuffing made in advance also needs to be taken from the fridge the night before. The point is that if everything is chilled when it goes in to the oven, it upsets the cooking times.

I come from a long line of turkey cooks and, throughout my life once a year, I have enjoyed the annual ritual of feasting not only on turkey but all the favourites that go with it.

Fashions in cooking turkey have come and gone, but ever since kitchen foil was introduced I have stood firm and stuck to the method which, in our family, has always been a hundred percent successful (which is to say, cooking in foil). I can honestly say we have never had a turkey that's too dry, so we've never become bored with it cold. On the contrary, our enthusiasm for turkey lasts down to the jelly and dripping - delicious on toast for breakfast - and to the beautiful soup you can make from the carcass.

Try if possible to get a fresh bird, and remember to order it in plenty of time. If you can only buy a frozen bird, or it's more convenient, try to buy one that has been frozen without added water, then don't forget to allow plenty of time for it to de-frost slowly and completely. Always remove the giblets as soon as you can - with a fresh bird immediately you get home, with a frozen one as soon as it has thawed.

Related Recipes