Talking turkey, cooking tips

The big question that I am always asked at Christmas is how do I cook a turkey. Followed by we always get one that is to big for us.  So for every one who want to know this is the basics.

For one serving, you will need about 200g or 8 oz per person.  Now if you are roasting a whole turkey you will have a lot of bones in that so you have to take them out of the equations so say a quarter of the bird will be bones, half barest meat and one quarter leg meat.

So a 4.5kg/ 9lb 15oz bird will have 2.25kg/ 4lb 15oz  white meat so  and 1.125kg/ 2lb 8oz brown meat approximately. Now in cooking it you will get about a 40% loss in roasting the bird so you will get 1.35kg/ 3ld 1 oz cooked white meat and 675g / 1lb 4oz  cooked brown meat .  Therefore, that will go round and make servings for 10 people.

So you will need 450g or 1ld of raw bird for each person if the bird is whole .

So if you are getting a turkey crown then you will need 280g or 12oz of meat per person.

So to roast your turkey, now these cooking times are for crowns and whole turkeys . and you will need to take in to account the fact that you might have stuffed the bird and that weight will have to be added to the time .

Set your oven to 180c/350f and let it preheat then cook as following times for the weights of birds.

• 4.5kg/ 9lb 15oz: roast for 45 minutes per kg or 18 minutes per lb plus 20 minutes.
• 4.5kg/9lb 15oz and 6.5kg/14lb 5oz: roast for 40 minutes per kg or 16 minutes per lb plus 20 minutes.
• 6.5kg/14lb 5oz: roast for 35 minutes per kg or 14 minutes lb plus 20 minutes.

Cover the bird with tin foil to start with and add a little water to the bottom of the roasting try.  Then for the last 50 to 30 minutes take it of and let it brown. This will stop the bird from drying out.  You can use all the liquid in the bottom of the roasting dish to make gravy.

 To make sure the turkey is cooked  before serving it pierce the thickest part of the thigh with a skewer. If the juices run clear it is done.  If they are pink, put it back to the oven for another 15 minutes before doing again.  

Now before you carve the turkey just set it to one side and let it rest.  All cooked meats should rest after cooking and turkey being such a big bird can rest for a good half an hour.  Cover it with some more tin foil and let it sit on the side.  It will not lose any heat really before serving so take that in to consideration when serving you Christmas dinner.