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Roast turkey

4-20 Servings

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Pre-heat oven to 170º C (350º F, gas mark 4).

To prevent the breast meat from drying out, you can either buy a ‘ready basted’‡ bird or insert butter‡ or sausagemeat between the breast skin and the meat. This requires some care, to avoid piercing the skin. If you want to do this, you need to ensure the breast stays covered during thawing, so that the skin does not dry out and lose its flexibility.

You need clean hands with short fingernails to succeed in releasing the skin from the breast meat. The method is to lift the skin and gently push your fingers between the skin and the meat, gradually releasing the skin from the meat until there is a pocket into which you can insert the butter or sausagemeat. Be careful not to tear the skin. If you take it slowly and carefully, you will find it is quite easy to do.

Once the skin is free, put a thin layer of butter or sausagemeat in, to completely cover the surface of the meat. Then pull the skin back down, and smooth it into shape. Sprinkle the bird with salt.

Alternatively, you can just cover the breast with strips of fat bacon, in which case you only need to season the legs and wings.

Weigh the stuffing mixtures and add them to the weight of the bird to calculate the cooking time. Stuff the neck and body cavities with the stuffings you have chosen. Add the bacon strips, if used. Wrap the turkey in foil.

Roast for 45 minutes per kilo (20 minutes per pound).

An hour before the end of cooking time, unwrap the foil to let the turkey brown and remove the bacon, if used. Leave pieces of foil over the ends of the legs and wings so that they do not scorch.

Traditional stuffings are Sausagemeat and turkey liver stuffing in the body cavity (try Sausagemeat and chestnut or Parsnip stuffing for a lighter flavour), Parsley and Thyme** at the neck end.

Traditional accompaniments are Bread Sauce**, chipolatas, Brussels sprouts, roast parsnips and cranberry sauce (in US).

‡ Not suitable for dairy-free diet

** Not suitable for gluten-free or low-carb diets.

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