The Skinny Guide to Christmas Dinner

Don’t Skimp on Your Turkey

To begin with, we canvassed opinion for good turkey suppliers the easiest way we know: Twitter. The Copas breed cropped up, with @FTTBYD suggesting Evans in Didsbury as the place to get one; the Eagle & Child pub recommended Bury-based Albert Matthews; @Heisenburger1 praised Fosse Meadows’s birds, while @FoodGeekUK swears by Paul Kelly’s bronze turkeys. Don’t like turkey or want something different? Go for goose, a glazed ham, or Beef Wellington.

Brine Time

Food writer Harold McGee (known simply as ‘Da Man’ in my house) had a dig at brining in a New York Times article a while back. The issue here is: though it will lead to moist meat, that moisture comes from added salty water, which dilutes the flavour of the bird. Nevertheless, the result will be tender, more evenly seasoned meat. You can also try injecting a milk and apple juice brine full of tenderising phosphates a la Modernist Cuisine if you’re feeling (experi)mental. For a large bird, low-concentration brines (2% salt to water) can take a while to have an effect, so be warned.

Take Tips from Keller

Thomas Keller recently shared his tips with Epicurious for a great Christmas turkey and they including brining (you can’t escape it!) but also an important reminder that a day of air-drying in the fridge post-brine is a very necessary in-between step before roasting, if you want ultimate skin crispiness. Basting with clarified butter also gives a better result than simply basting with regular butter or oil according to the French Laundry chef. Cooking the crown and the legs separately is a tried-and-tested technique that lessens the risk of ruining your prized meat.

Crisper Drawers and Ziploc Bags

Even a small turkey will need a large container to brine in. We advise commandeering the crisper drawers at the bottom of the fridge, assuming they’re not jam-packed with veg, or using a huge Ziploc bag (look online; IKEA do some reasonably priced ones if you live near one). If you spatchcock your turkey, as Kenji from Serious Eats does, then you’ll save on more space.

Don’t Stuff The Cavity

Okay, you can if you want, but you’d be better adding a layer of protective stuffing under the skin. Mix some breadcrumbs with some softened butter, herbs like sage, and whatever else springs to mind (cranberries/chestnuts?) and use a piping bag to work it into the hard-to-reach areas. Daniel Humm, chef at New York’s Eleven Madison Park, does a pretty good job on a chicken (YouTube it) if you need some pointers.  

Save Oven Space By Frying Roasties

Most domestic ovens don’t cope very well when you cram them with food. Have you ever impatiently waited for honeyed parsnips to caramelise, potatoes to crisp and stuffing to brown? It’s a bit like overcrowding a pan. If you have a deep fat fryer you can use it to finish off your fully cooked or par-cooked spuds to free up valuable oven rack space for aforementioned items.

Prep Way In Advance

If you brine your turkey, you’ll need to plan that into your schedule. Think about making stuffing a while ahead and freezing it; homemade cranberry sauce has high levels of sugar and will keep in the fridge for a good stretch. Potatoes will turn out better if they’re cooked, frozen, then roasted or fried. Remember if you’re defrosting lots of things at once in the fridge, all those frozen and half-thawed items will lower the ambient temperature and cause everything to defrost that bit more slowly.