Practical Christmas cooking tips from Mark Turnbull at Turnbull’s Northumbrian Food Hall in Alnwick
At Turnbull’s Northumbrian Food Hall in Alnwick, we’ve been helping customers choose and cook their Christmas turkeys for generations. Our whole free-range bronze turkeys are raised by the Nelless family at Thistlyhaugh Farm, near Longhorsley in Northumberland and supplied to us through Northumberland Poultry.
We believe knowing where our food comes from matters. That’s why we’ve taken the time to visit Thistlyhaugh Farm, meet the family and see first-hand how their turkeys are raised. It’s that confidence in the people and the product that allows us to recommend them to our customers.
For us, Christmas is about more than selling a good turkey. It’s about helping customers choose the right one, understand how to prepare it and enjoy a wonderful Christmas dinner.
Choosing the right Christmas turkey
How much turkey do you actually need?
Our advice is to think beyond the number of people sitting around the Christmas table. Consider their appetites, whether you’re serving other meats and, importantly, how much turkey you’d like left over for Boxing Day.
Whole turkey weight and recommended servings –
4kg+ – 4–6 people
6kg+ – 6–8 people
7kg+ – 8–10 people
8kg+ – 10–14 people
9kg+ – 14–16 people
These ranges allow for different appetites and the amount of food being served alongside the turkey.
Whole turkey or boneless crown?
A traditional whole turkey provides both breast and leg meat and makes a wonderful Christmas centrepiece. At Turnbull’s, our boneless turkey crowns are hand-prepared by our butchers using standard white turkey breast, carefully boned, rolled and tied ready for roasting. They’re particularly popular with families who prefer white meat or want something easier to carve. We also offer stuffed boneless turkey crowns, filled with our pork sausage meat, sage and onion stuffing.
Preparing and cooking your Christmas turkey
The following advice relates to a traditional whole turkey. A little preparation makes all the difference; remove the bag of giblets from inside the turkey before cooking. There’s no need to wash raw turkey, as doing so can spread bacteria around the kitchen. We recommend using a shallow roasting tin and placing a few halved carrots and onions beneath the bird; this raises the turkey off the bottom of the tin and helps hot air circulate underneath. There’s no need to add stock or water to the roasting tin.
One of our favourite preparation tips is to gently spread softened butter beneath the skin covering the turkey breast. Be careful not to tear the skin, then rub a little more butter over the outside and season with salt and pepper. This adds flavour and helps protect the breast meat during roasting. For a little extra aroma, we like to place a quartered lemon and satsuma loosely inside the cavity. We also recommend laying a few rashers of streaky bacon over the breast and legs and loosely covering the turkey with foil during the earlier stages of roasting. Remove the foil and bacon towards the end to allow the skin to brown.
For our whole free-range bronze turkeys, our recommended oven settings are 180C for a conventional oven, 170C for fan-assisted and gas mark 4 for a gas oven. The exact cooking time will depend on the weight of the turkey and the performance of the oven.
How do you know when your turkey is cooked?
One of the biggest challenges when cooking Christmas turkey is getting the timing right. It’s important to make sure your turkey is thoroughly cooked without leaving it in the oven unnecessarily long, which can dry out the breast meat. A meat thermometer is a useful additional safety check. We recommend checking that the thickest parts of the breast and thigh reach 75C for at least 30 seconds, taking care not to touch the bone with the probe.
Give your turkey time to rest. One of the most useful things you can do on Christmas Day is plan to have your turkey cooked before everything else is ready. For a whole turkey, we generally recommend allowing 30-45 minutes of resting time before carving. Larger birds may benefit from up to 60 minutes, provided they’re kept safely warm. Resting gives the juices time to settle and makes the turkey easier to carve, and gives you a valuable window to finish the roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy without having to juggle everything at precisely the same moment.
Rather than trying to carve slices directly from the turkey, our preferred approach is to remove each breast whole. You can then place the breast on a carving board and cut it into neat slices. This makes serving easier and helps you get the most from your turkey. The leg meat can then be removed and served separately.
Don’t forget Boxing Day!
Personally, I enjoy Boxing Day turkey almost as much as Christmas dinner itself. Leftover turkey with sausage meat stuffing and bubble and squeak is one of my favourite meals of the year. If there’s still turkey left, a homemade turkey and ham pie is always a winner.
Turnbull’s Northumbrian Food Hall is based at Willowburn Retail Park, Alnwick, NE66 2DJ, offering a traditional butchery alongside its wider Food Hall. www.turnbullsfood.co.uk
