Christmas Centrepieces: Turkey Tips…

If you’ve chosen to buy your Christmas turkey from Soil and Sea this year, then you’re already off to a great start. All our turkeys are 100% organic, free-range and slow grown to build a juicier fat covering and game-hung for two weeks to develop full flavour and texture. By placing a premium Christmas turkey order, you’ve already taken a step in the right direction to a show-stopping Christmas table centrepiece.

Where Do Our Turkeys Come From?

Our variety of Bronze and Norfolk Black turkeys are supplied by Christine and family. Their Devon farm have been raising Christmas turkeys for 30 years, allowing for free-roam and an organic feed mixture of home-grown cereals. The turkeys also love to go foraging for themselves in the pasture-rich meadows on Dartmoor National Park for acorns and windfall apples. When tired from all their playing during the day, the birds are tucked away at night. The family’s hard work was rewarded this year as they won a one-star Great Taste Award.

We are also lucky enough to be provided with Norfolk Blacks from the wonderful and dedicated Rosie, whose farm is located only 10 minutes away from our farm in Devon. These turkeys are reared by Rosie herself and, like the rest of our birds, are free to fly, perch and potter in the surrounding fields. In addition, a few of our Bronze Turkeys are from our friend Ross, who provides our poultry all year long.

How to Store Your Turkey

To make sure your meat is as fresh as possible, be sure to refrigerate as soon as it arrives at your door!

• Firstly, we support free-range birds so take it out of the box and open the bag. This ensures air can circulate around the centrepiece.
• Next, remove giblets from the bird, ensuring you store the meat and giblets separately in the fridge on clean plates.
• Lastly, be sure to set your fridge to 1-3 degrees to keep your bird perfectly chilled! This may however affect other produce in your fridge.

Meaty Tip: As much as your roasted meat is likely to steal the show, to ensure all your trimmings stay delicious through to Christmas Day, we recommend freezing them as soon as they arrive and defrosting thoroughly before cooking. This is particularly important for sausages, sausage meat, mince and chicken.

Recipe: The Perfect Turkey

Turkeys come in all shapes and sizes (that’s why we love them!), so check the exact weight of your turkey to decide the cooking time. Then preheat your oven to 220°C / 200°C fan / 430°F / gas mark 7 to begin with and lower to 180°C / 160°C fan / 375°F / gas mark 4 for roasting.

1. To ease the load on Christmas day (and for a fun Christmas Eve activity), prep your turkey the day before.
2. Check the main cavity for giblets (save these for the gravy in your roasting tray later – trust us). Once removed, rub a mix of butter, sea salt and black pepper generously onto the bird.
3. Go ahead and add any stuffing in the neck cavity, but not too tightly.
4. Place a large sheet of greaseproof paper or tin foil over the bird to protect during cooking. Refrigerate overnight.
5. On the big day, take your turkey out of the fridge a few hours before cooking to allow to come to room temperature.
6. Add one cup of water or gravy to the cavity and two cups to the roasting tray along with the giblets.
7. Cook your turkey breast side up at the initial temperature for 30 minutes then reduce to roasting temperature. 30 minutes before full cooking time, flip the turkey to breast down and remove foil.
8. To check if the bird is cooked, place a sharp knife into the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run clear, you’re good to go. Phew!
9. Finally, rest the bird for at least 30 minutes – plenty of time to add the finishing touches to your delicious Christmas Dinner.

What About Smaller Turkey Cuts?

If you’ve plumped for a boned and rolled organic turkey, simply treat this as if it were a whole bird just with no need to remove giblets. If your turkey is not wrapped in bacon, be sure to season and rub butter into the skin. Again, weigh the turkey and follow cooking times accordingly.

For our new for 2020 organic turkey crowns, follow the traditional turkey recipe, weighing to calculate cooking time. Important for turkey crowns is remembering to add some sort of fat to the bird before cooking, helping to keep it moist. Pancetta or bacon will also work – yum!

Leftover ideas…

This festive season may be different in more ways than one, but Christmas dinner leftovers are always inevitable. After all, Christmas only comes once a year so why not indulge? This year is as good as any to break a few festive traditions, so leave behind those turkey sandwiches and bubble & squeak in favour of some different leftover turkey recipes.

From Turkey and Mushroom Pie to Boxing Day Risotto, we’ve collected some of the best (and most unique) recipes to make use of those leftovers – we’ve even accounted for leftover pudding and drinks too. . You never know – your new Christmas tradition might be waiting for you.