How to Cook your Turkey the Day Before ~ Perfectly!

I have just read on the Huffington Post that, according to a study by the Food Network …

“cooking Christmas Dinner is so difficult that it takes 47 years (!) to learn how to do it successfully and that a third of women (it doesn’t mention men) never manage to do it properly!”

Well something that will help a lot is – cook as much of it as possible in advance!  This post concerns the turkey and the gravy.  My next post or two will concern other dishes to prepare in advance. 

As a chef, I have cooked and served numerous Christmas (and, as it happens, Thanksgiving) dinners and I always roasted the turkeys the day before.  Also, domestically, time and time again on Boxing Day when eating pretty much the same meal as the day before, people have remarked how it seems so much nicer the second day.

Now I always roast my turkey in advance, not only is it delicious it also means I can get up late and spend a lot of time sitting around opening presents, nibbling things and sipping festive beverages.

I’ll talk you through it.

~  The Turkey  ~

Pin for later – please!

1.   If using a frozen turkey defrost in accordance with the instructions on the wrapper. Completely!!

2.  Cook your turkey on Christmas Eve and start in the morning so that it has plenty of time after cooking to cool before chilling overnight.

3.   Take the fresh or defrosted turkey out of the fridge about an hour before cooking to bring to room temperature.

4.   If the turkey has instructions on the wrapper follow them!

5.   If your turkey has not provided cooking times and instructions see here. 

6.   If there is a bag of giblets inside the turkey remove it. You can either throw it away or simmer the contents in water to make a light stock to add to the gravy. (When I was in the West Indies I seasoned and roasted all the turkey necks and the girls in the kitchen would fight over them – a local delicacy!)

7.   Don’t bother washing it; it is a messy job and cold contaminate your kitchen. Any bacteria will be killed by cooking.

8.   Don’t stuff it!  If you stuff the turkey that will add to the weight and the cooking time; two inconveniences, you don’t need. The stuffing will also cool more slowly than the meat and could be a health hazard. If you cook the stuffing separately it will have a lovely crispy top.

9.   Preheat the oven in accordance with the instructions on the turkey or on the aforementioned website. 

10.   I recommend that you un-truss your turkey, i.e. remove any string or whatever holding the legs together and make it assume the position with legs spread wide.  This way it will not only cook faster and more evenly but it will also result in more crispy skin.  See below for info on crisp skin.

11.   Dry the breasts and rub with a little oil, you can use butter; it is tasty but the skin will be softer and more prone to burning. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and maybe other seasonings if you like; herbs, spices etc. 

12.   Season inside the cavity and if you wish put in half a lemon, wedges of onion or  fresh herbs.

13.   Cover loosely with foil and cook in accordance with instructions.

14.   Take the foil off about 45 before the estimated end of cooking to allow the breast to brown.

Is it Done Yet?

I don’t think the pop-up timers that some turkeys come with are reliable so instead …

~   If you have a meat thermometer the bird is cooked when it reached 70^oC/160^oF and incidentally here’s an interesting point, the temperature will actually rise for a short while after taking it out the oven.

~   If you don’t have a thermometer then pierce the thigh meat with a sharp knife and see if the juices run clear.  If there is any blood in them, return the turkey to the oven for another 15 minutes then test again. Another indication of doneness is the drumstick should waggle freely at the joint if you move it.

Cooling & Storing the Turkey

~   When the turkey is cooked cover loosely with foil and set aside to cool.

~   After at least an hour cut the legs and breasts from the turkey – if you cut it too soon delicious juices will be lost, after an hour or so they will have been re-absorbed by the meat.

~   Wrap the cold pieces in cling film and arrange in a container that will easily fit in the fridge.

How to Reheat the Turkey

~  Get the meat out of the fridge half an hour or so before reheating.

~   The legs and maybe the wings – arrange on a baking try, skin side up, and roast in a hot oven 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6 for 15-20 minutes to heat through fully and crisp up the skin.

~   The breast meat – there are two ways I would recommend for reheating this meat …

1.   This is the method I use at home when cooking for just a few people.

About 20 minutes before serving bring the gravy (see below for gravy information) just to a boil, turn down the heat and add the sliced breast meat and submerge it in the gravy. Over low heat, watching carefully, return to a simmer. DO NOT allow to boil or the meat will toughen. Cover and set aside.  This way the meat will warm through without the slightest chance of being anything but tender and juicy. Serve the meat from the hot gravy and then, if necessary, reheat the gravy.

2.   Lay the sliced meat in a shallow roasting pan or similar and drizzle with a little turkey broth (that you have made in the roasting pan – see here).  Cover tightly with foil and pop into a hot oven 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6 for 10-12 minutes.

As luck would have it 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6 is the same temperature you will be cooking the roast potatoes.

~   Crispy skin – obviously, the skin on the breasts will have softened overnight so strip it from the meat, cut into as many pieces as you have guests, spread on a baking tray and then a few minutes before serving pop them in a hot oven the crisp up.  Don’t, of course, get any gravy on them when serving or they will immediately go soggy again.

~  How to Make Gravy with a Bonus!  ~

According to the above quoted article in the Huffington Post …

“10% of people admit to messing up the gravy”

I also read somewhere that 25% of British people would like to see more interesting flavours of gravy and, at the same time, gravy with more authentic ingredients. 

Tricky!

I would suggest making your own gravy and, if you cook your turkey on Christmas Eve you can calmly make the gravy the following morning rather than rush it at the last minute.  Believe me, making gravy is easy, I promise.  See here for how to make wonderful gravy. 

There is an added bonus to making gravy the day after cooking the turkey; instead of carefully pouring the liquid fat from the top of the meat juices, If you have chilled the meat juices left from the day before the fat will have risen and solidified and be so much easier to deal with. 

Dessert ~ incidentally

See here for some incredibly easy, no-churn, delicious Christmas Ice Cream recipes which, obviously, can be made ahead.

To Further Help with Christmas

A couple of years ago I wrote this handy book. Catering for Christmas can be time consuming, tiring and a bit stressy, so I thought I’d offer some suggestions to make it quicker, easier, more relaxed and perhaps more impressive. 

Read More Here ~Yule be Glad you Did!

How to Make Lovely Homemade Gravy (eat your heart out Marco Pierre White!)

“’There is no such passion in human nature as the passion for gravy among commercial gentlemen”
Charles Dickens, ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ (1844)

There seems to be an inordinate fuss these days about making gravy; from the advert that says “Remember how great home-made gravy used to taste?” as if it’s a bygone skill to magazine articles suggesting that you don’t use gravy granules “for a change“.

This post concerns making gravy to accompany a roast and, just in case you, wondered …

Making the Best Gravy Ever is really easy!

~   Whilst your roasted meat is having its rest *** pour all the fat and juices from the roasting pan into a jug (a fat separating jug would be ideal but anything will do).

~   Put the empty roasting pan over a low heat and add a cup or a large sploosh of water and bring to a boil scraping the bottom of the pan assiduously to dislodge every last scrap of browned juices and cooked on meaty goodness and then simmer whilst stirring till this has all dissolved into the water. You now have some stock to work with.
~   Carefully pour the liquid fat that has risen to the top of the jug into a large-ish saucepan, if there isn’t much add a little olive oil or similar.
~   Put over a medium heat and stir in enough flour to make a soft paste.
~   Cook gently, stirring for a couple of minutes.
~   Whisk in the stock you just made in the roasting pan together with the meat juices left in the jug after pouring off the fat.
~   Turn up the heat and bring to the boil whisking constantly; the mixture will thicken.
~   If the resulting gravy is too thick thin it down to your ideal gravy consistency with hot water, or homemade stock (see below) or even stock made from a cube if that’s all you have.
~   Taste and season.

PS.  People, myself included, often make gravy directly in the roasting pan but as it takes up a lot of room on the stove and as whisking is easier in a deeper pot this is the way I always recommend to others.

You may like to add a little something in the form of a splash of red or white wine or, particularly good in turkey gravy, dry sherry. Add apple sauce and/or dry cider to pork gravy or caramelised onions to beef.  This is good try a little black garlic stirred into beef gravy, let it sit for a few minutes to infuse flavours before serving.

*** Resting – all roast, grilled and fried meats benefit from a few minutes rest in a warm place before serving. During this time the meat fibres relax resulting in juicier more tender meat. The bigger the lump of meat the longer the rest. Give a roast 20 minutes to half an hour (which is handy because you then have time to cook the Yorkshire Puddings using this brilliant recipe which makes 6 for under 30p; I have 1 and my real man has 5)

Homemade Stock

If you are just cooking a small roast for two or three then you’ll probably have all the stock you need using the above method but if you do need more here are a couple of ideas but be warned they both involve thinking ahead.

Beef Stock 

When I am trimming steaks or cutting up meat to braise or stew or if I have any meat scraps I add them to my collection in the freezer till I have enough (say 500g or more) to make this worthwhile.  Fat, sinew and gore are all fine!

~   Defrost the scraps.
~   Cut a whole onion, a carrot or two and maybe a bit of celery into chunks.
~   Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large pan and add the vegetables and all the beef bits.
~   Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, till everything is well browned.
~   Add enough water to cover generously but DO NOT add salt because when the stock is reduced the salt will become overpowering. Bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat and simmer for ages and ages; at least two hours, till you have a rich brown stock.  
~   Strain into a clean pan discarding the solids (if you know a dog you could discard them in his direction).
~   Add half as much red wine as there is stock and boil till the liquid had reduced by 75%.
~   Cool, pour into an airtight container, cover and chill.

This keeps very well in the fridge; as it cools the fat rises to the top and solidifies thus sealing the dish. It can be frozen, freeze in cubes as it is strong and you may only need a little at a time – homemade stock cubes!

This not-classic stock has served me very well; I like to add a spoonful to sautéed mushrooms, to steak pans when deglazing, to creamy sauces, and to anything that could do with a beefy boost. The fat can even be used to fry your next steak!

Chicken Stock (good for other poultry and even for pork)

I have written about this before so here is how to make easy roast chicken stock.  Obviously you can’t do it with the chicken you are about to serve but if you do it with every carcass and freeze the stock you will have a roll on effect.

Related to gravy are pan sauces so, before you go, have a look here ~ How to Make a Delicious Pan Sauce in Minutes.

Marco Pierre White on Gravy!

I mention him, of course, because of the Knorr adverts for stock cubes. When I was a gal and was in the Good Food Guide it was their policy to drop any chef that advertised instant foods. Just saying. The Guardian’ Rachel Cooke actually asked him about stock cubes, thus …

     You might expect a professional chef to be cheered by the thought of a regular person boiling up bones the old-fashioned way. But not, it seems, Marco. “It’s very hard to make proper stock at home,” he instructs. “You haven’t got the pans.”

   “But my pans are just fine, and at least homemade stock isn’t fluorescent yellow, as stock made from cubes tends to be.”

    “OK, you’re posher than me!” he shouts. “I’m just a council-house boy. But then, I look at the flavour, not the colour.”

   “Well, er, I don’t much like the flavour of stock cubes much, either.

     “All I’m saying is: add a stock cube to whatever you’re making, just for the body. That’s all. OK? OK?”

So there you have it!

Fifty Shades of Gravy ~ well, four-ish actually

Do you know what irritates me? That advert that starts …

“Do you remember how homemade gravy used to taste with real meat juices slowly simmered for that delicious home- cooked taste?”

… as if it doesn’t taste the same now if you know what you are doing.

A few years ago I worked for a summer (or two, I can’t remember) in a pub, it was not really my kind of thing but I needed a job.   When I took over the kitchen I found some very strange  cooking procedures going on.   For instance carrots were steamed in the convection oven till very floppy and overcooked with no salt or butter or such then to serve they were sliced and heated in the microwave. Fish for fish and chips – get this! – was taken out of the freezer, battered and fried from frozen and THEN finished in the microwave!  Appalling behaviour.  Meat for the Sunday “roast” was tightly wrapped in foil and to my mind “steamed” in the oven.  Any juices produced were thrown away and then gravy was made in “the usual way”, so they told me.  This meant whisking hot water into universal meat flavoured instant gravy mix.  The lads in the kitchen were gobsmacked that I, a self proclaimed chef, didn’t know how to make gravy!

Traditional British Gravy which is normally Brown…

~   Roast your piece of meat properly seasoned and unwrapped.  If you have any bones or other meaty scraps laying about roast them with the meat too.

~   When the meat is cooked to your liking set it aside, lightly covered in a piece of foil, in a warm place to rest. 

~   Pour all the juices from the roasting pan into a bowl, jug or best of all a fat separating jug.

~   Add some hot water to the roasting pan and stir and scrape it over a medium heat to dissolve all the yummy meat goo stuck on the bottom.

~   Add this to the juice in the bowl and leave it to sit for a while so that the fat floats to the top.

~   Once this has happened carefully pour the fat into a saucepan (or the original roasting pan if you prefer) and over medium heat stir in enough flour to make a not too stiff paste.

~   Gradually whisk in all the collected meaty juices.

~   Bring to a boil, whisking till it thickens and simmer a few minutes.

~   Assess the result – if it is too thick add some hot water or stock or wine, if it is not tasty enough add an Oxo or similar.

That’s it.   When I showed the “cooks” in the pub kitchen how to do this they were so surprised they called in their front of house mates crying “Look – real gravy!”.

Gravy Variations, Ideas and Suggestions ….

~   Cook onions, carrots, may be apples, along with the meat to add flavour to the gravy.

~   If roasting a bird and you have the giblets cook them (not including  the liver as it is bitter) in a little water and use this as part of the liquid in the gravy.

~   Add sherry or Madeira to turkey gravy.

~   Add orange zest and juice, or maybe marmalade to duck gravy.

~   Instead or as well as serving condiments and sauces with a meal stir them into the gravy, whole grain mustard for toad in the hole gravy,  a little mustard or horseradish to beef gravy, apple sauce to pork gravy, and so on and so forth.

~   Add red or white wine to gravies as appropriate and available

~   Whisk in a knob of  butter just before serving for a rich and glossy gravy.

~   Stir in soft buttery onions cooked as detailed here.

~   Add cream to chicken gravy.

Other shades of Gravy …

~   In the Deep South of America they serve a dish, odd sounding to us, called Biscuits and Gravy.  The biscuits are in what we in England call would call scones, not sweet ones though and sometimes made with the buttermilk.   The gravy, which is pale brown, is made by frying crumbled pork sausagemeat till cooked and then setting it aside.  Flour is added to the drippings in the pan to make a roux and then a sauce made by whisking in milk and seasoning with salt and pepper.  It is generally served as a breakfast dish.

~   Red Eye Gravy – this is simply made by frying a thick slice of ham in its own fat, setting the ham aside and deglazing the pan with strong hot black coffee.

~   Cream Gravy (traditionally served in the US with Chicken Fried Steak which is confusing in itself!) – this is just a straightforward bechamel sauce made using vegetable oil instead of butter and plain milk with salt and pepper seasoning – I know what you’re thinking!

More Gravy Matters …

~   I’m afraid I am posting too late for this year’s Gravy Wrestling contest in Stackstead where contestants must wrestle for 2 minutes in a pool of gravy.  See here for details 

~   A gentleman known as Gravy (real name Labon Kenneth Blackburn Leeweltine Buckonon Benjamin) used to dance at cricket matches in Antigua, one wearing a wedding dress – read all about him here.

Gravy

~    And see here to read about a chap called Wavy Gravy who is a comic activist! 

Wavy Gravy

“I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.”

Erma Bombeck

I apologise wholeheartedly for having been so tardy in writing recently – lots of really good but boring reasons which I won’t go into here.  As you can tell from this post I haven’t cooked much worth reporting on either.  Hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon – I could do with a good lunch!

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