Any special tips for turkey&ham

hawkelady

Hi all, I have a boned and rolled turkey, 5kg in weight . Does anyone have a good recipe to make this bird extra special rather than the usual stick in in the oven and carve job we do most Sunday's !!
My ham I can handle, I glaze it with cherries, honey and pineapples so I'm sorted with that, it's just the turkey that I'm lacking in imagination with. If anyone knows any cook books or websites that could help me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks
Ps. How long does the turkey go in the oven for??

Lablanc

Try covering it with streaky rashers and a marnalade and sweet chillie glaze

trackguy

hawkelady wrote: »

Hi all, I have a boned and rolled turkey, 5kg in weight . Does anyone have a good recipe to make this bird extra special rather than the usual stick in in the oven and carve job we do most Sunday's !!
My ham I can handle, I glaze it with cherries, honey and pineapples so I'm sorted with that, it's just the turkey that I'm lacking in imagination with. If anyone knows any cook books or websites that could help me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks
Ps. How long does the turkey go in the oven for??

I'm not sure if you can with a boned and rolled turkey but - if you can - put some flavoured butter under the skin.

Add some garlic, thyme. lemon zest and seasoning to the butter and smear it between the flesh and skin.

Alternatively, you could poke little holes in it and stuff the holes with shards of garlic and thyme/ rosemary (like people do for legs of lamb).

Near the end of the cooking, brush a little butter on the skin too so that it browns nicely.

Spiderface

Use a turkey bag and a compound butter.

I've noticed boned and rolled turkey has a tendency to go dry, to be honest I don't know why - maybe perhaps overcooking through fear of undercooking. What a turkey bag would do is guarantee moisture, you can get these in most good supermarkets and even some Centra's - they are reasonably cheap, you get 2 per pack, and there is cooking times on the back.


To make a compound butter:
In a mixing bowl you would combine a block of butter with any of your favourite fresh chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage), the zests of a couple citrus fruits (clementines or lemons), and light sprinkle of pepper. This can be stored in the fridge a couple days in advance. If you're confident enough you could roll this into a sausage shape in a bit of clingfilm to cut into disks from the fridge when needed!

To cook the turkey:

• Preheat the oven. Leave turkey out for an hour to reach room temperature. Rub some compound butter all over the bird and, make two 2cm slits on each breast - insert a large lump or disc of your compound butter into each slit.
• Halve a few lemons or clemintines and throw this into the turkey bag, along with a few garlic cloves, nothing fancy, all roughly done.
• Lay the bird on the citrus fruits in the bag and seal it, put it on a roasting tray and cook to guidelines. Open the bag and allow to cool a bit before removing the bird, all the while making sure the tray is catching all the juices.
• Very important: When finished cooking leave the bird to rest - put it on a plate, cover with a sheet of foil, then a few tea towels. Leave about 45mins for this. It'll ensure a juicy bird.
• While the turkey is resting strain the juices from the bag/tray into a saucepan, whisk in a sprinkling of flour (1 tbsp), add a glass of white wine and boil lightly for about 10 mins or until you're happy with the thickness. Now have a taste, you can finish this with a tablespoon or two of redcurrant jelly or honey for a richer gravy or simply serve as is, either way.

I hope this was of help to you, I'm definitely going this route on Sunday!

hawkelady

Thankyou guys for all your advice. Especially spider face. I'm drooling after reading it.