Talking Turkey 2012

Big turkey, little oven. That’s how my saturday din-din rolled out. In the end though, my dinner guests had no beef with the bird I served. Phew!

As mentioned a couple of days ago, my 2012 Thanksgiving dinner came a few days early for me. As I did last year, I hosted a small feast and keeping with what I hope will turn into an annual tradition, I roasted another Copas turkey. This was a big ole bird too. Just over ten kilograms. For my American compadres: that’s about 22 or 23 pounds. Gooble that.

My intention had been to use Dominic Chapman’s Christmas turkey recipe as published on the Great British Chefs website. The recipe is a tasty read to be sure but is for a turkey of six kilograms. This bird was just way too large for that recipe.

Also, as Copas’ turkeys are a flock apart from many a turkey on the market, my massive meat main came with its own set of cooking instructions.

As I reported last year for the Great British Chefs’ blog, Copas sources traditional breeds from specialist British hatcheries. The birds are allowed to grow at a natural pace and fed an ethically sourced oat-rich diet free of growth promoters and such. Turkeys are aged between five to seven months as opposed to the industry standard of two. According to Tom Copas, a fuller life results in denser meat with a “superior fat cover.”

A mature bird’s natural fat layer means that dry plucking by hand is possible. This method is apparently a slow and labour intensive process but keeps the turkeys dry, thus enabling the farm to game-hang them for an extended period for extra tenderness and depth of flavour. And what such an extended period adds up is no need for basting, buttering or wrapping the turkey in bacon. You can simply can cook it on its own, covered in foil.

So I what I ended up doing was coming up with my own hybrid plan fusing chef Chapman’s recipe and the Copas’ cooking instructions. The result after nearly five hours of in-the-oven anxiety? Succulent success! I and – more importantly – my dinner guests were pleased by my efforts and we all went back for seconds.

Chapman’s recipe is well worth taking a look at, whether you’re hoping to do a T-Day dinner tomorrow or you’re thinking ahead for this Christmas. There’s also a “with all the trimmings” version of Chapman’s turkey recipe that easily solves the problem of what to serve for your Christmas dinner. And if you go for a Copas, be sure to read through the very handy included instructions, it’ll save you a ton of time and and frustration and will yield a super juicy roast.

Having a ginormous turkey to roast was a new one for me. I literally don’t think anything even slightly bigger would have fit in my oven. And maybe I’m really just commenting how out of shape I am more, but my arms were a teensy bit sore the next day from transferring it in and out of the oven. Still, it was awesome being able to offer my guests a goodie bag of turkey on their way out and to have lots of leftovers for myself … lots and lots of leftovers actually.

Check back over the weekend for some recipes I used to make sure I got the most of all the extra turkey meat I had sitting in the fridge. And have a peek at the “dressing” recipe I posted yesterday for what to serve alongside your turkey at your next festive feast.

Thanks!