The Best Way to Cook a Turkey

(This is a repeat of a post I ran two years ago on my food blog.)

By “best”, I mean “retaining the most flavour”, rather than the quickest or easiest.

If you’re still with me, take a deep breath and prepare to leave tradition behind.

Turkeys these days are huge.  Ridiculously so.  Bigger than nature ever intended.  Which makes it really hard to roast them in a way that is kind to both the white and dark meat.  You either end up with perfectly roasted legs (I can’t quite call them drumsticks when they weigh a couple of pounds each!) and styrofoam for breast meat.  Or the white meat comes out perfectly and the rest of it is a little underdone, leading to suspicious looks from your hypochondriac relatives.

The answer, my friends is to cut the silly thing up before you cook it!  If you’re feeling adventurous, debone the legs and stuff them with something yummy, like goat cheese and mushrooms. 

The bones, gizzards and squidgy bits go in the stock pot, with onions, carrots, leaks, etc.

And when you cook up the white meat, you can take it out before it’s dried out and nasty.

Of course, there’s no triumphal march to the dining room with a perfectly-formed bird, ready for carving.

There’s also no danger of tripping and dropping the entire works on Aunt Ida’s head. 

Plus, have I mentioned the flavour?

Of course, you could take the really modern approach and deep fry the thing.  I haven’t experienced the wonders personally, but it’s reputed to be a quick and tasty way to do it.  But, um, if you go that route, you’ll want to fight the temptation to put deep-fried gnocchi on the menu.