Birds with bravado: how to flavour your turkey

Poor turkey. For more and more people it’s something eaten once a year at Christmas, maybe a few other times as mince or diced into a curry, then forgotten about until the festive period begins again. It even polarises opinion at Christmas – while for many of us it’s a bird bursting with nostalgia, childhood memories and quintessential Christmas cheer, others see it as a bland, dry, tasteless thing that’s served for no other reason than tradition.

But this is unfair – like other festive ingredients some of us turn our noses up at (see: Brussels sprouts), it’s the cook rather than the bird that’s to blame. When prepared properly, turkey is moist, tasty and a real treat; it just needs a little helping hand in the form of salt, herbs and spices. Here are five ways to ensure this year’s bird is gobbled up with glee.

A wet brine is the single most important thing you can do to your turkey to ensure it doesn’t dry out. By submerging it in salted water (fifty grams of salt for every litre of water) for eighteen hours in the fridge, the bird will absorb moisture and retain it in the oven. You can also add other ingredients into the brine for extra flavour – infusing the water with herbs, sugar and spices or replacing some of the liquid with cider helps tailor the turkey to your tastes.

The only downside with wet-brining meat is that the skin doesn’t crisp up in the oven, but if you drain the bird twelve hours before it goes into the oven, rinse it, pat it dry and leave it in the fridge, the surface will dry out and you’ll be rewarded with a flavourful moist turkey with a browned crispy skin.

Because turkeys are so big they’re notorious for cooking unevenly, leaving flustered cooks waiting for one part to cook while another gets drier and drier. Removing the legs – which take the longest – and getting them started for half an hour before the rest of the bird (which can be placed on top) not only ensures everything is cooked to perfection at the same time, it also saves precious oven space.