When I was a child, Mum and I liked goose, but the old man always wanted turkey at Christmas. Often, we’d end up having both, and eating dried-up turkey sandwiches until April. What I’ve aimed for here is a light and juicy bird with a rich sauce. As the legs and wings can be so tendony, I’ve taken them off, which is how we serve our bird at the Hinds Head.

If you happen to have my sausage recipe from a few weeks back (Style, October 29), you could make turkey chipolata sausages to accompany the bird using the turkey leg meat, seasoning them with nutmeg, mace, ginger, cinnamon and cloves for a more festive flavour. Alternatively, just buy the best ready-made chipolatas you can find. Instead of serving up lots of different veg, I love exploring versions of the same thing — soft and crisp, hot and cold — as this really accentuates the flavours.

Serve everything with bread and cranberry sauce if you like, though I prefer grain mustard and horseradish sauce, which goes particularly well with the celeriac.

All recipes serve 4-6

THE TURKEY

Start preparing this recipe on Christmas Eve, as the bird needs to sit in a pot of brine for six hours to improve the flavour and texture, before being quickly blanched and left overnight in the fridge. You will also need a metal baster with an injector for internal basting (try the Masterclass Silicone Baster, £7, from www.cookshop.co.uk).

1 good-quality free-range turkey, approx 4kg
70g table salt (approx)
200g unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper
4-6 tbsp groundnut oil

Remove the wings and legs, and reserve to make the gravy (and sausages, if making). Place the turkey in a saucepan large enough for it to sit comfortably, and cover with water. You now need to measure how much water you’ve used, so tip it out again, measure it and weigh out a twelfth of that volume in table salt. Take the turkey out of the pot and refrigerate until ready. Meanwhile, refill the pot with the original amount of fresh water. Add the measured salt and place over a high heat until the salt has dissolved. Leave the brine to cool completely.

Take the turkey out of the fridge and remove the wishbone, as this makes carving easier. To do this, lift up the flap of skin covering the neck cavity and run the blade of a small, sharp knife along the wishbone on each side of the V-shaped cavity. Next, ease it away from the breastbone and carefully pull it off. Put the turkey into the pot of brine, cover and refrigerate for 6 hours.

Remove the turkey from the fridge, pour off the brine (brining makes the skin quite fragile, so handle it gently) and rinse the bird under cold running water. Return it to the pot and fill with fresh cold water. Leave it to soak for an hour, changing the water every 15 minutes to wash off the salt.

Lift the turkey out, wash out the pot and refill with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl or basin with cold water and ice. Dunk the turkey in the boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove and plunge into the ice-cold water. Bring the pot of water back to the boil and repeat both steps. Dry the turkey with paper towel, then place on a cooling rack with a tray underneath. Loosely cover with muslin or a clean tea towel and leave in the fridge overnight to dry.

On the day, preheat the oven to 60C/ 140F/Gas Mark , or the lowest setting. Sit the turkey in a roasting tin, smear thickly with the butter and grind over black pepper. Then cook, basting every so often, until the internal temperature, when probed, has reached 60C/140F (this should take 6-8 hours). Hold at this temperature for at least 20 minutes.

At this point, the turkey will still look pale. Take it out of the oven and leave it to rest for one hour.

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