Roast turkey

[Graham & Brenda]

Having only been here full time since June, we are still learning and enjoying the way that produce tends to be more available by season than in the UK. With the family coming for Christmas our thoughts turn to Christmas lunch. I'm afraid I don't know what meat the French cook at Christmas (or New Year - I know that their celebrations differ somewhat). 

In any event, the main question is, are turkeys as small as 10kg available in butchers or supermarkets around that period as I didn't seen any when I looked the other day?  Thanks,

Graham

[Teamedup]

You will be able to get your turkey, goose, duck etc for christmas lunch. Sprouts are somewhat harder to get hold of, around here at least in the rhone alps, well there are frozen ones, but I personally prefer fresh, or ones I have frozen myself.

The french fete christmas and new year on the evenings of the 24th and 31st, the revillon de Noel and the revillon de St Sylvestre. These are huge meals, many courses, lasting most of the night.

 

ps you will be able to find turkeys as little as three or four kilos here. The size of poultry in the UK always amazes me. Sometimes when I see a chicken over there it looks like it is the size of a turkey here, I have never seen those 'big' chickens in France. Ten kilo's is huge isn't it?

[Alexis]

 Around here you don't see all that many turkeys in the shops.  Perhaps twenty in the meat fridge. They have the reputation of being dry.....  Can pick up great bargains after New Year though.  I can honestly say that in all the years I have been here I have never seen a turkey in someones trolley!

Here in Brittany it is sea food for a great part of both the festive meals.  Small joints of ostrich, bison, wild boar, deer etc are more readily available than the turkeys.

Best idea is to buy half a kilo of bigorneau for every guest.....will take them HOURS to eat and SOOOOO cheap

[letrangere]

I've just come from having this conversation with a friend, "What is it about turkey?".  Am I alone in thinking the white meat is pretty tasteless, even farm reared ones?  Hands up all those who really enjoy turkey and would prefer it to, say, guinea fowl if given a choice?  Surely the only thing going for it is that it can feed huge numbers of people for several days on end?  Personally, I'd go for a goose, even if it may require a large oven and a drip pan.  And if you're less than 8 for Christmas dinner why not a large guinea fowl and a piece of ham?  Or why not forget the meat altogether and just serve loads of roast potatoes, roast parsnips, sprouts, various stuffings and gravy for, after all, they're the best bit and - even better - no carcass clogging up the fridge until New Year! 

M (who's game for anything but turkey)

[Teamedup]

There may not be many out on the shelves, but most of the big supermarkets and the majority of butchers will take christmas and new year orders for any of the mentioned poultry.

[Alexis]

The promo will be all turkey and other fowl in a couple of weeks.  Word from the abattoir is that it is a very bad year for turkeys.  I am surrounded by sheds up here.  I have a turkey in the garden, Dinde de Noel, and she must be 20 kilo.  We will NOT be eating her.  Had to get rid of Dinde de Pacques the other month as they started fighting.

Last time I cooked a traditional Christmas lunch was when my daughter and family came across a few years ago.  We will be having  plateau de fruit mer and probably chicken breasts in a cream sauce on Christmas Day and foie gras and coquilles St Jacques Normand Christmas Eve.  Unless I get inspired.

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

Mmm, I wasn't that keen on turkey until I reared my own; my elderly neighbours said they were worthwhile, and traditional at Christmas, although nobody I know bothers with them any more because they are delicate (as in prone to maladies); I love them, tasty and succulent, not at all dry. Females are more succulent than males and there is a lot of variation between the breeds; I haven't tried rearing white ones but am told their meat is drier and most commercial ones are white because then if they leave the stubs in they are unnoticeable.

They are readily available here in 24 towards Christmas, everything from battery birds to still flapping in the farmyard.

[letrangere]

We will be having  plateau de fruit mer and probably chicken breasts in a cream sauce on Christmas Day and foie gras and coquilles St Jacques Normand Christmas Eve.  Unless I get inspired.

Alexis, I'll happily come to dinner even when you are totally lacking inspiration!  Do you B&B?What a lovely menu.  How are the coquilles Normands prepared incidentally?

Pucette, what do you feed your home reared turkeys on and what are the "stubs" that you refer to in commercial ones?  (Fear I'm being a bit dim this morning.)

M

[Coral]

Roast turkey with oyster stuffing Yeah!! Pop the cork on Entre-deux-mers. Throw away the turkey and eat the stuffing !!!

Coral - soon to be in Ariege - I hope!

[Alexis]

My turkey is with the chickens in the garden.  She eats bio!  All are very fond of stale cake, like their veg cooked ! bit of left over rice or pasta are appreciated but their real food is a melange of grains which I mix myself and those pellets are always available in the poultry house.

You should see the colour of the yolks.....

She is not for eating, she gives me too much pleasure when I see her 'run'.  Talk about wobble.

St Jacques Normand is easy peasy and I will pm you.

[juxtapose]

[quote]My turkey is with the chickens in the garden. She eats bio! All are very fond of stale cake, like their veg cooked ! bit of left over rice or pasta are appreciated but their real food is a melange o...[/quote]

 Turkey is sooo expensive!!

The turkeys I saw the other day were 9.90 a kilo!!!  I think I'll try something else, instead!

Talking of stuffing, my daughter is vegetarian, has anybody out there got a very good recipe they could recommend. I tried making some the other day and it was awful. Also can you buy plain old Paxo,s out here, I have never been able to find it and it is her favourite!

 

[Kazanton]

I really like turkey and each year for Thanksgiving, as I have done since 1989, I bone the sucker out and stuff it back into 'turkey shape' with lots of dressing. Then I chop up the carcass, roast it for a bit (along with some carrots and onions) when the turkey first goes in and then boil the roasted carcass to bits. I then use this stock to baste with and to deglaze the roasting pan and make the gravy. So no carcass lurking in the fridge and I can carve the turkey in slices! (Of course it does look like someone has been at it with a chainsaw... )

My turkey is never dry because I cover it with a double layer of cheesecloth over the top and baste onto this every half hour using the aforementioned stock and melted butter.

I make my own dressing, I have oddles of recipes, some which are vegetarian. Especially nice one I made up one Thanksgiving when I was eating vegetarian. I did all the carnivores a boned, stuffed guinea fowl (boy! Was that a fiddle!) and all the veggies got half an acorn squash stuffed with a pecan, raisin and saffron dressing, so it was kinda like having a your own vegetarian 'turkey'!

If you want any recipes, PM me and I will write them out (they are all in my head!) and I'll send them!

Can't stand the regular Paxo, it just screams 'SAGE!!' at me!!

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

I feed my bought-in turkey chicks on commercial pellets for the first month, wean them off and onto grain in the second month (predominantly wheat and oats initially, increasingly barley) along with fresh vegetables, fruit in season and home-grown maize. They run on grass and eat a phenomenal amount of greenstuff and get through a lot of salt blocks (salts as in minerals - I understand they can tolerate very little sodium, unlike chickens). Unlike my chickens they disdain all cooked food. They are particularly partial to lettuce.

I agree with Kazanton that boning & re-making the turkey is an excellent way of presenting it although I don't think I have the patience to do it myself.

The carcasse from a roasted turkey still makes excellent stock.

[Alexis]

No, never seen Paxo here.  Can be ordered from one of the English shops on line of course or from one of the people who sell British food on the market.....  I get mine brought across.

If you cook your turkey on it's breast, it is never dry.

Goodness, I'm glad I don't have all that WORK anymore!  Christmas lunch...start peeling sprouts and veggies Christmas Eve, up with the lark to bung the thing in the oven,  and still having sandwiches up to  New Year!  Quite like turkey sandwiches.

Mind, I still do a Christmas cake and a Christmas pudding each year.  I eat all the pudding and I used to eat all the cake but this year I am hoping that OH will have some of the cake because he got quite partial to wedding cake when we were over in the UK in the summer.

If not, I shall fling it to the chickens.  Better they eat it than me!

[Maddie]

[quote]No, never seen Paxo here. Can be ordered from one of the English shops on line of course or from one of the people who sell British food on the market..... I get mine brought across. If you cook yo...[/quote]

"If you cook your turkey on it's breast, it is never dry."

I always cook mine on its back but stand it on a rack above a baking tray full of water.  Seal it up with foil until the final mintues of cooking, take foil off to brown.  Left with stock for gravy and a pan that's easy to clean.  Think it may be a Delia thing.

[Teamedup]

If you have a blender then make some breadcrumbs, I usually use a one pint pyrex dish and make enough bread crumbs until they come up to about an inch from the top., I use any bread I have. Add salt pepper, sage and thyme ( dried are fine, about a teaspoon of each) and one very finely chopped onion and stir, I then add milk until the milk is almost covers the bread crumbs mix and leave them to soak. Then I stir in a teaspoon of grated butter and dot the top with butter. I cover with foil and bake for about an hour. Or I stuff the bird with this mix. It is good.

[Patf]

My recipe for stuffing is like yours, Teamedup except egg instead of milk and butter, plus lots of grated lemon rind. If you cook it inside the bird you don't need any fat or oil I find. Pat.

[Teamedup]

Truth is Pat that I rarely stuff a bird. On the rare occassions I do I am always worried that I undercook it, so usually end up over cooking it. 

I love lemon in things so will try a little lemon next time I make stuffing. I tried all sorts of recipes and that I've posted is just me playing with the recipes I had to try and improve them.