I'm not speaking to Nigella

She always makes it look so simple, but she can keep doing until it looks right on the TV. I would do just what you are doing and I hope it turns out OK.

I hope it went okay, and your Turkey turned out well.

I nearly had a disaster with the goose. I took it out of the oven to syphon off some of the fat. Whoops! I spilt it on the floor, turning the kitchen into a skating rink. I turned to the oven to shake up the parsnips and slid across the floor, sending parsnips up in the air. I don't know how I managed but I caught all but one which ended up in the soapy dishwater.
Anyhow, it all turned out well and Christmas lunch was a triumph.

more than please let us know if all was well!

In all my years of cooking turkey, I have never had such a moist result as today, using www.vickery.tv/phil-vickerys-recipes/christmas/item/phil-s-perfect-roast-turkey It is cooked in a sealed 'tent' of foil, which effectively steams it, and quickly too!

I made a chestnut and mushroom roast with roasted red pepper and tomato sauce. The family liked it and I did a lot of the work yesterday. We went to midnight mass and then my hubby and I did a two hour walk this morning up a local small mountain.( Live in Lakes).

I hope your Nigella turkey was ok more than 2

I followed he tried and tested saint Delia tent foil and as always it worked well. I think I left it in slightly longer than needed but the foil/butter etc means it doesn't dry out.
Just sitting down with a restorative glass of wine - family all gone off to visit the other halves of their families, feeling very lucky despite all the ups and downs that life brings us.

We had a nut loaf, with all the usual vegetables. It was delicious.
We don't like turkey - too much faffing about.

Small turkey crown from Aldi for us and it was nice. Veg were lovely and stuffing good and nothing homemade just stuck in the oven no problem. I have been cooking Christmas dinner for 57 years now and fed up with it. The easier the better and it was delicious.

I cooked a large turkey crown. According to Hugh F W, it should have taken 1 hr 12 mins . I'm so glad I didn't trust him. It cooked beautifully, nice and moist, in just under 3 hours!
I hope yours was a success morethan

completely different meal for us today ,first time on our own for years so thought we will make it easy turkey crown cooked in remoska with pigs in blankets so no oven to clean and veg ( from garden ) all cooked in microwave bags with butter and herbs delish so easy and fab

I have just made a nut roast in pastry and for Sunday when the family come I will be making a Mushroom wellington.

Very nice it was too.

HildajenniJ

I hope you picked the parsnip up and put it back in the tin under the 3 second rule.

Morethan2 I find there are a lot of recipes you look at and think straight away "that will not work." One's own judgement is very useful here.

We had an Aldi 3 bird roast - pheasant, grouse and guinea fowl. It was very moist and tasty, ready prepared and a nice change from turkey. I would recommend for 4 people.

I too use Phil Vickery's recipe and have had a beautifully juicy turkey for the last three years. As you cook it on a bed of vegetables with wine and chicken stock, you end up with extra tasty veg. and amazing juice for the gravy.

This is my first time of posting, so hope I don't do anything wrong!

morethan2, I do hope your turkey turned out OK and your family didn't go hungry!

This was our first Christmas for donkeys years that we were just the 2 of us, so we didn't bother with turkey, had a chicken but with all the trimmings - stuffing, bread sauce, chipolatas, home made redcurrant jelly (from home grown red currants), though we didn't bother with the stuff the breast with sausage meat like we do on a turkey. I am blessed with an OH who is a great cook, and it was all delicious. (Should perhaps point out that I'm disabled, so can't really cook these days.)

As to cooking turkey, the very first year I cooked one Woman's Own had an article on how to do most of the prep the day before. That turkey was fine (it was a bit scary doing a turkey for the first time!) so we just tucked the instructions in our Good Housekeeping Cookery Book and they come out every year. We've never had any complaints about the birds!

This is the last time I am going to cook a big turkey for Christmas. It was all I could do to lift it out of the oven to baste and am suffering for it today. Next year it will be a turkey crown.

Just an update on the turkey saga...I have to beg forgiveness from Nigella. The turkey was fabulous, even one of the gang who hardly ever says a thing kept commenting. The praise actually got a bit embarrassing. It was moist, tender and tasty. My husband had the leg and they can sometimes be dry but he said it wasn't at all. I think the problem I've had both years is following her instruction about basting and using a high heat in my fan oven just doesn't work. So this time next year I'll still brine because that's the bit that makes its moist but use my own initiative about the cooking times. welcome ladycatlover and I giggled at hilderjennies mr bean description of averting disaster. I wish you all a pleasant relaxing ( all the hard works done) Boxing Day. Cold turkey and salad

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.
I always cook my turkey upside down then towards the end turn it right side up all the juices go into the breast keeping it moist then when taking it out cover with foil and a thick towel to rest it's always juicy HOWEVER this year got a turkey crown made all ready for hubby to put in the oven on Christmas morning as he is always up early I set the temperature all he had to do was put it in the oven and switch on easy Peasy you would say except he put the grill on instead !! 1 1/2 hours later I got up to check the turkey (it was only 8.30 I may add) and it was barely touched thank god the temp dial was to low for it to burn the breast, never mind though I saw the funny side but next year i think I will leave hubby out of the equation lol smile

My daughter, unintentionally, cooked the best turkey I have ever eaten. She put it in a roasting bag & cooked it upside down. However didn't realise it (she has a first from Oxford but it didn't cover turkey management) & there were complaints from SiL that there was so little meat on it. However all was revealed when later, after we finished the meal & she turned it over!
Lovely leftovers to take back home.

The Cunard turkey and trimmings was lovely!
Father Christmas came down the funnel for the young ones!

We had an Aldi ready stuffed frozen turkey crown this year and it was lovely. We also had Aunt Bessies frozen parsnips in honey and my ds said they were the best roast parsnips he had ever had. I didn't admit that I had cheated this year!

morethan2 - does the recipe actually say 200 deg in a fan oven? Just asking, because (and I'm sure you know this) generally a fan oven setting should be 20 deg lower then a normal one - ie. some recipes would say gas 5/200C/Fan 180
So could be you are right about the fan oven being too hot.

As I have fractured my wrist DH cooked Christmas dinner for us. This is only the second time in his life he has cooked a roast Christmas meal. He roasted a fresh chicken perfectly, warmed up roasted vegetables our neighbour had kindly cooked for us and used up some frozen roast potatoes I had cooked in November! It was all very tasty and delicious. No 'pigs in blankets' this year or home made stuffing but so much more relaxing! A small Tesco Chistmas pudding was quickly heated in the microwave and served with delicious soya cream (I have dairy intolerance!) All eaten and cleared away in time for The Queen.

We had a vegan spectacular at my daughter's house. It was delicious, but after Tofurkey, sprouts, parsnips and artichokes all in one sitting, I could have powered a small wind farm all on my own last night!

We do not eat much meat, but when we do I always cook it in the same way, and this goes for Xmas turkey. Cook in a tin with a lid (or use foil as a tent (as others have said) - cook on about 200 - 220 for half an hour, then turn down to 100, and leave it forever - overnight if you like.

It is like a double cooking, both roasting and steaming. The flesh is always succulent and not a bit dry; and the initial blast of heat kills the bugs and also gives a bit of a crisp to the skin.

I have never had this method fail.

I am suitably appalled by the idea of "half-cooking" the night before!