meat cooking guide
Bread sauce recipe - brilliant with turkey
Stuffed turkey breast 750g, 1 . 5kg
Prep 5 mins, cook 40 or 65 mins depending on weight
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4.
Place in a roasting tray, brush with melted butter, season and transfer to the oven. Roast for 40 mins (750g) or 65 mins (1.5kg) depending on the weight of your joint. Test with a skewer - if the juices run pink, return to the oven for 5 mins, then test again. Repeat as necessary. Leave to rest for 10 mins before carving.
Stuffed turkey leg
1 . 2kg
Prep 5 mins, cook 75 mins
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4.
Place in a roasting tray, brush with melted butter, season and transfer to the oven. Roast for 75 mins.
Test with a skewer - if the juices run pink, return to the oven for a further 5 mins, then test again. Repeat as necessary. Leave to rest for 10 mins before carving.
Turkey breast joint 750g, 1 . 5kg
Prep 5 mins, cook 40 or 65 mins depending on weight
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Place in a roasting tray, brush with melted butter and season. Roast for 40 mins (750g) or 65 mins (1.5kg) depending on the weight of your joint. Test with a skewer - if the juices run pink, return to the oven for another 5 mins, then test again. Repeat as necessary. Rest in a warm place for 10 mins before serving.
Turkey crown
Prep 5 mins, cook 20 mins plus 20 mins per kg
Remove from the fridge at least half an hour before cooking. Rub with a little plain oil or smear with softened butter. Season with salt and pepper. Roast at 200°C/Gas 6 for 20 mins, then for 20 mins per kg at 180°C/Gas 4. Make sure the juices run clear; test with a skewer. If the juices run pink, return to the oven for a further 10 mins then test again. Repeat as necessary. Rest for 30 mins before serving.
Whole turkey Tips
• Remove and freeze the giblets as soon as the turkey arrives (defrost in time to make your gravy).
• Allow the turkey as much air as possible, preferably by untying it to let air into the cavity.
• Take the turkey out of the fridge 30 mins before cooking.
• Untruss the bird before roasting, or it will increase the cooking time.
• If the turkey has been frozen, defrost thoroughly in the fridge or a cold place before cooking.
• Don’t use the cavity space for stuffing - it slows down cooking, absorbs fat and will mess up the gravy. Instead use the neck cavity.
• Remove cooked leftovers from the carcass and put them in the fridge as soon as possible. Eat within two days. If you cook with leftover turkey, make sure it is piping hot.
Whole turkey
How
to cook
Prep 15 mins, cook 45 mins per kg & 30 mins resting time
You will need
400g stuffing
1 lemon, quartered
1 large onion, peeled & quartered
A generous sprig of herbs (bay, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc.)
50g melted butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Remove the giblets if you didn’t remove them on arrival (keep them for your gravy). Lift the flap of skin at the neck end and pack in your stuffing, then pull the skin back and secure under the bird, using wooden cocktail sticks if necessary. Season the main cavity, then push in the quartered lemon, onion and herbs. Transfer to a large roasting tin, breast-side up,
and brush the breast and legs with the melted butter before seasoning. Cover the whole bird loosely with foil to protect the skin from overbrowning, and transfer to the oven for the calculated time.
Every hour, baste with its juices. 30 mins before the end of the cooking time, remove the foil to allow the skin to brown up. At the end of the cooking time, check the meat is thoroughly cooked by inserting a carving fork into the thickest area of both breast and thighs. If the juices run pink, return to the oven for a further 15 mins and test again. Repeat until the juices run clear. Once your turkey is cooked, cover with foil again and leave to rest for 30 mins. This will make it more succulent and easier to carve… and don’t worry, your turkey will stay hot for an hour after leaving the oven.
Weighing your turkey
A large turkey is difficult to balance on domestic kitchen scales, but your bird will have its total weight on the label, so remove the giblets, weigh them separately and deduct their weight from the total. Add the weight of your stuffing (if using) to get the right cooking time.
Prep 5 mins, cook 20 mins plus 20 mins per 500g
Tips
• Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 mins before cooking.
• Untruss the bird before roasting, or it will increase the cooking time.
• Remove cooked leftovers from the carcass and put them in the fridge as soon as possible. Eat within two days. If you cook with leftover chicken, make sure it is piping hot. Make stock with the bones.
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Remove the giblets if you didn’t remove them on arrival (keep them for your gravy). Transfer to a large roasting tin, breast-side up. Brush the breast and legs with olive oil or melted butter before generously seasoning inside and out. Roast for 20 mins, then 20 mins per 500g; baste a few times during cooking with the fat that collects in the roasting tray. At the end of the cooking time, check the meat is thoroughly cooked by inserting a carving fork into the thickest area of both breast and thighs. If the juices run pink, return to the oven for a further 10 mins and test again. Repeat until the juices run clear. Once your chicken is cooked, cover with foil and leave to rest for 30 mins. This will make it more succulent and easier to carve.
1 . 5kg
Poaching
Prep 10 mins plus overnight soak, cook 75 mins once the water is simmering
You will need
1 onion, peeled & quartered
2 leeks, halved
2 carrots, peeled 2 celery sticks
2 bay leaves 10 peppercorns; water to cover (or apple juice/cider).
Method
Place the gammon in a large, close-fitting pot. Cover in cold water and leave to soak in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight; this flushes away excess brine. Discard the soaking water and cover with fresh cold water. Add the veg, bay and peppercorns, before slowly bringing to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 75 mins (plus 25 mins if you aren’t going to glaze). At the end of your calculated cooking time, remove from the cooking liquor and follow the glazing instructions.
Tips
• Choose whichever cooking method suits you: poaching or baking. Both involve a final blast in the oven for a golden glaze.
• If you are poaching gammon, it must be in barely simmering water. 85°C is the perfect temperature.
• If you are serving the gammon hot, allow the joint to rest for 30-40 mins before carving.
Baking
Prep 5 mins, cook 80 mins
Method
Place the gammon in a deep pan or bowl, cover in cold water and leave to soak in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight; this flushes away excess brine. Drain well. Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas 3. Place the gammon in a large roasting tray lined with foil; pleat 2 lengths together if necessary. Lightly oil the joint. Lift the ends of the foil up and over so that the whole joint is protected and loosely tented. Transfer to the oven and bake for 80 mins, before removing and following the glazing instructions.
Serve with buttery mustard mash and parsley sauce
Glazing your gammon
Allow the gammon to cool enough to let you lift the skin with a thinbladed knife and carefully separate it from the joint, without removing the layer of fat underneath. Discard the skin and score the fat layer into a diamond lattice pattern, taking care not to cut through to the meat. If your joint is of a shape liable to roll, cut away a slice to create a flat base (eat this as a cook’s perk). Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Make a tiny incision with a skewer at the crossing point of each diamond and insert a clove in each. Mix your glazing ingredients (options below) and brush over the surface of the meat.
Put in the oven for 20-30 mins, or until golden and glistening.
Citrus glaze
For a citrus note, warm together half a jar of Seville marmalade with 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 heaped tbsp freshly grated ginger, and 75ml fresh orange juice in a small saucepan. Once the marmalade has melted into the juice, it’s ready to brush over the joint.
Mustard glaze
Spread either 2 tbsp English mustard or 4 tbsp wholegrain mustard over the surface of the joint, then sprinkle over 3 tbsp muscovado sugar.
Fore rib of beef Tips
• Remove the beef from the fridge 30 mins before cooking. It will cook more evenly if the oven doesn’t have to overcome the fridge chill during cooking.
• If you have a meat thermometer, look for 52-55˚C for rare; 55-60˚C medium/ rare; 60-65˚C for medium/well and 65+˚C for well-done. The central temperature will climb a few degrees during resting.
• To carve, remove the bones by following their natural curve as closely as you can with a knife. Divide them and serve with the sliced meat for people to gnaw at like a BBQ spare rib.
Method
Rub the beef with a little plain oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Brown it well on all sides in a large frying pan; alternatively, roast it in as high an oven as possible for 20 mins to brown. Cook at 180°C/ Gas 4 for a further 20 mins per 500g (add/subtract 10 mins from the overall time for well-done/rare).
Rest for 20-30 mins under foil, and add any juices to the gravy.
Tips
• For the seasoning, try using a mix of allspice, orange zest and sea salt. Put the remains of the orange in the cavity for fragrance.
• Lightly prick the skin to let the fat render, but don’t cut into the flesh or it can dry out.
• For particularly crisp skin, try pouring a kettle of boiling water over the bird just before roasting.
• Untruss the bird before roasting, or the cooking time will increase.
• Also see whole turkey tips p.4.
Cooking
Prep 10 mins & 2-3 hrs seasoning time, cook 30 mins per kg plus 30 mins
2-3 hours before cooking, lightly prick the skin over the breast, season generously, and return to the fridge. 30 mins before cooking, remove and leave out of the fridge.
Remove the bag of giblets from the cavity. Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7, cover the duck with foil, and roast for 30 mins. Remove the foil, baste with the fat, and reduce the heat to 180°C/Gas 4.
Roast for 30 mins per kg, basting halfway through. Cover with foil again towards the end of cooking if the skin looks as though it may be starting to burn. To check the bird is cooked, insert a knife into the thickest part of the leg where it joins the breast. The juices should run clear. Leave to rest for 20 mins before carving. Use the giblets and wing tips for stock/gravy.
Riverford producers
We think that small-scale organic family farms are the most sustainable way of producing food.
All of our suppliers look after their soil, livestock and wildlife by farming respectfully and in tune with nature. All our animals experience some of the highest welfare standards around.
We only use animals reared the traditional way: in freerange groups that roam and graze on British farms. They reach maturity naturally, which we think makes the meat particularly flavoursome.
It’s carefully hung and matured for flavour and tenderness, then prepared by our skilled team at the Riverford butchery, who take pride in their traditional cutting techniques.
John Malseed
Frenchbeer Farm, Dartmoor
The Malseed Family run Frenchbeer Farm rearing awardwinning organic turkeys that are the show-stopping centre of organic Christmas dinners.
“In 1986 my parents came to the traditional Dartmoor hill farm known as Frenchbeer,” says John, son of Christine and Mike Malseed. “While building up a sheep flock and a beef herd, a few Christmas turkeys were raised to aid cash flow.” The birds proved very popular – and over 30 years later, the Malseeds’ award-winning turkeys are the show-stopping centre of organic Christmas dinners across the country.
Frenchbeer Farm sits above Chagford on the north-east of Dartmoor National Park. In total, the Malseeds tend 1200 acres of moorland and upland hills. They still rear suckler cows, hill sheep, geese, some lovely Dartmoor ponies – and two helpful hounds named Jack and Wilf, who can be seen herding flocks across the moor and down the lanes. But the Frenchbeer turkeys really are the stars of the show.
The Malseeds choose Bronze turkeys: a traditional breed that grows slowly but gives a wonderfully rich natural flavour. They’re also some very lucky birds! From the pastures where the organic flock is free to roam, they have a cracking view: looking down over misty fields and woodland, far across the West Devon landscape.
Giles & Geoffrey Maddaver
Waylands Farm & Hall Barton Farm, Cornwall
Waylands Farm and its neighbour Hall Barton Farm lie between the picturesque fishing villages of Looe and Polperro on the south coast of Cornwall. Both have been in the care of the Maddever family since the early 20th Century. Today the fourth generation is at the helm: Giles Maddever farms all the land together, with daily help from dad Geoffrey, who is semi-retired these days. We’ve been enjoying the Maddevers’ produce for many years; they keep us in organic beef and lamb from native Hereford breed cows and Dorset sheep, as well as tender autumn venison from their small free-roaming herd.
Waylands and Hall Barton have always been traditional mixed farms, growing crops as well as rearing livestock. This too made the conversion to organic simple; many organic farms are mixed, because rotating the fields between grazing animals, crop growing, and rest-years under clover leys, ensures that the soil stays healthy and fertile without needing to use artificial chemical treatments.
“It’s a very nice way of farming - we don’t use any fertilisers or chemicals. We reseed regularly with a high clover mixture, that way we can provide our own nitrogen,” the pair say. “We turn this clover-rich grass into silage. It makes a good quality, high-protein diet for the animals [during winter, when they can’t graze], and the native breeds thrive on it.”
Helen Browning
Eastbrook Farm, Wiltshire
Helen Browning’s farms produces the top-welfare organic pork that we enjoy at Riverford.
Helen’s organic herd of 200 sows are pure British Saddlebacks - a hardy native breed that thrive outdoors, make great mothers and produce full-flavoured pork. Her boars are Large Whites, a typical UK outdoor-reared cross. They counter the fat levels found in pure breed Saddlebacks, but not enough to change their special flavour.
The pigs live outdoors in family groups, with loads of space and fresh ground to rootle around in. Even in the coldest, wettest weather, the pigs seem happiest outside foraging in
the grass, clover and mud looking for roots, bugs and other treasure. They also have dry, warm `arc’ houses with plenty of fresh straw when they want to be cosy.
“I see first-hand the difference farming my land organically makes - from more bees and hedgerows, to contented, healthy animals, to lots of people gainfully working here,” says Helen. If you’d like to see for yourself, Eastbrook Farm welcomes visitors for walks and guided tours.
