Food

I'm doing the usual baked gammon and turkey this year. turkey can be delicious if not dried out. I love it actually.

On the subject of gravy ^^ I think a good roast (cos that's all Christmas dinner is) lives or dies on it. I've been really knocking the roasts out of the park lately (if I do say so myself) and hope to apply some lessons learned to the roast beast feast.

Depending on the fat content of the meat I don't overly grease up the outside prior to cooking. I know it's fashionable to massage chicken with olive oil or butter but i don't really buy the logic in this. Both of these are liable to burn and taste bitter at the temps you roast meat. Plus it will just run off and create more fat to discard from the roasting pan before you make gravy. Even with no added fat a chicken roasted in a tin with half a bottle of wine will generate pan juices that are around 1/3 fat, most of which you will discard so why add to it just to chuck it away?

For chicken (or Turkey) you want crispy skin and moist meat right? crispy skin is delivered by dryness and moist meat is created by juices not being evaporated and the fat under the skin rendering into the flesh. Rubbing fat all over the skin would seem to deliver neither of these desirable outcomes.

My theory is that the best way to do this is leave the skin dry, or at most a very light rub of oil with a high smoke point, just enough to protect the skin from burning in the initial high heat and help the salt stick. I add plenty of salt. NB this salt will trickle down into the pan juices so it's important not to season the gravy until the last second (if required at all).

I always use a cast iron roasting tin, build a trivet of carrots and onions and cook for a quick half hour blast at +200 degrees with no liquid added. That gets everything up to temp and gets the crispy bits underway. Then I add half a bottle of white wine and a load of fresh herbs (if you add them dry at the start they can burn), turn down to 160 or so for the duration of the cook. I'll keep topping up the liquid with wine or water to keep a good pint or more of pan juice. This method seems to retains the crispness but is gentle enough that the meat cooks slowly and doesn't dry out.

Then when the meat's done i'll lift it out and set aside and cover to rest and crank heat back up to finish of roasties etc.

Gravy time: Fat content is criticalIi think. For years I didn't bother emptying the tin to discarding enough fat and had greasy gravy. Finally got that lesson learned. Now I always empty the pan juices into a pyrex jug so the fat separates. Discard most of it and add back a just tablespoon or two to start a roux with the flour. That needs to cook through till it's nicely browned. At this stage I usually squeeze out the veg from the pan through a sieve so they give up their juices. Then add another half bottle of wine, scrape off all the crispy bits round edge, add back the rest of the pan juices (having discarded the remaining fat) and the crucial finishing bits of finely chopped fresh thyme or rosemary, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a teaspoon of bramble or blackcurrant jelly.

That gets gently cooked and/or topped up with wine or water from the veg (I usually restrict this to the water from the carrots and it's sweeter and less likely to be cabbagey stinky) till it's ready to serve.

Always warm the gravy boat and the plates and make sure there's more than enough to go round. Even if you've slightly buggered up the roasties (not crispy enough) or the meat (too crispy), a plateful of proper gravy will make the whole thing amazing anyway.

Sorry if that all seems incredibly obvious, but it took me years and many disappointing Sunday roasts to understand how crucial each of these steps was.