Instead of stuffing the cavity of the bird, which slows down cooking time, gently push the stuffing up under the skin via the neck cavity to protect the delicate breast meat. Roast the remaining stuffing alongside the bird or in a separate pan covered in foil. Allow 18 minutes per 450g (1lb), and 20 minutes’ resting before carving.

Ingredients

Feeds 8 to 10. Takes 3½ hours plus resting.

5kg (11lb) fresh or fully thawed turkey
1 quantity Henri IV stuffing (see recipe)
Trussing needle and string, or skewers
1 lemon, halved
2 rosemary sprigs
2 thyme sprigs
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g bacon rashers or extra-wide foil

Heat oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Rinse the turkey and wipe it inside and out with a paper towel. Fold the wing tips under the body to help it keep its shape.

To stuff the bird under the skin from the neck, work the skin free of the breast by putting your hand between the two and gently inching your fingers forward to halfway along the length of the bird.

Push about half of the stuffing in, spreading it generously over the breast area. Don’t pack it too tightly, as the stuffing will expand. Secure the neck with needle and string, or a skewer, and prick the breast skin a few times.

Tie the drumsticks together with string, crossing them slightly. Pop the lemon, herbs and salt and pepper into the cavity and skewer closed.

Cover the base of the pan with a layer of bacon rashers or foil, and lay the turkey on top, breast-side down. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven, and carefully turn the turkey, without tearing the skin. Brush the turkey with its own cooking juices and cover the breast and drumsticks with fresh bacon, or completely wrap the turkey in buttered foil.

Roast for two hours. If doing the bacon method, brush with the cooking juices every 30 minutes, and replace any dried bacon with fresh bacon.

With one hour of cooking left to go, remove the bacon and foil, and drain off any excess fat. Roast the remaining stuffing, uncovered, alongside the bird for the final hour. The turkey is cooked when the juices that run from the thickest part of a pierced thigh are clear.

Allow the turkey to rest in a warm place for 20 minutes before carving. If the drumsticks are not fully cooked through, simply cut through each joint where they join the body and return them to the oven under a sheet of foil for another 20 minutes as you rest the turkey and carve the breast.

One of my favourite fragrant, herby, meaty stuffings is the one used in the French stuffed, poached chicken, or “poule au pot” that Henri IV, the first Bourbon king of France, wished that all his subjects might have in their cooking pot every Sunday of the year. I have added chestnut purée to make it for the great British Christmas turkey.

Ingredients
Feeds 8. Takes 20 mins.

6 or 7 slices of stale white bread
100g cooked and peeled chestnuts or chestnut purée
1 or 2tbsp milk
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 rashers bacon or fatty ham, finely diced
2tbsp freshly chopped parsley
1tbsp fresh thyme leaves, de-stalked
½tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Sea salt Freshly ground pepper
450g minced pork or good sausagemeat

Cut the crusts from six or seven slices of the bread and discard. Whizz the bread in a food processor until you have 200g of crumbs.

Whizz the chestnuts in a food processor or blender until smooth, adding a little milk to smooth it out. Place the breadcrumbs, chestnut purée, onion, bacon, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper and minced pork or sausagemeat in a bowl, and beat well with a wooden spoon.

Mix it a bit with your hands to amalgamate the flavours and use it to stuff the turkey, or bake the stuffing separately alongside the turkey, uncovered, for up to one hour.

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