Ultimate Christmas turkey guide, from how to choose the best quality bird to dry-brining and cooking tips

What’s on the table for Christmas this year? For most of us it looks like it will be turkey, even if family gatherings are likely to be smaller than usual. Turkey suppliers such as Copas and KellyBronze are reporting healthy sales – no doubt boosted by some of the four million-plus Britons who would usually be abroad on Dec 25, and will now be staying at home instead.

But having plumped for the festive bird, which turkey will it be?

Not so long ago, a turkey was a bog-standard bird, probably a broad- breasted white, the kind favoured by large-scale turkey farmers and supermarkets. Extremely fast-growing, it offers great value, and mild (some say bland) flavour with a very high ratio of popular breast meat to leg.

However, there are serious welfare questions around the breed and farming methods, in particular over evidence that the huge breasts of these animals are too heavy for their spindly legs.

For farmers, though, it is commercial breeds like that broad-breasted white that come with the information they need to run their businesses, the charts showing growth rates and “feed conversion” – how much they will have to spend on food for each pound of weight gained.

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust, in conjunction with Prof Philippe Wilson and Prof Emily Burton, of Nottingham Trent University’s poultry research unit, is conducting a research project to compare the meat quality and leg health of rare breeds of turkey, starting with Norfolk black, against commercial white turkeys.

The aim is to encourage more farmers to stock rare breeds, and not just because they are delicious, although the team will be investigating the flavour with tastings and protein studies next year. Making these breeds commercially viable means they will be more widely farmed, protecting the dwindling stocks.

This is important for the gene pool and the future of farming, says Prof Wilson, who sits on the farm animal genetic resources committee at Defra. “The genetic make up of these native breeds is unique, and allows them to adapt.”

Commercial breeds, the professor says, are bred to “get the most wonderful productivity from them – but that always comes at a cost, which is the animal’s resilience to change.”

Hang on, though – what’s all this talk of native? Turkey isn’t native to us, it originated in the Americas. Indeed, there is an oft-told tale that the turkey very nearly became the national symbol of the United States, as Benjamin Franklin regarded them as “more respectable” than the eagle, which the president thought was “of bad moral character”.

But, explains Wilson, “Defra defines ‘native’ as a population being bred in this country for more than 40 years, and many turkeys were brought over in the 1700s and 1800s, and ended up producing the breeds that we now call native, such as the Norfolk black.”

According to Berkshire turkey farmer Hannah Moss, the term “native” is better, “as ‘heritage’ and ‘tradition’ have been overused”. A key difference between native breeds – as I shall now call them – and commercial white turkeys is the time they take to grow, she explains. “My turkeys are hatched in April and are slaughtered in December, at 28 weeks old. Most supermarket birds are 16 to 18 weeks old – some may even be 14 weeks.”

This has an impact on the way they cook, says Moss. “The time they have is spent putting on meat weight, rather than developing their bones. You end up with a smaller-framed turkey massively covered in meat, and a smaller cavity.”

When you buy a native breed bird, it has a huge cavity, with a less-heavy covering of meat, although it should still be copious. Once in the oven, the space allows the hot air to get in and cook the bird more quickly, from the inside as well as the outside.

That depends on the bird being cooked empty – not so much as a lemon should go inside, says Moss. “The rule is, never stuffed.” Never foil, either, as wrapping will stop the skin crisping. Less is more – which sounds like an excellent plan for this Christmas.

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