We always bought two Turkeys at Christmas; one for Christmas day, and another to put in the freezer to await Easter.
This last Christmas, I bought the Christmas one, and my son Kimbo bought the Easter one, which he deposited in our freezer (his was full).
The Turkey weighed 8 kilos. It was huge, and I suggested we saw it in half lengthways, so that it could be used for two different occasions, but he didn't like the idea.
We were six at table for Easter making 1.3 kilos of Turkey for each of us. Frankly, even the .3 of a kilo would have been more than enough.
It took nearly 5 hours to roast, it was delicious, but there was far too much of it. We hardly made inroads into half of it on the day.
Usually the remains of a Turkey get transformed into all sorts of different dishes, but this time after the compulsory Curry, we became disillusioned. Kimbo took a huge lump, and I made a nice Moroccan Tagine, but after that it was sandwiches and loads of Turkey Stock.
I think this was the first time in my life that I haven't picked the carcass clean. It was simply too overpowering, and the flavour of the bird soon became tiresome.
Normally we would buy a 5-ish kilo bird. 8 kilos was too big. Having said that, I do remember my mother buying a 27 lb bird (12 kilos) that we needed to shorten to fit into our small Welsh cottage oven; but I know it fed a lot more than just 6 people.
22 comments:
Sounds as though Kimbo has some Greek blood. Always cook too much. You never know who might drop in. A very hungry friend who will also take away a bowl of leftovers. Never happens!!
I've just made lamb stew and lamb and potato pie and we are, almost, through the leftovers. My kids have dogs so I bet they're still happily munching on leftovers too.
You definitely should have cut it in half. Hope your son realises that, for next year. Though you might not need another turkey next year if you put the rest in the freezer
We should have cut it in half. There's nothing worse than becoming tired of something you really like! Even now I don't want to see another Turkey for quite some while.
We always shred turkey, mix it with a good lumpy cranberry sauce, pop it into a dish, add stuffing for a top and bake, much better than curry.
Darn. If I had known I would have popped over for some leftovers.
That does sound very good. I might try it next Christmas.
Kimbo took one whole side of the breast meat (well over 1 kilo), but it still left a huge amount. Too much.
It looks immense. The idea of picking the bones fills me with horror. I can't bear the sight of the bones - but the meat looks delicious.
It used to be my 'Chef's treat' to pick the bones. I loved it.
Kimbo should have sought advice on buying turkeys - from someone older and wiser. Instead he came home with a friggin' emu!
As families get smaller, smaller birds would be helpful. It is hard to find 10 pound (9kilo) turkeys here, most are huge.
It might well have been an Emu, or a Dodo even.
The turkey looks very festive but huge. You could have fed at least 12 people. After 2-3 days eating leftovers, I want no more.
In France Turkeys aren't tradition Christmas birds, so the breeders tend to be small farmers. We usually buy a bird of under 5 kilos and they are wonderful. Here in the UK they like to breed them to be as big as possible.
The oval silver serving dish it's sitting on is very big; the Turkey overlapped.
I usually freeze the whole carcass with meat bits to use in the future for a yummy turkey soup. It never goes to waste.
I don't eat turkey or any other meat for that matter and haven't for years but I'm ok eating leftovers for a few days. My husband, though won't eat anything two days running!
Nothing went to waste with ours, but I could have picked the carcass a bit cleaner after I'd made all the stock.
You could feed the starving of the Parish with the rest!
I think your husband is probably very wise. Variety is always good, and to eat the same things day after day would be very dull.
We could have sent a huge parcel to Africa.
a ten pound bird would be around 4.5 kilos. A 9kg bird is over 20lbs.
I hope you remember this next Christmas and buy a smaller one. Perhaps if there are only large ones you could suggest going "halves" with a neighbour or even Kimbo and divide the bird as soon as it arrives home. Have something different for the Easter gathering.
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