Some like Christmas cooking to be traditional, other prefer “something different”. Whatever your fancy, these recipes will earn you the compliments of the season.
How To Cook The Turkey
Rinse the inside of the trussed bird quickly with cold water and dry with a cloth. (Frozen birds must be defrosted 48 hours before cooking.) Burn off any fluff with a lighted taper. Traditionally the turkey is stuffed with chestnut and sausage meat stuffings, but you could use one of the other stuffings for which recipes are given.
Take care not to overstuff as stuffings made with breadcrumbs expand on cooking. Then skewer or sew the flap of skin at the back of the neck end in place, making sure that the wing tips are tucked behind the shoulder joint. The drumsticks should be tied across the tall end of the turkey.
Weigh the stuffed bird, then place in a shallow roasting tin. Brush with melted bacon fat and cover the breast with strips of fat bacon. It is as well to protect the breast with greaseproof paper or alumunium foil, which should be removed during the latter part of the cooking so that thye bird will brown. Or the bird can be completely wrapped in foil, which produces a tender but perhaps not so flavoursome result.
10-14 lb. turkey : Place on the bottom shelf of a warm oven, 335 degrees F, allowing 15 minutes for every lb. plus 20 minutes extra.
14-18 lb. turkey : Place on the bottom shelf of a cool oven, 310 degrees F, allowing 20 minutes for every lb. plus 25 minutes extra.
If not wrapped completely in foil,baste during cooking.
Garnish with orange slices and parsley and serve with château potatoes, sauté chestnuts and mushrooms, peas, baby brussels sprouts, bacon rolls, chipolata sausages and bread sauce.
Chestnuts Stuffing
Stuffs a 14 lb. turkey
2 lb. chestnuts
2 oz. gammon or ham, finely chopped
1 rasher bacon, chopped
1 oz. butter
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon beaten egg yolk
Salt and pepper
Make
a small slit in each chestnut with a sharp knife and cook in boiling salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and peel.
Cover
peeled chestnuts with more water, bring to the boil and simmer until tender. Rub through a sieve and add the gammon or ham, the bacon, softened butter, lemon rind and egg yolk. Season well with salt and pepper, and mix till blended.
Ham stuffing
Stuffs a 12-14 lb. turkey
4 oz. cooked ham or lean bacon, finely diced
4 oz. shredded suet
4 oz. breadcrumbs
1 level teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
½ teaspoon mixed herbs
Grated rind of ½ lemon
Good pinch of grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground mace
Salt and pepper
2 lightly beaten eggs
A little milk
Mix
together the cooked ham and suet. Add the breadcrumbs, parsley, herbs, lemon rind, nutmeg, and mace. Season well.
Blend
in the eggs and a little milk to give a soft stuffing consistency.
Sausage Meat Stuffing
Stuffs a 14 lb. turkey
1 lb. pork sausage meat
3 oz. white breadcrumbs
1 level teaspoon dried mixed herbs
2 level teaspoons powdered thyme
1 egg
Salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper
Combine all ingredients, blend well and season.
Oyster Stuffing
Not everyone likes oysters, but for those who do, this stuffing is well worth the extra expense.
Stuffs a 16-22 lb. turkey
1 ¾ lb. loaf of day – old white bread
4 oz. butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
8-12 large oysters
2 lever tablespoons olive oil
4 level tablespoons chopped parsley
2 level teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon freshly groung pepper
2 level tablespoons basil
1 level tablespoon marjoram
1 level teaspoon sage
Remove
crusts and grate braed coarsely into a bowl. Melt 2 oz. of the butter in heavy pan, add the garlic, if used, and cook for 1 minute.
Add
the celery and onion and cook until lightly brown. Allow to cool and then mix into the breadcrumbs. Add the sliced oysters, the olive oil and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
Put
the remainder of the butter into pan and add the basil, marjoram and sage. Cook over low heat for 1 minute and add to the stuffing. Pacfk stuffing loosely into the turkey.
Gravy
Gravy can make or mar a meal and deserves as much care in the preparation as the stuffing.
Make
the giblet stock the day the bird bought. Put the giblets into a small pan and cover with water (about 2 pints). Add a slice of onionand carrot, a bayleaf and a good shake of salt and pepper, and simmer over a very low heat for 3 ½ hours. Strain.
When
The bird is cooked pour off most of the fat from the tin, add just enough flour to absorb the remainder, and mix well. Add the giblet stock to the flour and turkey fat and stir well. Cook for 4 minutes. Strain and reheat to serve.
Bread Sauce
Serves 4-6
1 medium onion
3 cloves
1 pint milk
4 oz. white breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon cream
Peel
Onion and stud with cloves. Place in saucepan with the milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Remove
onion and pour the milk over the breadcrumbs, allow to stand for 10 minutes. Mix well with a fork, season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cream immediately before serving.
Château Potatoes
Just that little bit more delicious that ordinary roast potatoes !
Serves 6
2 lb. peeled potatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ - 2 oz. butter
Shape
the potatoes into large olive shapes with a sharp knife and put them into a pan of cold water to cover. Add ½ teaspoon salt, bring to the boil quickly, and boil gently for 2-3 minutes.
Drain
well, dry, and transfer immediately into a pan of hot butter. Add a pinch of salt, cover at once, and put on center shelf of a warm oven, 335 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. To serve, drain and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Rum Sauce
Serve 4-6
1 oz. butter
1 oz. flour
1 pint milk
1 ½ oz. castor sugar
Rum to taste
Melt
the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute without browning. Remove from heat and beat in the milk, a little at time. Return to heat and cook until thickened. Stir in the castor sugar and add rum to taste.
Brandy Butter
Serves 4-6
2 oz. unsalted butter
4 oz. icing sugar
1 ½ teaspoons brandy
½ oz. blanched, split almonds
Beat
the butter in a bowl until soft, work in the sifted icing sugar and brandy. Shape into a ball and roll in almonds. Chill before using.
Christmas Pudding
Makes 3 puddings, each to serve 6 people
10 oz. sultanas
10 oz. currants
½ lb. seedless raisins, chopped
2 oz. almonds, skinned and chopped
½ lb. plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 level teaspoon mixed spice
1 level teaspoon ground ginger
1 level teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 lb. soft brown sugar
½ lb. breadcrumbs
10 oz. finely chopped or shredded suet
½ lb. mixed, finely chopped, candied peel
6 eggs
4 tablespoons stout
Juice of 1 orange
1 wineglass brandy
Approx. ½ pint milk
Grease
three 1-pint pudding basins. Prepare the dried fruit and almonds.
Sift
the flour, salt, spice, ginger and nutmeg into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, breadcrumbs, suet, fruit, nuts, and candied peel.
Beat
the eggs well and add to them the stout, orange juice and brandy, and stir this into the dry ingredients adding enough milk to make the mixture of a dropping consistency.
Fill
mixture into basins, cover with greased paper and a floured cloth, and steam or boil steadily for 6-7 hours
Remove
greased paper and floured cloth and cover puddings with clean dry cloths. When cold, store in a cool place until required.
Steam
or boil puddings for 1 ½ hours before serving.
Creamed Turkey
Serves 4
Left-over turkey becomes a trifle dry and dull after the family’s first delighted onslaughts. Here is a recipe to re-awaken everyone’s enthusiasm.
¼ lb. mushrooms
3 oz. butter
1 oz. flour
¼ pint stock
¼ pint milk
12 oz. cooked turkey
¼ pint cream
2 egg yolks
1 lb. mashed potatoes
Slice
the mushrooms and cook gently in half the butter. Melt rest of butter, mix in flour and cook very gently for a minute without browning . mix in the stock and milk and simmer for 5 minutes. Slice and add the turkey and allow to heat through gently.
Blend
together 2 tablespoons cream and one egg yolk and stir into the turkey mixture over the heat. Mix in the mushrooms. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
Beat
Mashed potatoes in a pan over low heat. Blend in rest of cream and the second egg yolk. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large rose nozzle.
Spoon
turkey mixture into the center of a hot dish, pipe round the creamed potatoes.
If you’ve decided to forsake tradition but are not sure what to serve instead, the following recipes will provide a worthy substitute.
Spare Rib of Pork and Chestnut Purée
Serves 8
4 ¾ lb. spare rib of pork
Salt and pepper
1 oz. dripping
½ lb. chipolata sausages
2 lb. chestnuts
½ pint milk
½ pint water
3 oz. butter
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
12 button onions, skinned
1 ½ oz. sugar
⅛ pint stock
Brocoli, sauté potatoes, stuffed
Whole tomatoes and braised celery
Sprinkle
the spare rib with salt and pepper and put it in a roasting tin, dab it with dripping. Roast for 15 minutes on the second shelf down of a fairly hot oven, 400 degrees F, then reduce heat to moderate, 355 degrees F, for 2 ½ hours. Put sausages round meat after 2 hours.
Meanwhile
slit the chestnuts for the purée, cover with water and boil for 15 minutes, drain and skin.
Cook
in the mixed milk and water for 20 minutes until tender. Drain, dry and sieve. Add 2 oz. of melted butter and season well with salt and pepper.
Spoon
chestnut purée into a piping bag, fitted with a rose nozzle, and pipe in rosettes on to a greased baking tin. Bake in center of a moderate oven, 355 degrees F. for 20-30 minutes.
Put
the onions in a small pan with remaining 1 oz. of butter, the sugar and stock. Simmer until liquid is evaporated.
Serve
the meat, garnished with chestnut rosettes and onions, with the vegetables.
Frosted Savarin
Serves 6
6 oz. plain flour
Good pinch salt
½ oz. yeast
1 level teaspoon sugar
⅛ pint milk, warm
2 eggs
2 oz. butter
4 oz. lump sugar
½ pint water
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons rum
Fresh fruit in season or canned fruit
¼ pint double cream, whipped
Angelica
Sift
The flour and salt into a warm bowl and make a well in the center. Put in a warm place. Cream the yeast with the sugar and add the milk, stir in beaten eggs.
Pour
the yeast mixture in the center of the warmed flour. Sprinkle with a little extra flour on top. Cover and leave for 20-30 minutes in a warm place.
Beat
well, by hand, to make a smooth dough. Soften the butter and beat in a piece at a time.
Grease
and flour a 7-in. savarin ring mould and half fill it with the mixture. Cover and leave to rise in a warm, moist place until the mixture reaches the top of the tin. Bake for 20-30 minutes on the center shelf of a fairly hot oven, 400 degrees F.
Make
a syrup by dissolving the lump sugar in the water over a low heat. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes until of a syrupy consistency, add lemon juice and rum.
Turn
out the savarin and prick it all over with a skewer, pour the hot syrup over it. Place on a dish. Pile the fruit round the sides and in the center. Pipe whipped cream on top. Garnish with an angelica “leaf”.
Christmas Rose Cake
It’s best to leave four days between almond-pasting the cake and royal icing it. Then when the cake is quite firm and dry, make the center decoration.
8 oz. plain flour
½ level teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
12 oz. stoned raisins
8 oz. currants
12 oz. sultanas
6 oz. glacé cherries
2 oz. almonds
2 oz. mixed chopped candied peel
8 oz. Dutch unsalted butter
8 oz. soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon black treacle
4 eggs
A little sherry, rum or brandy
Butter
and line with a double piece of greaseproof paper an 8-in. cake tin. To do this cut out a round for the base of the tin and a strip for the sides one inch deeper than the tin. Fold up the inch at the bottom and cut the fold in diagonal slashes with a pair of scissors. It will then fit neatly under the paper base. Tie a piece of brown paper round the outside of the tin.
Sift
flour, salt and mixed spice on a plate. Wash and dry all the dried fruit, slice the cherries, blanch and shred the almonds. Mix with the candied peel.
Put
butter into a bowl, beat until softened. Add sugar and treacle and continue beating until soft and creamy in texture. This can be done by hand, with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer.
Lightly
beat the eggs in a bowl and gradually beat half of them into the butter and sugar mixture. Fold in spiced flour alternately with fruit, nuts and egg.
Turn
into the prepared tin. Bake on a low shelf of a cool oven, 310 degrees F. for 2 hours and then reduce heat to very cool, 265 degrees F. for a further 2 ¼ hours.
Turn
out of tin and leave surrounded with paper until quite cold. Wrap in greaseproof and store in an airtight tin until needed for icing. The surface of the cake can be pricked with a knitting needle and a little sherry,rum or brandy brushed in if liked.
Put
an apple or potato in the tin with the cake – it helps to mellow it.
Almond Paste
6 oz. icing sugar
12 oz. ground almonds
6 oz. castor sugar
4 egg yolks
Vanilla and almond essence
Juice of ½ lemon
Sift
icing sugar into abowl, add the almonds and castor sugar. Mix well and add the lightly beaten egg yolks. Flavour with vanilla and almond essence and add lemon juice.
Work
mixture into a smooth ball of almond paste by hand. Do not over-knead.
To Cover Cake With Almond Paste
3 tablespoons sieved jam
6 tablespoons water
Almond paste
Little icing sugar
Reverse
the christmas cake to work on a flat surface.
Melt
the jam in the water and brush all over the cake. Divide the almond paste into 2 pieces, in proportion two-thirds to one-thrid. Cut out paper patterns of a round to fit the top of the cake and a strip to fit round the sides.
Lay
these on the table, sugar them with a little icing sugar and roll out the smaller piece of almond paste on the round of paper to fit the top and rest of the paste on the strip for the sides.
Put
the top in position and tear off the greaseproof paper. Fix side strip on sides and remove the paper. Neaten the edges with a pallete knife and roll a straight-sided tin round the cake to make sides level. Level the top with a rolling pin.
Cover
cake and leave in a cool, airy place for four days.
To Ice Cake
Set
the cake on a 10-in. silver cake board. Thin about one teacupful of the royal icing to coating consistency with extra egg white. Put the rest of icing into a large airtight jar or foil covered bowl.
Tie
a six-inch deep strip of greaseproof paper firmly round the cake like a collar. Pour in the teacupful of icing and allow to level out and set.
When
the icing on top of the cake is set, remove paper. Coat the reserved royal icing round the sides of the cake and rough it up into points with a pallete knife. Leave to set.
Royal Icing
2 lb. icing sugar
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon glycerine
Green vegetable colouring (optional)
Sift
icing sugar on to a plate, whip four egg whites in a bowl until just fluffy. Gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, then add the lemon juice and the glycerine
Beat
until icing is very white and stiff enough to stand in peaks. Reserve one teacupful of royal icing in an airtight jar to make the roses for top of the cake.
Colour
rest of icing carefully until a very pale green.
The Decorations
( to be kept, not eaten ! )
For the roses
One small teacup of royal icing
One coffee spoon of tragacanth (obtainable from chemist)
1 egg white
Yellow and green vegetable colouring for the holly leaves
Trimming of almond paste
Make
thin round base 4 in. across from cardboard and aluminium foil to go under decorations.
Sprinkle
tragacanth over the royal icing and strir well until a stiff paste. Mould five small thin petals for each flower, arrange over the top of a capped bottle, overlapping the petals and sticking them together with egg white. Allow the petals to fall naturally to resemble a christmas rose, leave to set. If tragacanth eludes you, try using a stiff gelatine solution.
Reverse
each flower in a small cup of foil while making the next flower. When you have made 5 flowers, roll out rest of icing paste into a strip ½ in. x 6 in. snip with scissors all along one of the 6-in. sides. Divide into 5 pieces and roll up each to make center stamens of flowers. Fix in center of flowers and paint yellow with a little colouring.
Make
leaves by colouring almond paste green, rolling out thinly and cutting diamond shapes from the paste. To form points of holly leaves use ¼ in. cutter or cap of ball point pen and cut around each diamond shape. Lay each leaf over the handle of a wooden spoon to form an interesting natural shape. Put to one side to become firm.
Arrange
and fix flowers and leaves together on the 4-in. silver cardboard which has been prepared, securing with royal icing. Place red candle in the center, leave overnight to become firm. Lift arrangement on to the middle of the cake.
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COOKING FOR CHRISTMAS
