From the time we had young children, we would host the whole family for Christmas at our house. I always used to do a rolled turkey breast, but once, about 15 years ago, I thought, ‘You know what? I want to do the big, traditional turkey!’ – but I slightly mistimed it…
I must have got my calculations completely wrong, because when I took the turkey out and did a test carve in the kitchen, it was practically raw. I was horrified. I had 17 people at the house waiting to eat, and I was so worried everyone would get food poisoning.
All I could do was apologise and put this enormous turkey back in the oven. At this point, it was already 3pm, we’d run out of smoked salmon canapés and people were just about ready to eat each other. Plus, I’d cooked all the veg to be ready at the exact time I expected the turkey to be ready, so I had to redo what I could, and the rest was just horrible.
The kids were very young at the time, so I cooked them pasta, while everyone else wandered around ravenous, scoffing Quality Street and asking, ‘When will dinner be ready?’ The turkey wasn’t on the table until 7pm, and by then I’d ended up serving our mince-pie pudding as a starter! The turkey was delicious when it was finally ready, but I’m not sure anyone could appreciate it by that point.
Thankfully, I’ve redeemed myself since then, and my boyfriend, Michael, and I are mega party cooks. But for everyone’s sake, I’ve gone back to doing a rolled turkey breast for Christmas…
Davina is an ambassador for ZOE science-led personalised nutrition.
