The best antidote to ageing I know is to embrace the new. New ideas, new experiences, new challenges. There’s only one exception to my life philosophy, and that’s Christmas dinner – or, in my case, Christmas Eve dinner.

And it’s Good Housekeeping I have to thank (or blame) for this. Now Good Housekeeping and I have been in a relationship for 43 years, ever since I went to work on the magazine in 1970. I was 18 years old and it was my first job. It was also my first proper introduction to cooking, as one of my tasks (apart from making tea for my bosses) was to check the recipes for spelling mistakes and ensure the ingredients were listed in the same order as they were required for the recipes.

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Although I’ve had many jobs, and life changes, since then, and admit that Good Housekeeping slipped off my reading list for a number of years, for the last two decades – which is when the annual Christmas Eve feast for 20+ plus people was first introduced into my family – I’ve never missed the recipe-rich Christmas edition of GH. Every year I scour it for new recipes, and new ways to cook the turkey, and promise to try something different, and every year I dig out my December 1997 edition of GH and revert to my first truly triumphant Christmas turkey dinner.

Today the pages of that edition are yellowing, half torn and splodged with dried-out goose fat and gravy droppings. But Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas in my book without Butter-roasted turkey with Sherry gravy and Sprouts in hazelnut butter. The one recent innovation I’ve allowed to grace my Christmas table is Nigella Lawson’s red cabbage cooked in pomegranate juice (delicious). But with so many mouths to feed I don’t want to take any chances.

Readers of this blog probably have their own failsafe recipes sorted, but just in case you haven’t I share my version of the brilliant, oh-so-simple butter-laden Christmas blow-out turkey courtesy of GH 1997:

Butter-roasted turkey (find the triple-tested Butter-roasted turkey recipe here)

A 10lb turkey will easily feed 10 (with enough for leftovers)

Prep time: 20min, plus ‘resting’

Cooking time: 3-3¼ hours

4.5kg (10lb) oven-ready turkey, with giblets

125g (4oz) softened butter

Salt and ground black pepper

  1. Loosen the skin at the neck end of the turkey, easing your fingers up between the skin and the breast. With a small, sharp knife, remove the wishbone to ease carving. Remove and reserve the giblets.
  2. Place the turkey in a roasting tin, breast-side down; spread with butter. Season with a little salt and plenty of pepper. Place giblets around the turkey, then cover with foil to make a ‘tent’.
  3. Cook at 190 C (375 F) mark 5, basting regularly. About 45min before the end of the cooking time, remove the foil, turn the turkey over, baste well and continue cooking.
  4. When the turkey is cooked (the juices should run clear when a skewer is inserted into a thigh), tip it to let the juices run into the tin, then place on a carving board. Cover turkey with foil and set aside to rest for 30min. Prepare Sherry gravy, using giblets and juices from the tin.

Sherry gravy (find the triple-tested Sherry gravy recipe here)

Prep time: 5 min

Cooking time: 15 min

Juices from turkey roasting

Turkey giblets

45ml (3 level tbsp) plain flour

200ml (7 fl oz) dry sherry

1.1  litres (2 pints) chicken stock

Salt and ground pepper

  1. Skim most of the fat from the juices, leaving 30ml (2 tbsp fat). Add the giblets to the roasting tin.
  2. Stir in the flour to make a paste, then place the tin over a moderate heat. Cook, stirring or gently whisking, for 2-3min until golden brown.
  3. Add sherry, bring to the boil; bubble for 1min. Add stock, bring back to boil and bubble for 5-10min until reduced by half and lightly thickened. Skim off fat, season and strain into a gravy boat.

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas!

Linda

Read Linda Kelsey's previous blogs here: The Age of Unreason.

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