Preparing the Turkey and Making Giblet Stock

A wonderfully cooked turkey is often the culinary highlight of the Christmas meal and also the moment when the spotlight it turned on the kitchen. Your AGA will cook a turkey beautifully, here are some tips to help along the way.

1. Preparing the turkey and making giblet stock. Defrost well in advance - this can take several days with a large turkey particularly if it is in a cool area like a garage, pantry or even the boot of the car (yes, really!).

Remove all packaging, giblets and anything inside the turkey cavities. Use the giblets (the long necky boney looking bit) to make stock by putting in a pan of cold water along with an onion, carrot, the ends of a leek, maybe a celery stalk or two and a parsley stalk, a bay leaf and a few black peppercorns. All of these are optional and in the absence of any, just the cold water will do. Bring to the boil and cook in the simmering oven or on the simmering plate while the turkey cooks. Pour through a sieve and you will have tasty stock in your pan ready to use for your gravy.

Optional:

Remove the wishbone by just feeling for it inside the neck end of the turkey and cutting with a small knife either side. Slide your fingers behind and pull -quite hard, turkeys are made of good bone!

If possible keep it complete, then put it in the roasting dish with the turkey. Once cooked, ask two people to break it by taking each end with their pinky finger and whoever gets the big end makes a wish.

Optional:

Stuff the turkey - put the stuffing under the skin at the neck end and pull the skin over to enclose, it can be handy to use a cocktail stick to close the skin. Bring to room temperature - it is really important that the turkey is at room temperature before going into the oven. If cooked straight from the fridge, you may need to add as much as an hour to the cooking time.

Cooking the Turkey

There are three ways you can do this in the AGA:

• Fast in the Roasting oven,
• Medium in the Baking oven (start with 30 - 60 minutes in the roasting oven)
• Slow in the Simmering oven (start with 30 - 60 minutes in the roasting oven)
  
  

Refer to the online guides for AGA cooking www.agaliving.co.uk for cooking times.

To check the turkey is cooked, either use a digital probe (to read 70 - 72C) or insert a small sharp knife into the thigh area, checking the colour of the juices that run out - if they are pink, return the turkey to the oven for a further 30 mins, check again until they run clear.

It can be very convenient to aim to have the turkey cooked 2 hours prior to eating, then cover with greaseproof paper and tea towels to rest in a warm place until ready to carve.

The cooking time will depend on a several factors:

1. The weight of the turkey including any stuffing
2. The temperature of the turkey before cooking - take it out of the fridge or cool place and allow to come to room temperature. A fridge cold turkey may take up to an additional hour to cook.
3. Where you plan to cook it in your AGA

Allow approximately 30 mins per kg.

Modern electric AGA’s may cook large roasts such turkeys quicker than traditional models as the oven will stay at a constant heat during cooking and the oven temperatures won’t be affected by how much the tops and other ovens are being used. With these AGA’s its not usually necessary to start the turkey off in the roasting oven when using the ‘medium’ method.

Making the Christmas Gravy

Serve your turkey with plenty of hot gravy.

You will need the turkey roasting dish, a separate pan - the AGA sauce pots are ideal, a wooden spoon or whisk, a jug of stock - either giblet stock (see preparing the turkey) or a stock cube or powder made up with hot water, some cornflour mixed with water to thicken and salt and pepper to season.

1. Once the turkey is cooked, remove it from the roasting dish to a warm serving platter or carving board, cover with several tea towels and set aside in a warm place to rest for an hour or two.

2. Take the roasting dish and pour in a good cup or two of stock, stir well and loosen all the bits from the roasting dish, then pour through a sieve into a jug. A degreasing jug with the spout positioned at the bottom of the jug can be handy here as it lets the fat rise to the top and pours the juices and stock for gravy from the bottom. Or chill the juices and the fat will rise to the top and can be spooned off.

3. Take a small pan and pour in the strained stock and juices. Just strain them straight in to the pan to save time. Taste. To concentrate the flavour, boil for a few minutes which will evaporate some of the water and improve the taste.

Add a little salt and pepper until it tastes delicious and thicken it a little, as you like.

4. In a small mug, mix together several tablespoons of cornflour and cold water. Bring the pan to the boil on the boiling or simmering plate and add half of the cornflour mixture. Heat until boiling and the gravy will thicken. Take the pan off the heat a little and check to see if it is thick enough. Repeat with more cornflour mixture as needed.

5. Finally, set aside until needed, either in the warming oven or on the back of the AGA, or set aside then reheat just before serving. If you prefer you can add a little plain (including gluten free) flour to the roasting dish with the roasting juices, blending until smooth then whisk in stock while heating on the simmering plate until you have enough gravy. Taste and season.

Transfer the roasting dish to the floor of the roasting oven for 5 - 10 minutes and any lumps will magically disappear. Pour into a gravy boat to keep warm until needed, or small pan that can be reheated to serve.

Tips on using Newer AGA Models

AGA eR7

Set the roasting oven to R9 and the baking oven to B4 on Christmas morning, allowing 40 mins for the roasting oven for heat from cold or 15 mins from slumber, and 20 mins for the baking oven to heat from cold and 10 mins from slumber.

To cook a turkey, roast in the baking oven on B4. Use the fast, medium (no need to start the turkey in the roasting oven first) or slow methods. Use the roasting oven for roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and the mushroom wellington and similar dishes.

AGA eR3 & AGA 60

Turn the top oven to baking setting early on Christmas morning or use the timer to turn it on for you. Turn the lower oven on. Allow an hour for the ovens to heat from cold.

Cook the turkey on baking setting for the times as above. Once the turkey is cooked, set it aside to rest, turn the top oven to roasting setting, allow 30 mins for the oven to heat fully to roasting setting then cook the roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and reheat the chefs vegetables.

AGA R3

Turn the top oven to full early on Christmas morning or the night before if you prefer. Turn the low oven either to full or to half (simmering) setting depending on how you wish to cook your turkey.

Allow 2.5 hrs for the ovens to heat to full from cold and an hour to heat from e setting. Cook the turkey in the lower oven on baking (full) setting. Alternatively, set the lower oven to simmering (half) setting and cook the turkey using the slow method, starting in the roasting oven and continuing to cook in the simmering oven.

Cook the roast potatoes in the roasting oven. If the turkey is cooked using the lower oven on full setting, once the turkey is taken out of the oven,, turn the lower oven down to simmering (half) setting, allow to cool down for half an hour or so then it can be used on simmering setting to steam a Christmas pudding, to steam or slow braise vegetables and to make turkey stock.

For more, take a look at this fool-proof video guide to cooking a turkey in your AGA cooker:

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