Traditional roast turkey with sticky pancetta sausages

(from Elyce123’s recipe box)

Make sausages until end of step 1, open-freeze on a baking tray until solid, store in a freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 month, defrost in fridge for 24 hours, then cook as per recipe

Source: delicious. December 2005

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 240 minutes
Serves 8 people

Categories: December, can be frozen

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp runny honey
  • 16 good chipolata sausages
  • 24 slices smoked pancetta
  • 5.5kg oven-ready turkey (with giblets)
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 3 small oranges, quartered
  • 5 sprigs fresh rosemary, halved
  • 8 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 40g butter, at room temperature
  • bay leaves, to garnish

Directions

  1. Warm the honey and brush over the sausages. Wrap each sausage in a pancetta slice. Put into a glass or ceramic ovenproof dish and chill until ready to cook.

  2. Preheat the oven to 190˚C/fan 170˚C/gas 5. Remove the giblets and set aside to make the gravy stock. Weigh the turkey and calculate the cooking time (18 minutes per 450g). Rinse the turkey inside and out, and dry well. Season the body cavity, then alternately push in the onion, 5 orange quarters and half the herbs. Put 3 orange quarters and remaining herbs in the neck end of the turkey. Take a length of string and loop it round the parson’s nose and drumstick ends and tie neatly in place. Fold the tips of the wings back under the bird. Put on a trivet sitting in a large roasting tin.

  3. Spread the softened butter over the whole bird, making sure to cover the legs. Season well, then place the remaining pancetta slices on top of the bird. Pour 450ml water into the roasting tin and cover the turkey and roasting tin with a large sheet of foil, sealing it under the rim of the tin. Put in the oven for the calculated cooking time, minus 30 minutes.
  4. Uncover the turkey and baste with the juices in the tin. Cook for the remaining 30 minutes to brown the skin. To check the turkey is cooked, push a fine skewer into the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run clear, it’s cooked; if there are any traces of pink, return to the oven for 15 minutes then repeat the test.

  5. Remove the cooked turkey from the oven, and increase the oven temperature to 200˚C/fan 180˚C/gas 6. Pop the sausages in to cook for 30 minutes. Carefully lift the turkey from the tin onto a board, letting as much juice drip back into the tin as possible. Set it aside in a warm place, covered in foil, to rest for 30-45 minutes.

  6. Strain the turkey’s cooking juices from the tin into a jug. Allow it to settle, then spoon off and discard the excess fat from the surface, keeping what’s left behind for the gravy.
  7. Carve the turkey at the table and serve with the sticky sausages, gravy and all the trimmings.

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