© Illustration: Madeline Horwath/The Guardian
© Illustration: Madeline Horwath/The Guardian
© Illustration: Madeline Horwath/The Guardian
Enfield’s family-run Neco Tantuni, which specialises in Turkish street food, secured place among other Michelin-starred restaurants on Vittles 99-strong list
On a list of London’s best restaurants, you would expect to see the usual Michelin-starred suspects such as The Ledbury, Ikoyi and The Ritz. But high among these culinary heavyweights sits a humble salonu tucked away in the depths of north London.
Neco Tantuni, a small Turkish eatery specialising in the foodie delights of Mersin, a city located on the southern coast of Turkey, has been crowned the fourth best restaurant in London by Vittles, the trendy food magazine that has become a bible for those looking for the best (and more off-the-radar) grub in the capital.
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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Three sweet treats for even the fussiest sweet tooth: fig and hazelnut crumble mince pies, sherry and raisin ice-cream, and chestnut and pear meringues
Out of sheer laziness, this is a no-churn, very quick to assemble take on things. I tend usually not to recommend no-churn ice-creams unless there is booze involved, so this sherry and raisin one is a great candidate (the alcohol stops the ice-cream from becoming too hard and crystallised). And keep the leftover egg whites from the mince pies to make the chestnut and pear meringue, an alternative for the Christmas pudding haters at your table – there is always one. I think it’s important to have at least two puddings at Christmas.
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© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Emma Cantlay.
© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Emma Cantlay.
© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Emma Cantlay.
Hobnobs, ricotta, chocolate and amaretto – what’s not to like?
I believe in divine communion, especially when it comes to food; an alliance of ingredients that come together as though they were meant to feed spirit and body. It might be too lofty to say that this semifreddo is divine, but the combination of Hobnobs, ricotta, chocolate and amaretto really does it for me. That said, there are many alliances that can be formed in the Christmas store-cupboard, so use this as a base for any biscuits, dried fruit and chocolate to which you feel most spiritually aligned.
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© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Susannah Cohen.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Susannah Cohen.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Susannah Cohen.
From pie-and-mash to the swank of a Michelin star, everyone has their own idea of what’s ‘best’. What’s yours?
Jonathan Nunn is the author of London Feeds Itself
Almost 24 years ago, a small British food magazine called Restaurant assembled an all-star panel – made up of Gordon Ramsay, John Torode, Aldo Zilli and 65 other food guys – to adjudicate on the world’s most stupid question: what is the best restaurant on the planet? It didn’t matter that no judge had been to all the restaurants on the shortlist, or that two of the judges happened to be Jeremy Clarkson and Roger Moore – what the editors of Restaurant understood is that people love a list, and if you order a group of restaurants from 50-1 and throw a party, people might take it seriously.
“This could run and run,” the editors wrote in their intro, half hoping. They were right. Within two decades, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants had gone from what critic Jay Rayner described as a “terribly successful marketing exercise” to an insurgent alternative to the ossified Michelin Guide, solidifying the reputations of El Bulli, the Fat Duck and then Noma as the “world’s best restaurant”.
Jonathan Nunn is a food and city writer based in London who co-edits the magazine Vittles. He is the author of London Feeds Itself
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© Composite: Getty / Guardian Design
© Composite: Getty / Guardian Design
© Composite: Getty / Guardian Design
John Vincent on bouncing back after cutting branches, refreshing the menu, and staff learning from martial arts
John Vincent is going back to the future. Four years after selling Leon, the fast food chain named after his father and founded in 2004 with two friends, he has bought it back with hopes of reviving its fortunes.
“In a crisis you need a pilot in full control,” the martial arts fan says, speaking to the Guardian from Leon’s headquarters near London Bridge.
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© Photograph: Leon in Carnaby Street, central London/Leon
© Photograph: Leon in Carnaby Street, central London/Leon
© Photograph: Leon in Carnaby Street, central London/Leon
Whether giving as a festive gift or just enjoying during your own yuletide celebrations, these whiskies – and whiskeys – will bring the warmth
• I tried 60 low- and no-alcohol drinks: here are my favourite beers, wines and spirits
Searching for a whisky this Christmas? From Speysides to single malts, Japanese whiskies and special edition bottlings, the sheer choice can be overwhelming.
If you’re looking for a delicious dram to enjoy with your mince pie, a versatile bottle to have on standby this party season or the perfect gift, there’s a whisky out there with your name on it. It needn’t cost the earth either: I’ve found sustainable B Corp whiskies and pocket-friendly blends along with higher-end options to suit everyone’s budget.
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© Photograph: GMVozd/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: GMVozd/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: GMVozd/Getty Images/iStockphoto
A margarita dressed in a red vermouth coat with white tequila trimmings … ho ho ho
This smoky, deep-red cocktail takes its cue from our Latin roots, but with a seasonal twist. The mix of mezcal, tequila and vermouth is warming and vibrant, while pomegranate and rosemary lend a winter accent that makes it as fitting for a Christmas gathering as for a relaxing night in.
Maria Yanez and Carlos Socorro, Tiny Wine, London W1
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© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.
© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.
© Photograph: Rob Lawson/The Guardian. Drink styling: Seb Davis.
This rich and moreish (and plant-based) yule log is a Lebanese Christmas favourite that harks back to the country’s French colonial past
I love a yule log, also known as a bûche de Noël. It’s a remnant from the time when Lebanon was a French colony, which lingers to the modern day, and is popular in Lebanese bakeries and patisseries over the Christmas period, often decorated with small figurines, plastic holly leaves and festive messages. Those decorations, and the trompe-l’oeil nature of this treat, enchanted me as a child, and I wanted to bring back some of that enchantment with this take on a woodland yule log.
This is an edited extract from Beyond Baking, by Philip Khoury, published by Quadrille at £30. To order a copy for £27, go to guardianbookshop.com
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© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Susannah Cohen.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Susannah Cohen.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Susannah Cohen.
My offer to host dinner is declined. My cooking is never good. Triumph lies in the fact food is cooked and not full of bacteria
Yeah, I’m gonna say it – stop with the fetishisation of sandwiches, already! Obviously we’ve had the annual rejoicing over the advent (Ha! See what I did there?) of the Pret Christmas offering and the paler imitations thereafter by lesser chains and retail outlets. Now Harrods is getting in on the act with a £29 version on sale at its steakhouse, the Grill on Fifth. It consists of a burger patty (and listen, let’s get rid of the word ‘patty’ while we’re about it, shall we? Why? Because it’s viscerally hateful, that’s why), roast turkey breast, stuffing, a pig in a blanket, spiced red cabbage, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy.
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© Photograph: Xsandra/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Xsandra/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Xsandra/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Scientists in Kansas believe Kernza could cut emissions, restore degraded soils and reshape the future of agriculture
On the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that live and die within a single growing season.
“These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations],” says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute, an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan’s breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture.
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© Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute
© Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute
© Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute
Not a fan of the traditional festive spread? These recipes are a Christmas feast that even turkeys would vote for
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© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Rosie Ramsden. Prop styling: Rachel Vere.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Rosie Ramsden. Prop styling: Rachel Vere.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Rosie Ramsden. Prop styling: Rachel Vere.
From glühwein to lebkuchen, bratwurst to stollen, recreating the delicacies I sampled in the city’s festive markets is wholly achievable. Plus, a new digital cookbook for a good cause
• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast
Without wanting to sound tediously Scrooge-like, the German-style markets that have become seasonal fixtures in many British cities over the last few decades never make me feel particularly festive. What’s remotely Christmassy – or German – about Dubai-chocolate churros and Korean fried chicken, I grumble as I drag the dog (who enjoys all such things) around their perimeters.
Hamburg’s markets, however, which I was myself dragged around last weekend, are a very different story. For a start, the city has many of them, mainly fairly small – and some, such as the “erotic Christmas market” in St Pauli, with a particular theme. What they all have in common is the range of food and drink on offer … though let’s gloss hurriedly over the phallic gingerbread shapes on sale at St Pauli in favour of the eye-opening range of glühwein (white, rosé, kirsch-spiked, blueberry-flavoured), which was far more appealing.
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© Photograph: klug-photo/Getty Images
© Photograph: klug-photo/Getty Images
© Photograph: klug-photo/Getty Images
Don’t get pulled in by silly gadgets: buy presents you’d be happy to receive yourself
Alcohol is an unavoidable part of a festive spread (for more advice on which wines, beers and other drinks I like for each and every occasion, take a look at last week’s Christmas drinks guide), but, sometimes, a drink deserves a place under the tree as well as around it – especially if it’s an easy win for a drinks devotee for whom you need to buy a prezzie.
As I said at this time last year, don’t waste your time and money on fancy-dan wine kit and gadgets: I am speaking for myself here, of course, but a lot of it will ultimately find its way to a kitchen drawer, never to be seen again. I am always running out of corkscrews, however, and the one from St John is iconic and monochrome, or maybe something sleek and silver from Fortnum & Mason, perhaps?
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© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins Food styling assistant: Sophie Pryn Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein
© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins Food styling assistant: Sophie Pryn Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein
© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins Food styling assistant: Sophie Pryn Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein
Commercial in Netherlands depicting festival-season chaos at ‘most terrible time of year’ prompted flurry of criticism online
McDonald’s says it has removed an AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the Netherlands after it was criticised online.
The ad, titled “the most terrible time of the year”, depicts scenes of Christmas chaos, with Santa caught in a traffic jam and a gift-laden Dutch cyclist slipping in the snow. And the message? Retreat to a McDonald’s restaurant until January and ride out the festive season.
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© Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Nestlé confectionery treats now described as being ‘encased in a smooth milk chocolate flavour coating’
Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband bars can no longer be called chocolate after Nestlé reformulated their recipes due to the increasing cost of ingredients.
The Swiss conglomerate now describes the treats as being “encased in a smooth milk chocolate flavour coating”, rather than being covered in milk chocolate.
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© Photograph: Alamy
© Photograph: Alamy
© Photograph: Alamy
The 54-outlet chain was recently bought back by its co-founder, who says Leon must downsize as more customers work from home
Fast food chain Leon is planning to close restaurants and cut jobs, less than two months after it was bought back from Asda by its co-founder John Vincent.
The chain said on Wednesday that it had appointed administrators to lead a restructuring programme, and it was considering how many of its 54 restaurants would need to shut. It did not say how many roles could be affected.
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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
Save a used teabag to flavour dried fruit, then just add whisky for a boozy festive treat
A jar of tea-soaked prunes with a cheeky splash of whisky is the gift you never knew you needed. Sticky, sweet and complex, these boozy treats are wonderful spooned over rice pudding, porridge, yoghurt, ice-cream or even panna cotta.
Don’t waste a fresh tea bag, though – enjoy a cuppa first, then use the spent one to infuse the prunes overnight. Earl grey adds fragrant, citrus notes, builders’ tea gives a malty depth, lapsang souchong brings smokiness, and chamomile or rooibos offer softer, floral tones. It’s also worth experimenting with other dried fruits beyond prunes: apricots, figs and/or dates all work beautifully, too.
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© Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian. Food styling: Tom Hunt.
© Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian. Food styling: Tom Hunt.
© Photograph: Tom Hunt/The Guardian. Food styling: Tom Hunt.
Italian cooking added to ‘intangible cultural heritage’ list after campaign by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government
Unesco has officially recognised Italian cooking as a cultural beacon, an endorsement hailed by the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose government has put the country’s food at the heart of its nationalistic expression of identity.
The announcement, made on Wednesday during the UN cultural body’s assembly in Delhi, means Italian cuisine – from pasta and mozzarella to wine and tiramisu – will be inscribed on the coveted list of “intangible cultural heritage”.
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© Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters
© Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters
© Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters
Scientists issue urgent warning about chemicals, found to cause cancer and infertility as well as harming environment
Scientists have issued an urgent warning that some of the synthetic chemicals that help underpin the current food system are driving increased rates of cancer, neurodevelopmental conditions and infertility, while degrading the foundations of global agriculture.
The health burden from phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides and Pfas “forever chemicals” amounts to up to $2.2tn a year – roughly as much as the profits of the world’s 100 largest publicly listed companies, according to the report published on Wednesday.
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© Photograph: Paul Weston/Alamy
© Photograph: Paul Weston/Alamy
© Photograph: Paul Weston/Alamy
Sweet, Mexican-inspired seed and salted spice brittle, and super-savoury XO sauce-laced cheesy pinwheel cookies
Edible Christmas gifts are a great excuse to get experimental with global flavours. For spice lovers, this moreish Mexican brittle, which is inspired by salsa macha (a delicious chilli-crunch), is sweet, salty, smoky, crunchy and has hints of anise. Then, for savoury lovers, some cheesy pinwheel cookies enlivened with XO sauce. XO is a deeply umami condiment from Hong Kong made from dried seafood, salty ham, chilli and spices. Paired with tangy manchego, it adds a funky kick to these crumbly biscuits.
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© Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
© Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
© Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
Using store-bought deli goods, Alice Zaslavsky builds a vegetarian showstopper for the Christmas table – with minimal cooking
Check out more Alice Zaslavsky recipes
So you’re hosting a festive shindig in December and there are vegetarians in the crowd – or maybe the vego is you? You want to put on a good centrepiece but you’re not feeling the nut loaf vibes. What to do?
Festive catering for vegetarians is far easier in the northern hemisphere, where you can whack on a big chunk of pumpkin or stuff some peppers, and let them bake away while you roast the chestnuts and mull the wine.
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© Photograph: Eugene Hyland/The Guardian
© Photograph: Eugene Hyland/The Guardian
© Photograph: Eugene Hyland/The Guardian
Two easy bakes to share or gift: soft and peppery gingerbread cookies and a ginger and pumpkin loaf with spiced lemon icing
As a self-proclaimed America’s sweetheart (Julia Roberts isn’t using that title any more, is she?) who moved to the UK nearly 10 years ago, there are a few British traditions and customs that I have adopted, especially around Christmas time. However, there are also a few American ones that I hold on to staunchly: one is the pronunciation of “aluminum”, and another is the importance and beauty of a soft cookie. In both of these easy but delicious bakes to share, I use spice and heat to balance the usual sweetness with which the season can often overload us.
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© Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
© Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
© Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
Want to shrink your festive footprint? These practical, expert-backed tips can help make silly season more sustainable
• Where do all the products the Filter tests end up?
Whether it’s the gift wrap (108m rolls discarded annually), the food (the average family wastes about £60 of it over the festive period) or the dreaded plastic packaging (more than 114,000 tonnes of it is discarded during Christmas in the UK), there is a lot of unnecessary festive stuff. According to Waste Direct, the UK produces 30% more waste at Christmas than at any other time of year.
A few years ago, a family member started a conversation about finding Christmas overwhelming because they were receiving gifts they didn’t really want or need. That sparked a chain reaction whereby we now have a more considered Christmas, choosing presents more wisely (or not at all) and cutting down on the excess. I’ve taken this experience – which has been truly rewarding – plus the advice of experts, to explore easy and joyful ways to be less wasteful this Christmas.
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© Photograph: Daisy-Daisy/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Daisy-Daisy/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Daisy-Daisy/Getty Images/iStockphoto
After a lifetime of working for others, Rich Baker threw caution to the wind. The result was a national award for his pizza and a surprising surge in confidence
When his kimchi fiorentina pizza won a national award, Rich Baker knew he was turning a corner. It was 2023. Baker was 60. He and his wife, Sarah, had made the kimchi themselves and their win put Flat Earth Pizzas, the east London restaurant they had launched the previous year, on the map.
“My life has changed so much,” Baker says. “A lightbulb has lit up inside and given me energy, and that energy has given me something that is quite amazing: a sense of confidence and a sense of fulfilment.”
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© Photograph: Awaiting credit info
© Photograph: Awaiting credit info
© Photograph: Awaiting credit info
A rich, buttery crumb, a hint of bittersweet coffee, a spot of icing and a cherry on top … better gift them before you scoff them
These festive cookies are inspired by The Nutcracker’s Land of Sweets sequence, in which coffee and sugar plums are two of the flavours used to conjure a fanciful world of decadent diversion. Anything from a hard candy to a candied fruit can qualify as a “sugar plum” and, in the case of these cookies, the sugar plum is represented by the amarena cherry. Coffee’s bitterness balances the sweetness of the fruit and the rich butteriness of the dough, while the oat flour adds a dash of shortbread-like delicateness.
Brian Levy is the author of the Formal Assignment newsletter and Good & Sweet, published by Avery at £35.99. To order a copy, visit guardianbookshop.com
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© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Sophie Pry.n Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein.
The pistachio-crammed craze makes a superb gift. Our in-house perfectionist tries all the fiddly bits for you …
If you’re asking what on earth chocolate has to do with a city with an average annual temperature of 28C, then you must have been stuck in the desert for the past three years. Because, since its creation in the UAE in 2022, apparently to satisfy chocolatier Sarah Hamouda’s pregnancy cravings for pistachio and pastry, this bar has taken over the world. Though food (among those with the luxury of choice, at least) has never been immune to the absurdities of fashion, the internet has supercharged and globalised the process, so much so that pistachios, which back in January were dubbed “the new pumpkin spice” by this very newspaper, are now everywhere, from Starbucks lattes to Aldi mince pies.
The thing is, however, that whatever your thoughts on green, sugary, coffee-adjacent beverages, Hamouda’s Dubai chocolate developed for Fix Dessert Chocolatier has triumphed, because it really does taste as good as it looks: crunchy pastry, sweet chocolate and rich, slightly savoury nut butter are an incredibly satisfying combination, so a big bar of it is guaranteed to impress under the Christmas tree. Experience demands that I suggest you wrap it in a pet-proof box, however – emergency vet bills are no one’s idea of a great present.
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© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins Food styling assistant: Sophie Pryn Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein
© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins Food styling assistant: Sophie Pryn Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein
© Photograph: Robert Billington/The Guardian. Food styling: Loïc Parisot Prop styling: Anna Wilkins Food styling assistant: Sophie Pryn Photo assistant: Kate Anglestein
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You can fuss over a turkey in a million different ways, but I don’t. With all due respect to the delicious turkey recipes and clever turkey-cooking techniques we have featured on this site over the years, I make our family bird every year by doing as little as possible, and I always get compliments on how pretty it looks and how good it tastes. Follow these instructions, and you’ll have a simple bird that comes out with juicy meat and crispy skin, while allowing you plenty of time to either relax or make extra side dishes—whichever suits your personality.
Below I'll tell you in exhaustive detail exactly how to make this low-effort turkey. But here's a general roadmap, and if you're an experienced cook, you can probably just read this and know exactly what to do.
Gather your supplies: a turkey, two sticks of butter, a roasting pan, a thermometer.
Optional: The night before, mash seasonings of your choice into the butter.
On Thanksgiving morning, preheat the oven to 325°F. Remove the giblets and smear the butter all over the turkey.
Put the turkey in the oven. Refer to the chart below for cooking times.
This is the most important step: Do nothing until time is up. Do not baste the turkey. (You may tent it with foil if the skin is browning too fast.)
Remove the turkey from the oven when the breast, thigh, and wing are all 165-ish degrees. Rest for 30 minutes, then serve.
The secret is in everything we are not doing. We will not brine this turkey. We will not spatchcock it. We will not stuff it. We will not tie up the legs. We will not baste it. The only extra step that improves a turkey is smearing the skin with butter.
If you want to be an overachiever, and you're planning on making gravy from scratch, add items to the pan to flavor the gravy. I throw in a few celery stalks and quartered onions, and I put the giblets in the pan as well. Or skip all of that and just buy the jarred stuff. Think you can handle this? Here's the full breakdown.
First, the turkey. Aim for 1.5 pounds of turkey (raw weight) for each person on your guest list. Remember, the turkey you buy includes bones and giblets, so that’s not 1.5 pounds of meat. If you’re expecting 12 people, a 12-pound turkey will just barely feed them, while a 24-pound turkey will give you lots of leftovers. An 18-pounder (12 people times 1.5 pounds) provides generous helpings and is arguably the ideal size.
You may notice, when you go to the turkey store, that turkeys come in two sizes. The hens are small, often 10 or 12 pounds. And the toms are big, often 20 or more. So you may have to go with a smaller or larger turkey than would be ideal. Make up for a small turkey by asking people to bring plenty of side dishes; deal with a large one by sending everyone home with leftovers.
Other things you will need to roast a basic turkey:
A thermometer, ideally an instant-read digital thermometer like this one. This isn’t going to break the bank, and you will get plenty of use out of it, so don’t skip this item. You need it.
Some kind of pan to roast it in. A deep roasting pan is traditional, but you can also use a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Personally, I use a roasting pan minus the lid.
Aluminum foil, to protect the bird’s skin if it starts browning too fast.
Butter, to smear all over the turkey. Get two sticks of butter unless your bird is a very small one.
Herbs and seasonings of your choice, to mix in with the butter. I like to throw some onions and celery into the bottom of the roasting pan as well.
Optional: a ladle or turkey baster, not to baste the turkey (we won’t), but to retrieve drippings for gravy.
If you bought your turkey frozen, you’ll need to start thawing it well in advance of the big day. Put your turkey in the refrigerator for one day for every 4-5 pounds. Expect a 12-pound turkey to take about three days to thaw; a 20-pound turkey, five days.
On Thanksgiving morning, check on the turkey bright and early. If it’s still frozen, don’t panic. You have two options:
A cold-water thaw, changing out the water every 30 minutes. To do this, place the entire turkey, still in its plastic wrap, into your kitchen sink or another suitable large container (even a bathtub). Expect this to take 30 minutes per pound.
Roast it anyway. It’s fine to roast a frozen turkey, but it will take up to 50% longer. That means if you were expecting to roast your bird for four hours, and it’s fully frozen, expect it to take six. If it’s mostly thawed, it will take longer than four hours but less than six.
Sometime in the couple of days leading up to your big feast, make a compound butter. What to put in it is up to you, but you’ll be glad you made it. Here’s how:
Take your two sticks of butter out of the fridge to soften.
When soft, use a spoon to smash in some chopped garlic, dried herbs, fresh herbs if you have any (chives are great), or even just a plain ol’ poultry seasoning blend from the grocery store. Want to get fancy? We have flavor ideas here.
Put the lump of soft, flavorful butter into a baggie (you can kind of shape it into a log) and toss it in the fridge until Thanksgiving morning.
Once the butter has softened, it takes all of five minutes to mash it together with the herbs, and you’ll look like some kind of gourmet chef when you tell people you rubbed the turkey with a handmade compound butter. Not sure which herbs to go with? Hum Simon and Garfunkel as you raid the spice rack: “Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme…”
If somehow you forget this step, your turkey will be okay with just plain butter. (If I may tell you a secret: It will also be basically okay without the butter.) I like making the compound butter because it gives me something to do the night before, and I can put a child on this detail if they are looking for a way to “help.”
There are differences of opinion in what works best, so just know that if you are comparing times across turkey-cooking charts, make sure you’re looking at the numbers for a whole turkey (not a breast or other parts) and that you want it unstuffed.
We will not be stuffing today’s turkey. You can make a pan of stuffing separately, if you like. Or, better yet, assign somebody else to make it in their oven and bring it over while it’s still hot.
Here are the times recommended by the USDA for a turkey cooked without stuffing in a 325°F oven:
8 to 12 pounds: 2:45 to 3 hours
12 to 14 pounds: 3 to 3:45
14 to 18 pounds: 3:45 to 4:15
18 to 20 pounds: 4:15 to 4:30
20 to 24 pounds: 4:30 to 5 hours
Work backwards from the cooking time to determine when to put the turkey in the oven. Here’s the formula:
Cooking time PLUS 30 minutes’ resting time = total time between when it goes into the oven and when you can serve dinner.
Remember that it will take some time to get everything out of the fridge and prepped for the oven—I’d budget at least 30 minutes for that.
So if you have a 20 pound bird and want to eat at 4 p.m., you will need about four and a half hours for cooking, plus half an hour on either end for prep and resting. That’s five and a half hours total, which means we’ll want to be buttering our turkey at 10:30 a.m. and it should be in the oven by 11 at the latest.
We might aim to get it in a smidge earlier to be safe, say 10:45 a.m. If you have to choose, it’s better to have the bird ready a little bit early (it can just rest a little longer) than to keep hungry guests waiting.
On Thanksgiving morning, before you start getting everything ready, take your turkey out of the fridge. Also take the compound butter out of the fridge to soften. The following steps will go a lot better if everything has had a chance to warm up for half an hour or so before you start.
First, get yourself a nice clear space to work in. You do not need to rinse the turkey. You do want to avoid splattering raw turkey juices all over the place. This often means opening the turkey in a clean sink and transferring it to a roasting pan right next to the sink. Then you carefully throw out the wrappings and wash your hands.
Your turkey will probably come packaged with a little plastic bag of giblets, and probably also a neck. If you don’t find these inside the big cavity at the bottom of the turkey, go ahead and stick your hand in the top (you’ll have to lift up the neck skin, which tends to drape over the neck opening).
Then we assemble our roasting pan:
Optional: Place stalks of celery, carrots, and a quartered onion or two at the bottom of the pan.
Not optional: Place the turkey in the pan, breast side up, legs not trussed or tied or bound together in any way. Let them fly free. The turkey will take so much longer to cook if the legs are bound. Note that sometimes the turkey will come with the legs tucked into a strap of skin near the tail, so if your turkey looks like it’s sitting criss-cross applesauce, make sure to free them.
Optional: Place the giblets and neck in the pan, next to the turkey or in the body cavity. They’ll add flavor to the gravy. (Take the giblets out of the bag, of course.)
Technically optional but highly recommended: Smear the softened butter all over the turkey, ideally the compound butter you made last night. If you don’t have that handy, regular butter will do. If you forgot to soften it, it's OK to melt it in the microwave and brush it on. And if you don’t even have any butter, at the very least sprinkle some salt and pepper or poultry seasoning all over.
I like to smear the butter over the breast skin and legs, and then I’ll make a pocket under the breast and stuff any extra butter in there. Or you can just put the lump of extra butter in the cavity. (Do not save it for the table. It's got raw turkey germs on it now.)
Finally, if you have a leave-in thermometer of any sort (such as a wired thermometer or a bluetooth thermometer), stick that in the breast, as deep as you can go without touching bone. This is for monitoring the bird as it cooks. When time is up, you’ll use your instant-read thermometer in several places to confirm the bird is done. And if that bird has a pop-up thermometer button? Take that sucker out and throw it in the garbage.
This is the easiest part. Once the bird is in the oven, you do nothing. After a few hours, take a peek to see how the skin is browning. If it gets crispy and dark before the bird is anywhere near done, “tent” it with foil (meaning you put a piece of foil loosely over the breast).
To facilitate my doing of nothing, I like to use a bluetooth thermometer so I can monitor the temperature from the couch in the living room. People will say “shouldn’t you be watching the turkey?” and I’ll look at my phone and tell them it’s on track to be done by 4.
I do not baste it. Basting is overrated. I let the oven and the butter do their work. If the pan seems dry mid-cooking, I’ll add half a cup of water just to make sure there will be enough liquid to collect drippings for gravy. But that’s adding water to the pan, not drizzling it over the bird. You don’t need to, I promise. And the skin comes out crispier if you don't.
While the bird is cooking, I strongly recommend doing some organizational work. Make a checklist of every dish you plan to bring out to the table, and begin working on anything that can be done ahead of time. If somebody wanders into the kitchen and asks if they can help, give them a job.
While you’re at it, make a to-do list for those hectic 30 minutes after the turkey leaves the oven and before everybody sits down to eat. Maybe during that time you’ll be making a gravy, or warming up a side dish in the oven. Get everything ready so things can go smoothly when the time comes.
A turkey is done when you can insert an instant-read thermometer into the breast, the innermost part of the thigh, and the innermost part of the wing, and all of those locations read at least 165°F. (The temperature will continue to rise as the bird rests, so it’s OK to take it out when it’s a few degrees shy of the target, but I don’t want to overcomplicate this. If you want a simple rule, 165 is the number you’re looking for.)
Again: Ignore the pop-up thermometer. Pop-up thermometers are designed to pop at about 180 degrees, which means your breast meat may be very dry and firm. Some people like that texture; that’s why the device was designed that way. (Many people do not.) Your choice of doneness is up to you, but for food safety reasons, you only need the meat to hit 165 degrees.
Pop-up thermometers also aren’t consistent; occasionally you’ll get one that pops before the turkey is done. And you’ll want to check that the turkey is cooked everywhere, not just in one spot on the breast. Don’t trust that button at all.
Once the turkey is done, you take it out of the oven and let it “rest” before you attempt to carve it. The USDA recommends letting a bird rest for 15 to 20 minutes; many cooks prefer 30 minutes or more. I’ve seen recommendations to let a bird rest for hours, which I cannot endorse. I’d budget 30 minutes.
Why not hours? Once the bird’s internal temperature drops to about 140°F, which usually happens during carving, the bird should be eaten and leftovers put in the fridge within two hours. (If you really want to push it, three or four hours is technically acceptable.) A whole, resting bird stays hot on the inside for a good while, but you don't want the bird sitting out so long that it cools.
During the turkey’s resting time, you can make a gravy, either from scratch or by adding pan drippings to a store-bought or made-ahead gravy starter. We have a basic gravy recipe here: It’s just roux (a mix of flour and butter) combined with a flavorful liquid such as stock or the watery (bottom) layer of your pan drippings. The only time I use a turkey baster is to suck up that bottom layer of drippings and squirt them into the pan of gravy.
Otherwise, your job as the Roaster of the Turkey is done. Make sure to get a photo of your beautiful turkey, and assign someone else to carve it. Refer to your checklist to be sure that everybody’s side dishes make it to the table, and you’ll look like some kind of hero who just pulled off the hardest job of the holiday.
© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
© Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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