Alex Webb Wins Masterchef!

Alex Webb holding Masterchef trophy

Congratulations to the latest winner of Masterchef: The Professionals, Alex Webb of Square 1 Restaurant, Great Dunmow.

Traymoor proudly supplies Square 1 where 25 year old Alex works as head chef.

Andy Hyde, managing director at Traymoor comments: “We’re obviously ecstatic that a local person has won Masterchef. I must add that it’s especially gratifying that Alex Webb works for one of our most highly esteemed customers. We wish Alex and Square 1 ongoing success.”

Alex plans on continuing his work at Square 1 which has a reputation for excellent customer service and attention to detail. Visitors can, therefore, be confident of a meal to remember.

 

Restaurant quality meat at Traymoor

Traymoor is proud to supply a spectacular range of high-quality meats to wholesale customers, we also offer a retail service. We deliver all over Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and London (North & East). Our range includes 21-day aged steaks, roasting joints, speciality sausages, chickens, lamb steaks, burgers, and kebabs.

We also offer a wide variety of great value meat packs. These meat hampers contain an assortment of household essentials including minced beef, chicken breast fillets, pork chops, sausages, and bacon. In addition, our incredible steak lovers pack is filled with sirloin steak, ribeye steak, rump steak, fillet steak, and T-bone steak.

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Christmas cooking schedule

Christmas dinner table

When you’re in charge of cooking Christmas lunch, there’s every chance that you’ll feel under pressure to serve a sumptuous meal so think about following a Christmas cooking schedule. This will help you to get the timings right, cook everything to perfection and ensure that no detail is missed. It’s easy to get bogged down with what you should be doing and when so a schedule, albeit a loose one, is a great way to help you stay on track and reduce stress.

The Christmas cooking schedule we offer below is based on a typical Christmas lunch with a 5 kilogram turkey served at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. If you’re having a different type of meat, or a turkey of a different size, you will need to adjust your timings.

Although this schedule does not tell you how to roast a turkey, can link you to a recipe.

One week ahead

Most of your fresh ingredients won’t perish overnight so you can get a lot of them a couple of days before Christmas Day. Ideally, you’ll have saved yourself the stress of actually going to the supermarket and have instead placed an order for delivery. If possible, have everything, including your turkey, delivered on the 23rd. This means that you will have all you need to start prepping on Christmas Eve.

Stock up on drinks. Wines, spirits, liqueurs and soft drinks to suit all tastes are a must. Are you thinking of kicking off with a festive cocktail? Make sure you have all the necessary ingredients including a bag of ice.

If you’re using a frozen turkey, transfer from freezer to fridge on the 23rd.

Christmas Eve

Try to get the majority of your prep done on Christmas Eve. That way, you can be leisurely about it so that on Christmas Day, all you need to think about is cooking the various items in the right order.

The first thing to do is make your mince pies and sausage rolls. It’s nice to have these done out of the way so that when you’ve done all your other work, you can sit down for a nibble and a well-earned rest.

Make the stuffing (don’t cook it) wrap, and store in the fridge.

Peel and parboil the potatoes in readiness for roasting. Once cool, store covered in the fridge.

Peel sprouts, cover and refrigerate.

Peel and chop carrots, cover and refrigerate.

Vegetables such as parsnips, cauliflower, and other items that tend to quickly discolour can also be prepared now but must be stored in acidulated water. Make acidulated water by mixing two teaspoons of lemon juice with every litre of water.

If you’re having braised red cabbage, cook this now according to your recipe, and refrigerate when cool. It can be reheated in a saucepan or in the microwave just before serving.

Any frozen items that need defrosting can now be transferred to the fridge.

If you’re making your own pigs in blankets, wrap your chipolatas in bacon now, cover and store in the fridge.

Scrutinise the remainder of your Christmas cooking schedule and make edits and additions to suit your menu.

Christmas Day

8 am 

Remove turkey and stuffing from fridge.

9:30 am        

Preheat oven to 190 c (170 c fan)

Stuff the turkey neck, weigh, and calculate cooking time.

10 am 

Put the turkey and wine or stock in roasting tin and place in the oven.

Check every 45 minutes to ensure that the tray has not gone dry. Add a cupful of hot water if necessary.

11 am  

Set the table, make stuffing balls, and do any final prep.

1 pm    

Remove the turkey from the oven and use a meat thermometer to check it is cooked. It should be 65 c at the thickest part of the breast and 75 c at the thickest part of the thigh.

(Note that if the meat has not reached this temperature, it needs to go back into the oven and checked again in 15 minutes. You will need to adjust subsequent cooking times accordingly.)

Transfer the turkey to a plate and cover with foil. Turn up the oven to 200 c (180 c fan) and put a roasting tin filled with goose fat or oil into the oven. This will be for the potatoes. If you are roasting additional vegetables, now is the time to put in roasting tins for those too.

Deglaze the turkey roasting tin to make the gravy.

1:15 pm 

Place potatoes in hot fat ensuring that you coat all the potatoes. Do the same with any other roast vegetables. Return tins to the oven.

1:30 pm   

Place the pigs in blankets and stuffing balls on a baking tray and place in the oven. If they do not need quite half an hour to cook, either delay putting them in the oven, or ensure that you have somewhere to keep them warm once cooked.

Boil water for vegetables

1:40 pm  

Put most vegetables on to steam or boil, but remember that brussels sprouts only need around five minutes. Therefore, you may want to delay putting these on.

Warm up your gravy and check for taste and consistency. Now is the time add additional seasoning and thickener if necessary. In addition, you can warm up any other sauces at this point as well as your braised red cabbage.

1:50 pm 

Warm your serving dishes and plates. The dishwasher or a sink of hot water is ideal for this.

All the vegetables, roasted, boiled or otherwise should now be ready. Transfer them to serving dishes.

Turn off the oven and put the pudding in to warm through in the residual heat.

If you want to serve the turkey already carved, do the carving now. Otherwise, simply remove the foil and surround the bird with stuffing balls, roast potatoes, or anything to give it a festive appearance.

2 pm    

Take food to the table and sit down to lunch.

Traymoor at Christmas

We hope that by providing our Christmas cooking schedule we have helped make Christmas Day a little bit easier. Traymoor can help you further by offering home delivery of Christmas meat packs.

We deliver our restaurant-quality produce to homes in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and London (North & East).

 

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How to make chestnut stuffing

turkey and stuffing

This recipe will give you enough chestnut stuffing to put half in the turkey, leaving the other half to make a delicious stuffing loaf. You can cook the stuffing loaf while your turkey rests, giving you a good window to make your gravy.

Ingredients

  • 150ml madeira wine, sherry, or port
  • 20g pack dried porcini mushrooms
  • 2 onions , halved and sliced
  • 25g butter , plus extra
  • 15g pack thyme , use the leaves and reserve the stalks
  • 2 x 454g packs Cumberland sausages , skins removed
  • 200g pack whole cooked chestnuts
  • Zest 1 lemon (If you are following our recipe on how to roast a turkey, take the zest from the lemon that you will be juicing.)
  • 15g pack flat-leaf parsley , chopped
  • 85g fresh breadcrumbs
  • 10 rashers streaky bacon

Method

  1. Pour the madeira wine, sherry, or port into a large mixing bowl, then crumble in the mushrooms. Fry the onions in the butter for 10 mins, until golden. Cool, then mix with the thyme leaves, the mushrooms and their soaking liquid, and all remaining ingredients, apart from 8 of the chestnuts and the bacon. Season well.
  2. Set aside half of the chestnut stuffing. Line a greased 500g loaf tin with bacon. Pack the rest of the stuffing into the tin, then bring the rashers round over the top and secure in place with cocktail sticks. Use the reserved chestnuts to fill the spaces where the bacon meets. Chill until ready to cook. This will keep in the fridge uncooked for 2 days or can be frozen for up to a month.
  3. Pack the reserved stuffing into the neck end of your turkey. Secure the neck skin with skewers and tie the legs together. Continue preparing the turkey according to your preferred method.
  4. Once the turkey is cooked, leave to rest and put the chestnut stuffing loaf into the oven. Cook for 30 minutes at 190C/170C fan.

Traymoor at Christmas

This Christmas, to make things easier and more economical, we have put together a range of Christmas meat hampers. If you are considering buying several items, consider one of these packs and cut costs.

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How to make turkey gravy

Gravy boat filled with rich hot turkey gravy

When you have an entire Christmas lunch or dinner to prepare, you want everything to be perfect so you might want some pointers on how to make turkey gravy. This recipe is hassle free but it does assume that you have followed our method on how to roast a turkey. Therefore, it depends on you using the leftover giblets, neck, and onions. If you haven’t used onions in your roast, you may want to fry some up now.

Ingredients

  • Juices, fat, and onions from the roasting tin
  • 300ml medium white wine
  • 600ml good stock
  • 2 tsp redcurrant jelly
  • 1 tsp cornflour (optional)

Method

  1. If you have not already done so, transfer the juices, fat, and onions from the roasting tin to a jug or pot. Discard the neck and giblets. When the liquid settles, spoon off as much fat as you can from the top and discard.
  2. Place the tin on the hob, and pour in the wine, Using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the tin. Reduce until the wine has almost all disappeared.
  3. Add the juices, onions and stock to the tin. Boil down for about 5 mins until reduced and a little syrupy, stir in redcurrant jelly, and season.
  4. Add any resting juices. If you prefer a thicker gravy, mix the teaspoon of cornflour with a tablespoon of water and stir into the gravy.
  5. Strain the finished gravy into a jug or sauce boat.

Traymoor at Christmas

To make things easier and more economical, we have put together a range of Christmas meat hampers. If you are considering buying several items, consider one of these packs and cut costs.

We deliver our restaurant-quality produce to homes in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and London (North & East).

If you’ve enjoyed our article on how to make turkey gravy, then take a look at our blog page for more meat related snippets.

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How to roast a turkey

roast turkey

If you feel uncertain about how to roast a turkey, you’re not alone. For many, Christmas Dinner is the big meal of the year, and it’s no surprise that even the most competent of cooks can feel overwhelmed at the thought of pulling off the kind of Christmas feast only ever seen on the TV!

Whilst planning is paramount, and certain hacks can help you along, one thing that everybody wants to get right is the turkey. Furthermore, people fret that they won’t cook it for long enough, or that they cook it for so long that it ends up dry. By following these steps, not only will you know how to roast a turkey but you will produce a Christmas turkey that everyone will love.

Apart from basic kitchen utensils such as a chopping board and some knives, you will need a roasting tin that is big enough to accommodate the bird and some veg. In addition, we recommend you use a meat thermometer.

Ingredients

  • 5-6kg turkey plus neck and giblets (liver discarded)
  • 2 tbsp salt
  • 250g stuffing
  • Handful of fresh thyme, leave removed from stems, and stems reserved
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 halved lemon
  • 1 juiced lemon, skin reserved (If you are following our recipe on how to make chestnut stuffing, take the zest from this lemon and set aside.)
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 3 thickly sliced onions
  • 2 roughly chopped carrots
  • 300ml white wine
  • 55g soft butter
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp salt

Method

  1. 12 hours before cooking, remove giblets and keep. Carefully loosen the skin over the turkey breast enough to get your hands underneath. Season the bird all over, including under the skin, with two tbsp salt. Place the bird into a roasting tin, breast-side up, then leave uncovered in the fridge until you are ready to cook.
  2. One hour before you begin cooking, take the turkey from the fridge and preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan.
  3. Lift up the skin that covers the neck opening, and push the stuffing up and under the skin, securing tightly underneath with a skewer or a few cocktail sticks. Weigh stuffed turkey, then calculate cooking time, allowing 40 mins per kilo. Fill the cavity with a few pieces of onion, lemon halves, lemon skin from juiced lemon, thyme stems and two bay leaves. Tie the legs together with string.
  4. Scatter the remaining onion slices, chopped carrots and half the thyme leaves over the bottom of the roasting tin to make a trivet. Add the giblets minus the liver, and sit the turkey on top.
  5. Add white wine to the roasting tin and cover with foil.
  6. Cook according to the time you calculated, checking every 45 minutes to ensure that the tray has not gone dry. If it has, add half a cup of hot water.
  7. Chop the remaining thyme leaves and mix them in a bowl, with the butter, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and garlic.
  8. Thirty minutes before the end of the cooking time, take the bird from the over and remove the foil.
  9. Spread the butter mixture all over the bird and return to the oven uncovered for about 30 more minutes.
  10. After 30 minutes, use a meat thermometer to check whether the bird is cooked. The temperature at the thickest part of the breast should read around 65 degrees centigrade, and the thickest part of the thigh should be 75 degrees centigrade. If the temperature is any lower, return the turkey to the oven and check at 15 minute intervals until the correct temperature is reached.
  11. When done, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Then turn over and leave upside down for at least a further 20 minutes. This will allow the meat time to relax and become more succulent, giving you plenty of time to put on the vegetables and make the gravy. During this resting period, it is best to leave the bird uncovered so that the skin stays crisp.

Traymoor at Christmas

To make things easier and more economical, we have put together a range of Christmas meat hampers. If you are considering buying several items, consider one of these packs and cut costs.

We deliver our restaurant-quality produce to homes in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and London (North & East).

If you’ve enjoyed our article on how to roast a turkey, then take a look at our blog page for more meat related snippets.

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