Christmas cooking can be a stressful affair at the best of times, but one thing you absolutely don't want to worry about is getting the food wrong.
Cooking a turkey is a massive responsibility and you'll want to make sure that when yours comes out of the oven it is golden, tasty, and - most importantly - safe to eat!
Thankfully, Safe Food are here to help you prepare your turkey every step of the way.
As well as their handy hints and tips for how to prepare your Christmas turkey for cooking, they've even produced a handy turkey cooking time calculator.
You simply enter the weight of your turkey here , and hit calculate and it will tell you the exact timings you need.
Christmas 2019
The calculator timings are based on those using electric fan assist ovens only, but fear not they've issued the following guidance for cooking turkeys in other types of oven as well.
If you do not have a fan assisted oven then Safe Food recommend that you do not stuff your turkey.
With these other ovens, the safest way to cook your stuffing is on a roasting dish or tray separate from the turkey.
Safe Food research showed that stuffed turkeys cook differently in other types of ovens and may not be fully cooked and safe if cooking advice for fan assisted ovens is used.
Here's more advice:
Advice for cooking unstuffed turkeys in conventional and gas ovens
| Weight of turkey | Cooking time (Preheated oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4) |
|---|---|
| 3.5 - 5.5 kg | 3 hours - 4 hours 20 minutes |
| 5.5 - 6.5 kg | 4 hours 20 minutes - 5 hours |
| 6.5 - 8 kg | 5 hours - 6 hours 20 minutes |
| 8 - 9 kg | 6 hours 20 minutes - 7 hours |
| 9 - 11 kg | 7 hours - 8 hours 20 minutes |
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