How to cook a Christmas turkey – and why you shouldn’t start at 2am

If you want to make the ultimate Christmas turkey, don’t start cooking it at 2am – at least, that’s the advice from professional chef Oliver Marlowe.

“Every single year, my dad will wake up at two in the morning, panicked that the grid will go down,” he says.

“It’s in rural Suffolk, the grid hasn’t gone down that I can ever remember, so why he is going on about this, I don’t know.

“So he turns the oven on and starts cooking the turkey at 2 o’clock in the morning, and at about five minutes past two I go downstairs and turn it off, and turn it back on around 8am.”

“When you are cooking turkey, it always takes less time than you think it does,” he added – good news amid a Christmas hit by soaring energy bills.

Cost of living calendar – reveal a different story every day

When it comes to actually cooking the turkey, Oliver’s number one piece of advice? Don’t.

“I tend to go down the chicken route,” he says. “It’s less expensive, it’s much better quality meat for absolute certainty.

“It takes much less time to cook.”

However, if you absolutely must, he recommends brining the turkey (submerging it in a solution of salt and water) for 24 hours beforehand, and letting it rest for at least half the time you’ve cooked it for.

“If you are going to down the turkey route, it just means it cooks in much less time and you get seasoning all the way through the meat, and it won’t go as dry,” he says.

“Even if you do my dad’s beautiful 48-hour turkey, that would be more resilient if brined beforehand.”

Christmas pudding ice cream: How to use leftovers

Oliver began is chef career aged 13, after watching a bust up between a chef and his sous chef at a Malaysian restaurant in Suffolk.

“It was my first day working as a kitchen porter, I just wanted to earn some extra money,” he says.

“Suddenly there was a huge fight in the kitchen and the sous chef walked out. I was instantly promoted and have never looked back.”

A glut of food on Christmas day can lead to an expanse of leftovers and his advice on the way to use this up is varied – from pasta to pies.

One thing that has gone down a storm in his own restaurant, Ganymede, is Christmas pudding ice cream.

“It’s actually delicious, rather than your standard Christmas puddings or cakes, which aren’t particularly good, in my opinion.”

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

For best results, his recipe is to either make your own vanilla ice cream or use a really good shop bought one. Let it defrost a little, then fold through chunks of Christmas pudding until evenly distributed.

“Pop the mix back in the freezer and leave to set again,” he says.

“Once set, top with clementine zest and a good measure of your favourite Christmas booze.”