How to cut a turkey into a crown or roll
If your plans have changed, and you’re left with a large turkey to feed a small amount of people. We can recommend a number of options and their pros and cons:
Cooking the whole bird and using the leftovers
Cutting the turkey into a crown
Cutting the turkey into a boneless roll.
We’ve recorded a video which shows you how to do both, read the pros and cons below, watch the video and decide what you’re confident doing.
Cook the whole bird
We often eat a 5kg turkey between 2 or 3 of us. We carve the breast, thigh & leg meat from just one side of the turkey..
Before the end of the day, we cut/pull the remaining meat off the bird and refrigerate or freeze it in batches. We try to cut the whole remaining breast off - in as close to 1 large piece as you can, then cube it & bag it. We like to make turkey spring rolls, an easy yummy turkey and parmesan gratin & a few other of our leftover recipes later in the week or the next few months.
Cut the turkey into a crown
Small families opt for a crown to avoid too many leftovers!
It’s just the breast, on the bone, with half of each wing. It's quicker to cook and easy to carve.
You can freeze the legs and thighs or try one of our delicious new turkey recipes. We recommend, slow cooked pulled turkey or turkey tagine.
Roasted Turkey crown
Cut the turkey into a Roll
You can also opt to cut either a breast or turkey roll. This is a boneless roll. It's quicker to cook and easy to carve.
A breast roll, is just the 2 breasts rolled. To make a turkey roll, you take pieces of the dark meat and roll them in between the breasts.
If you are a really small gathering, you can roast one breast on Christmas day & then another day, we recommend Ottolenghi’s breast roll recipe - marinaded in herbs and white wine.
You can freeze the legs and thighs or try one of our delicious new turkey recipes. We recommend, slow cooked pulled turkey or turkey tagine.
Roasted breast roll.
Watch how to joint your turkey into a crown or breast roll
How to joint or cut up your turkey into a crown or roll.
We don’t recommend you try this unless you are over 18 and confident with a knife. We also recommend you have the right kind of knife.
In this video, Adrian Joy shows you how he cuts a crown & then goes onto debone the rest and make a breast roll.
Finally, the most important bit... what about the cooking?
If you're starting to plan your timings for the big day, here are some tips to help. Bramble Farm turkeys will cook about 30% quicker than standard supermarket turkeys, as ours are reared longer and have more intramuscular fat. Please use a thermometer to tell you when it's done.
Expert tip: We know it sounds a little silly, but do make sure you've got a suitable sized oven tray for your turkey before the big day. We learned that one a long time ago from experience...