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CHRISTMAS C8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 DECEMBER 2018 Christmas day can be stressful... so make sure your Christmas lunch, a.k.a. 'the turkey', is perfect: our tips to make sure the bird remains succulent and packed with f lavour Size matters How big does the turkey really need to be? Calculate 450g per person (don't forget there are plenty of bones in the turkey so this won't translate into a 450g meal!). It will, however, leave plenty of meat for seconds and leftovers. If you're cooking for a large crowd, try cooking two small turkeys instead of one large one. A larger bird tends to cook unevenly. Stick to birds be- tween four and six kilos for best results. Brine On the other side of the pond, the Americans brine almost all of their meat (pictured, right). This is a step we seem to miss out in Europe. During brining, the turkey absorbs ex- tra moisture, which in turn helps it stay more moist and juicy both during and after cooking. Since the turkey absorbs salt along with the water, it also gets nicely seasoned from the inside out. Dry brining is a better option than a traditional wet brine. When wet brined, a turkey absorbs a lot of the water and thus the flavour is slightly reduced. To stuff or not to stuff? Stuffing placed in the cavity of the bird will increase cooking time and will likely result in the turkey meat drying out by the time the stuffing is cooked. The easi- est way to enjoy succulent turkey meat AND stuffing is to cook the stuffing in a separate pan. If you really want to cook the stuffing with the turkey, gen- tly lift the skin off the breast and put the stuffing between the skin and the meat, The big bird