Christmas Cooking Guides
A few tips and pointers for cooking your Xmas Feasts.
Turkey
Remove the turkey breast from its plastic the night before you intend to roast, pat it dry then place it on a tray in a fridge to dry overnight.
If the turkey is over 4kg, calculate 20 mins per 1kg, plus 90 mins. If the bird is under 4kg, calculate 20 mins per 1kg, plus 70 mins. To test if it’s done, make sure the juices run clear when you pierce the thigh where it meets the body.
To achieve a perfectly golden, juicy turkey, let the bird spend time both covered and uncovered in the oven. We recommend covering your bird for most of the cooking time to prevent it from drying out; then, during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking, remove the cover so the skin crisps in the hot oven.
Place Turkey or Rolled Turkey Breast on a raised tray in the Oven tray. On bottom of tray and under Turkey place some cut up Carrots cut vertically and sliced onions and cover with water. With the tin foil, create a cone so it steams while cooking.
Check out website www.recipetineats.com.au for Roast Chicken recipe.
Pork
Check out the Australian Pork website for lots of recipes and pointers.
www.pork.com.au/recipes
Pork Loin
Drying the rind is essential to achieving the best crackling. Moisture prevents the pork rind from crackling.
Pat the pork dry with a paper towel. Place the pork, rind side-up, onto a plate or tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate, uncovered, overnight to air–dry the rind before roasting. If time does not permit, try to air-dry the pork in the fridge for at least a few hours.
Rolled pork loin roasts are sold already scored. Scoring the meat allows the oven’s heat to penetrate for crunchy crackling and helps with carving.
If the rind is not already scored, use a small sharp knife to score the rind at even 1cm intervals (don’t cut through to the meat). You can always ask your butcher to score the rind for you.
Oil
To help the rind crisp up even more in the oven, drizzle the rind with olive oil and massage it into the rind.
Salt
Then, rub salt over the rind and into the score marks.
Roast
The rind needs a blast of heat to crackle, so preheat the oven to 240°C/220°C fan- forced. Place the pork on a greased rack in a large baking tray. Cook for 40 minutes or until the rind crackles.
Reduce heat to 180°C/160°C fan-forced and cook, allowing 30-35 minutes per kilogram for a rolled pork loin, until just cooked through and the juices run clear (65°C when tested in the thickest part with a meat thermometer).
To cook a pork loin roast in an air fryer, you can:
- Preheat the air fryer to 200°C
- Place the pork loin in the fryer basket with the rind facing up
- Cook for 30–35 minutes, or until the pork is golden and crackled
- Reduce the heat to 165°C
- Cook for another 30–35 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 68°C for medium
- Transfer the pork to a board, cover loosely with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes
Step 5:
Rest
Remove from the oven. Cover loosely with foil and rest for 10 minutes.
Recommendations for how much pork:
Generally, 200-300grams per person is a good indication
Bone in Roast Approx. 3.5kg to 4kg Feeds 10-12 people
Boneless Roast Approx. 1.5kg – 2kg Feeds 6-8
Ham
Go to www.pork.com.au/recipes for more recipes and pointers.
Step 1
After removing the ham rind, it’s time to score the ham fat before glazing.
Cut the fat crossways or lengthways using a small, sharp knife at 1 cm intervals. For ease, use a clean ruler as a guide when scoring. To form a honeycomb pattern, cut the fat crossways and lengthways to form diamonds. If you like, stud these diamonds with a whole clove.
Step 2
Place the ham on a greased rack in a large baking pan lined with foil. (To save on washing up, place a large foil roasting pan onto a large baking tray). Wrap the hock end in a folded sheet of foil to prevent it from burning.
Step 3
Tuck a few balls of scrunched foil under the ham to level the top of the ham so the glaze doesn’t run off.
Step 4
Prepare your glaze. Brush the glaze over the ham fat to coat it evenly. Then, cook on the lowest shelf in a preheated oven at 180°C/160°C fan-forced, brushing every 20 minutes with remaining glaze for about 1 hour or until golden and caramelised. Remove from the oven. Remove the foil from the hock. Allow the ham to rest for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Step 5
For a festive way to serve your Christmas ham, wrap the hock end in a strip of folded baking paper and tie it with string or ribbon. Tuck in a few sprigs of fresh herbs, such as bay leaves or rosemary (or use an Australian native flower). Place the ham onto a serving platter. Serve with mustard.
Storing your ham
- Ham will keep longer on the bone, so only slice what you need.
- Keep your ham fresh in the fridge by covering it in a clean ham bag, pillowcase, or tea towel that has been soaked in a mixture of two parts water and one part white vinegar and wrung out. Repeat the soaking every three days or when it dries out.
- Leg ham, when stored as above, will keep perfectly in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Burnt honey, whiskey & orange glazed ham recipe
¾ cup honey
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup scotch whiskey
- To make the glaze, place honey into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes (the mixture will bubble so keep an eye on it while it is on the heat) or until deep golden. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar, orange juice and whiskey. Return to heat and simmer, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 45 minutes or until syrupy.
- Preheat oven to 180˚C fan-forced. Using a sharp knife or Stanley knife, score the ham fat (not the flesh) lengthways in 2cm intervals. Wrap the hock in foil (this prevents it from burning).
- Place ham on a greased rack in a large baking dish lined with foil
- Brush the ham fat a few times to evenly coat with glaze. Bake for 50 minutes, brushing with remaining glaze occasionally, or until ham is golden and caramelised.
- Slice and serve warm or cold with mustard and ham jam.
Lamb
For more recipes and tips go to Australian Lamb website.
www.australianlamb.com.au
ROAST LAMB COOKING TIMES
- Preheat oven or barbecue to the recommended temperature for your cut.
• Follow the recommended roast lamb cooking times for your cut’s weight.
• Check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer.
• Remove roast before it reaches the final temperature as it continues to cook while resting.
| Lamb Cut | Oven Temp(no Fan) | Rare (58 C) | Medium (65C) | Well done (70C) |
| Eye of Loin/backstrap/topside roast, mini roast, lamb rump) | 220 C | 22min per 500g | 28 min per 500g | 32min per 32 |
| Lamb Rack | 200 C | 19min per 500g | 26min per 500g | 30min per 500 |
| Loin, Boned and Rolled Leg or shoulder | 180 C | 19 min 500g | 26min per 500g | 30min per 500g |
| Butterflied Leg Lamb | 180 c | 22 min per 500g | 26min per 500g | 31min per 500g |
| Boneless Lamb Shoulder | 180c | 19min per 500g | 26min per 500g | 31 min per 500g |
Roast Chicken
Oven
As a rule, the roasting formula is 20 minutes per 450g plus an extra 20 minutes, which means a typical 1.4 kg chicken will be perfectly roasted after 1 hour and 20 minutes at 200°C.
Air Fryer
My favourite way to cook a roast chicken.
1.4-1.5kg Chicken cook on 180 C for 30 mins, then turn over and cook for 35 mins.
Check out website www.recipetineats.com.au for Roast Chicken recipe.
