Cooking Tips: Christmas Favourites

As Christmas planning starts to gather momentum, we’re receiving lots of questions about our (award winning) Pasture Fed Free Range Hams and our Organic Free Range Turkeys. In particular customers are wanting to know how many people a Ham or Turkey will feed, how to prepare it and what to do with the leftovers (if you have any). So, here’s The Free Range Butcher guide to cooking and serving your Christmas Favourites.

Serving Sizes: How Many Guests will it Feed

Product	Average Weight	Number of Guests
Whole Ham	7 kgs	Up to 25
Half Ham	4 kgs	Up to 15
Whole Turkey	5 kgs	8 – 10

 NB. The suggestions above assume that Ham OR Turkey is the only meat you’ll be serving. If you’re also serving other meats (plus veggies and salads), then your meat product will serve more people. Remember though, it’s great to have leftovers too!

How to Prepare Your Christmas Ham or Turkey

Ham Our ham is provided to you already cured and cooked, and ready to eat. It is delicious sliced and served cold. i.e. No preparation necessary! Alternatively it can be glazed and heated in the oven (recipes included below).  Glazing is just an option if you want to infuse a bit more flavour in to the ham and eat it warm. Turkey Make sure you give your turkey enough time to completely thaw out in the fridge. Time needed based on weight: • 4kg – 5kg: 65 hours • 5kg – 6kg: 70 hours • 6kg – 7kg: 75 hours Once thawed, leave it in the fridge until ready to cook. Many people also like to brine their turkey to ensure a super succulent and moist result. Click here for details on how to brine your turkey.

Recipes and Cooking Guide for your Christmas Ham or Turkey

Ham

• Baked Ham with Orange Mustard Glaze
• Baked Ham with Maple Syrup and Glove Glaze
• Asian Inspired Baked Ham

Turkey

• Cooking Guide for Perfect Roast Turkey
• Turkey with Apricot and Almond Stuffing

How to Store Leftovers

Ham 

• Cover the ham after carving with the reserved rind, then wrap with a moist tea towel or ham bag. Do not use plastic wrap to cover the ham.
• Rinse out your Ham Bag and repeat the vinegar process every 3 days to retain freshness.
• Consider slicing enough ham to last 2 – 3 days and storing it covered, on a plate in the fridge. This way the rest of the ham can stay safely wrapped up in the Ham Bag and will retain it’s moistness (otherwise each time you pull it out to carve a few slices it will lose a little of it’s moisture).
• Always keep your Ham Bag moist.

Turkey

• Carve leftover turkey meat off the bones before refrigerating.
• Remove any stuffing from the turkey cavity and store it in a separate container.
• Leftovers should be cooled down as quickly as possible. Pack them into several shallow containers rather than one large one, and make sure you don’t stack the containers in the refrigerator (this can trap the heat). The more surface area that’s exposed to the cold air, the faster your food will cool.

What to Make with Leftovers

Ham

• Ham, Mushroom and Shallot Pasta
• Pea and Ham Soup
• Ham, Cheese and Spinach Frittata
• Ham, Leek and Rocket Frittata
• Fried Rice (substituting ham for bacon)
• Chorizo (or Ham) and Spinach Quiche