Succulent white meat, game-sweet brown legs, our bronze Copas turkey satisfied even the toughest critic at the dinner table. A box was delivered on Christmas Eve, packed with ice, the bird and cooking instructions. For fail-safe perfection a pop-up disposable poultry timer can be stabbed into the thickest part of the bird, raw, and when the meat is cooked, will pop out. If you like tradition, and don’t trust modern gadgets, then a weight-v-time chart and useful Christmas dinner planner is in the booklet, along with a couple of useful recipes.
I missed a visit, earlier in the year to visit the farm in Cookham which sits across the road from Quarry Wood, the original inspiration for the ‘Wild Wood’ found in Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in The Willows.
The turkeys are fed on an oat-rich, natural cereal diet. During the day, the birds which are old enough, are free to roam around the orchards and grass meadows until they ‘take one for the team’. The birds are plucked by hand and game-hung for 2 weeks for tenderness & flavour. They’re protected by the border collie ‘Turkey dogs’ and have been for 17 years.
I’m a massive fan of their chicken and the turkey didn’t fail to please. They work the whole year to make sure they have the best product on the market for Thanksgiving and the ultimate table centrepiece on Christmas Day.
Our weighty chap was a joy to carve, incredibly moist and fed our table of 9 with ease, half of the bird still left for cold cuts.
Even the non-turkey lovers were enamoured with the flavour and I think I may have just turned them from their memory of over-cooked, dry turkey of Christmas past.
The turkey was a gift from Copas.
Hold The Anchovies Please 