Gordon Ramsay's 'secret' to cooking the perfect turkey

Turkey isn't the most succulent meat, and if you've ever tried to roast one you'll know it has a tendency to be a bit dry, which is why we're always open to new tips and tricks.

When it comes to cooking a turkey, we all have our different ways of doing it. While some like to cook the bird the night before and let it rest, others like to roast it on the day.

Then there's the type of turkey. Frozen, fresh, crown or joint?

While there's all different kinds of cuts out there, most of us have one shared priority when it comes to roasting turkey, and that's to make sure it's as juicy as possible.

Now, chef Gordon Ramsay has shared his secret to cooking the festive bird, explaining the number one tip he always follows.

Ramsay explained that there's a secret formula to cooking a winning turkey, and it goes a little something like this.

"The secret of cooking a good turkey is letting it rest as long as it cooks," Gordon explained on social media back in 2021.

"And more importantly, baste. Those birds need basting and if we don't sort of open up those legs at the side and baste in between those thighs, you're going to have a raw thigh and an overcooked breast, so baste, baste, baste.

"Minimum, should be two and a half to three hours but I promise you now if you let it rest... and the secret behind letting it rest is turning the bird upside down halfway after you've rested it."

In other turkey news, if you were thinking of brining your meat this year, you might want to be extra careful.

Last year over on Reddit, a user posted: "Someone brined a turkey in a metal pan and this was the result… and I am oddly terrified."

They included a screenshot of the now-deleted post, in which a raw and grey-looking turkey can be seen, alongside the caption: "Can anybody tell me what happened?

"I brined my turkey for about 24 hours in this pan and when I pulled it out the brine it looked like this."

Turns out, the salt in the brine had reacted with the metal dish.

One user responded: "The salt in the brine reacted with the metal of the pan, and essentially electroplated the turkey with bits of pan."

A second person added: "Yes. My father was a butcher, brining is done in stone (or in his case, concrete, because big volume) vats. Also sauerkraut, do that in stone pots."

Lesson learned.