What is the perfect turkey to buy for Christmas? A happy, well-bred one, of course. KellyBronze turkeys are free-range, but you should also look out for organic birds.

Allow 350g-450g per person when choosing your Christmas turkey if it weighs less than 4.5kg. If you’re buying a bigger bird, allow 200g-350g per person, but make sure it will fit in the oven.

If you have the oven room, it is easier to roast a bird unstuffed. However, nonmeat stuffings taste best cooked in the bird. If you are stuffing the bird’s neck with a meat stuffing, calculate the cooking time according to the weight of the bird once it has been stuffed.

To cook, allow 20 minutes per 450g, plus an extra 20 minutes. If the turkey weighs more than 6.75kg, allow 15 minutes per 450g, plus 15 minutes.

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Set the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Fan ovens should be turned to 160C/320F/Gas Mark 2. Take your turkey out of the fridge 2 hours before you intend to cook it.

Serves 8-10 people (with leftovers)

4kg bronze-feathered free-range turkey, plus your chosen stuffing
1 lemon, halved
85g softened unsalted butter
1 large onion, halved
Olive oil

Heat the oven (as above). Begin by making the stuffing. Once you’ve done that, wash and pat dry the turkey, inside and out. Pull out any unsightly pin feathers, rub the bird all over with the lemon juice halves, squeezing the juice into its skin, then season.

Once the stuffing is cool, loosen the bird’s skin with your hands and pack the stuffing into the neck end, between the flesh and the skin towards the breast. Do not pack it too tight or it will burst. Secure the neck flap under the turkey’s back with wooden cocktail sticks.

Do not place any stuffing in the bird’s cavity, as, according to current thinking, this increases the risk of food poisoning. Instead, put the halved onion inside.

Place the turkey, breast side down, onto a lightly oiled nonstick roasting tray. Melt the butter, then splash it all over the back and legs of the bird.

Once you have finished the turkey, line a nonstick bread tin with buttered foil and pack with the excess stuffing. Seal the foil. This can be baked separately at the same temperature. Place in the oven an hour before you are ready to serve.

I recommend cooking the turkey breast down until the last 40 minutes, as, although the bird will look slightly squashed, it will have a moist breast.

A KellyBronze turkey needs little basting or protection, but an ordinary British white turkey needs basting every 30-40 minutes, and a loose sheet of foil to protect its back from burning. Either way, you’ll get lots of flavoursome gravy.

Place in the oven and roast according to your calculations (see above). Forty minutes before the bird is ready, take it out, protect your clothes and arms, then grab the turkey’s legs with 2 cloths and turn it over. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of its body, between the thigh and body.

Return the bird to the oven, breast side up. Once 75C/167F is reached on the thermometer, or the juices run clear from the thickest part of the thigh, the bird can be removed from the oven. Transfer to a warm serving dish, loosely cover with 2 sheets of foil and leave to rest while you make the gravy and finish the trimmings. Turn up the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 (180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 if fan-assisted) to finish your vegetables, sausages and stuffing. Serve the turkey once you have everything ready.

WHERE TO GET YOUR BIRD

— KellyBronze turkey, for the most gamey, dense-fleshed bird around. From £60.25; www.kelly-turkeys.com

— Free-range organic turkey, hand-plucked and hung for at least a fortnight.From £70; www.copas.co.uk/turkey

— An organic free-range bird, from one of the most experienced organic producers (in its 20th year).From £40.95; www.graigfarm.co.uk

— Free-range Blue Slate turkey is the most sumptuous in the supermarkets. £7 per kg, from Asda

— Fortnum & Mason’s free-range turkey comes with its own device to show when it is done.From £63; www.fortnumandmason.com

IT’S HOW BIG?

Never mind avian flu – the nation is suffering from turducken syndrome (as in turkey, duck, chicken), the craze of eating not one bird at Christmas, but three or more, boned, stuffed and tucked inside each other like an edible Russian doll. There’s barely a mail-order farm shop or food hall in Britain that isn’t offering complex culinary taxidermy.

One of the best options comes from Seldom Seen Farm, in Leicestershire, which makes 2,600 goose-chicken-pheasant combos a year, stuffed with pork and orange (about £15 per kilo; www.seldomseenfarm.co.uk).

Selfridges also does a fine goose/chicken/pheasant with truffled pata negra pork, apricot and foie gras (£180), and there’s a good version with apple and apricot stuffing from Booths (£60).

This year’s award for bird innovation, however, goes to Heal Farm (www.healfarm.co.uk), an ethical-farming pioneer and award-winning multibird veteran, which has brought out the first 12-bird roast. It weighs 25kg (55lb), contains breast meat from 48 birds, takes 10 hours to cook and is too large for all but the biggest domestic oven. It also costs £665 – not bad when you consider it feeds 125. Just think: you can invite all the neighbours over for lunch. Bet you can’t wait.

Lucas Hollweg

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