Well tonight our family had an Xmas dinner disaster.

The M&S Prawn & Salmon Appetizer was lovely.
The Baxters Chicken Broth was great as usual.

However the main event the M&S Free Range Turkey Crown with Pork & Sage Stuffing did not cook properly as per the cooking instructions.

Cooked the bird/joint for the recommended 2 hrs 45 mins @ 180 deg in Conventional oven. Basted at required intervals. Left to rest for 30 mins as per instructions after cooking.
When I came to carve the top inch under the surface was pink and undercooked. Put back in oven for extra 30 mins and it still wasn't right. Gave up on it. All the veg, trimmings, sauces & gravy were ready at original time and on a hot plate. Ate them and they were fine but missed the turkey.

M&S desserts were lovely, wine, coffee & Single Malt Whisky superb.

Wanted to spend New Year with family rather than in hospital with food poisoning.

Am going to take this up with M&S tomorrow. The Turkey crown was not cheap.


Hope everyone else had better results than we did.

Have you checked your oven for accurate temperature?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tala-4104-TA...tp_s2_edpp_url

Really don't think it was my oven as the garnishes (pigs in blankets & cranberry and stuffing bites) cooked to perfection in oven while joint was resting.

A meat thermometer is your friend. The reccomended cooking time is just that. Individual ovens and chunks of meat will vary. It's a shame your meal was spoilt, but on the upside, think of all the extra sandwiches, curries and pies you can have!

If it was a medium crown, that time at 180 sounds more than adequate, unless when basting the oven door was open for a while and caused the temperature to drop considerably each time?

Was the stuffing inside the bird? I would rather do stuffing separately myself. But still, they will have allowed for the extra cooking time for stuffing.

I would recommend checking your oven before doing another. A simple sponge mix is a good test for an oven too.

We basted 3 times, once prior to putting it in oven as per instructions and at 40 and 20 mins out as instructed adding a few mins to cooking time after each basting. Stuffing was within joint.

The fact we gave it an extra 30 mins and it still wasn't properly cooked under the bacon on the surface.

Everything else cooked correctly in our 2 ovens apart from the Turkey Crown.

I expect they will refund you for the turkey - but I would still check that oven if it was me.

Small items might cook ok at a lower than normal temperature.

Being quite a large mass, the crown needs consistent penetration by adequate heat.

Stuffing inside birds is not recommended these days, because it can lead to inadequate cooking within the cavity - I'm surprised M&S did that.

Hope you get a full refund.

Thanks.
So do I.
Will report the outcome.

refund are you serious, all you have to do is just wait for the bloody bird to cook, i ever go with the rules of the packet, I'm such a good cook i use my eyes to see if food is cooked,instructions are there for guidelines only, common people use your common sense.

So do you think I'm unaware of anything that you've told me?

Such is the wonder of the Internet, that I posted just the above on another thread, and was told that: "the cooking instructions on the pack always cook things perfectly". I didn't ask for, or invite, that opinion either.

However, none of this incredible wisdom is relevant to the fact that the OP has experience difficulties having followed the M&S advice, plus extra time, and so intends to make a complaint.

As M&S have a policy of not arguing with customers who are dissatisfied, as do most of the supermarkets, I would think the OP will get a refund.

No doubt the OP will read your gracious and erudite advice and decide whether you have actually added anything to this thread that is worth making further comment on.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please do not hesitate to let me know.

The bacon will leave a pinky tinge and does not necessarily mean the turkey isn't cooked. Did the juices run clear and was the turkey piping hot all the way through?

That happened to us years ago. My gran suggested that pork sausages would be just as nice with the turkey accompaniments, so we quickly cooked some. Several of us thought they were tastier than turkey! We left the turkey on low for about 3 hours, with lots of basting, and had it for the evening meal.

It just didn't look right even after additional cooking and I wasn't prepared to serve it to others and risk illness. There was a slight improvement in colour under the surface of the crown after additional cooking. Didn't do the juice test. You can only keep diners waiting so long before cutting your losses and move on.

Quite.

Is that what you are "going to take this up with M&S tomorrow"? I wonder if they will think they are liable for your foolishness. I doubt it. Good luck though.
A skewer or knife into the bird would have taken seconds. About two of them. You are right though

Re. juice test. The joint was cooked in its own foil tray. The juices amassed in base of tray. So by following cooking instructions and giving joint extra cooking time you think i'm a fool? How do you think i attempted to carve the joint? Answer: with a carving knife. Any other stupid comments?

I never do the fresh veg until the bird is cooked and resting (the spuds and parsnips go in in advance, as they don't spoil by being kept warm) . It sometimes means we eat late, but we do get the full works.

This really paid off one year when the gas pressure was so low the turkey was nearly 2 hours late. We were p!ssed and ravenous by the time we ate, and it was one of the best Christmases I've had.

I also think it slows things down when there's loads of other stuff in the oven. I always do my spuds and snips in the smaller top oven, and just the bird and trimmings in the big one.

I'm surprised at this with an M&S crown though. SiL bought 3 when we cooked 2 years ago, and they were done in record time. We had to keep them warm for ages. We cooked them in the smaller oven of the 2 and reckon it wasn't quite the right temperature, but she was insistent her £3.5k Rangemaster cooker worked perfectly.

ETA: Like she'd know. Everything's from Aunt Bessie, she's never cooked from scratch in her life. Complete waste of a good cooker, just to heat up pizzas and oven chips!

Oven temp was wrong.

Or the turkey was frozen. Hang on, it wasn't was it OP?

apart from my spelling mistakes i stad y what i said, i accidentally dropped alcohol o my keyboard,so my keyboard is ot working properly.

all the op had to do is just wait till the turkey is cooked or he should have cooked the turkey o Christmas eve i like did.

For the past several years we've had the M&S stuffed turkey crown and it's always cooked perfectly by following the instructions on the pack. This year, as there are only 3 of us for most of Christmas, we got the M&S Turkey Breast and, again, it cooked perfectly by following the instructions provided (in fact, it was lovely and moist and succulent).

As others have said, I wonder if your oven temperature is out. The stuffing and pigs in blankets would probably still cook okay, but the turkey would never get up to the right temperature. I remember cooking a leg of lamb in my mother's old oven when the seal needed replacing and the roast potatoes were fine, but the lamb was barely touched by the end of the cooking time.

Surely it would have made sense to check the bird before resting? to leave it and then check afterwards seems a bit pointless
But what do I know, Im a veggie

Was a time we never read the packs we knew by looking at a joint how long to cook it, quite sad reading this that we seem to have lost that ability and started to blame the shop we bought the joint from when it doesn't cook quick enough.

As others have said the bacon will leave the meat under it slightly pink, and a skewer test would tell you if it was cooked properly.

Exactly our parents didn't need times and temps on packets to cook and the skewer test was how my mum and dad tested whether it was cooked or not,

The man or woman probably got the Fahrenheit from their Centigrade mixed up

My oven packed up!!

It depends on the size of the Crown but unless it was a seriously big crown 3 hours should be enough at a 180 Deg C. Sounds more like a problem with your oven,. Also did you pre heat the oven

Just in case if it was frozen it would need defrosting first which could take a couple of days