Brine is best

A good brine keeps the turkey moist. This recipe was given to OFM by Claude Bosi of the two-Michelin-starred Hibiscus in Mayfair, London.

For one whole 4-5kg turkey
water 5 litres
table salt 300g
rose salt 150g
granulated sugar 150g

On Christmas Eve, boil the salt, rose salt and sugar in the water until it dissolves. Let it cool. Remove the turkey giblets and place the turkey in a large container. Cover the turkey with the brine until completely submerged and leave for 4 hours. Then rinse the bird thoroughly with water, pat dry with a kitchen towel and leave to air-dry overnight.

The best supermarket birds

Quality turkeys are available across the board this Christmas. At the premium end of the market, Harvey Nichols has free-roaming cereal-fed birds from the Copas farm in Berkshire, while on the value side, Lidl is putting 4,000 RSPCA Freedom Food Norfolk turkeys on its shelves on 19 December. It joins Waitrose, Sainsbury and the Co-operative in bidding to show their turkeys needn't be a cut below those from the butcher.

Do your research

Keen to buy your free-range turkey or goose direct from a farmer but not sure if there's one near you? Try Big Barn, which allows you to search a map of the UK for your nearest option, and in many cases place your order straight away online. bigbarn.co.uk/turkey

Wine match: turkey and trimmings

A lighter red or a richer white are the best matches for the turkey-based Christmas dinner. They're wines with enough substance to handle the competing trimmings (and plenty of acidity to cut through the fat and carbs) but without too much tannin to swamp the white meat.

Stéphanie Colinot's luminous-red Irancy Vieilles Vignes, France 2010 (from £18.90, Beaconsfield Wine Cellars, Bottle Apostle, Hoults Wine Merchants, Polygon Wines and the Secret Cellar) from northern Burgundy cleanses like cranberry sauce; while The Millton Vineyards Riverpoint Viognier, Gisbourne, New Zealand 2011 (£12.99, Vintage Roots) is a lush, exotically scented white treat.