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Last November, a rather distinguished gentleman-farmer type sauntered into our Bishop’s Stortford shop and announced our turkeys were officially the best in Britain. It turned out to be William Grove Smith, who breeds all our Christmas turkeys on his family farm in Essex. William had just scooped the British Turkey Award for the Best Premium Christmas Turkey of 2013 (fingers crossed for this year). He follows a “plough-to-plate” philosophy, growing all his own wheat and barley to feed the birds, using his farm straw for their daily bedding and recycling their waste as fertilizer for his fields.

We use just the crown of William’s English Rose turkey, folded around our amazing, handmade stuffing of Cumberland sausage meat, apples, chestnuts and cranberries, and wrapped in a lattice of sweet-cured bacon to keep the meat lovely and juicy. Our Prep Team, led by Big Rob, prepare each and every one carefully by hand (you’ll find their team “signature” on the label). At home, it needs defrosting for 48 hours in the fridge before going in the oven. No complex cooking-time calculations are required – it’s done in just over two hours (not forgetting to add half an hour of resting time) – and there’s plenty for eight, because Christmas isn’t the same without a cold turkey sandwich.