THE BOSS' TOP TIPS

According to Tim, fat is key; you'll need a good layer of it beneath the skin to begin with as your base. You won't need salt, either, to crisp up the crackling. Although salt adds flavour, all you'll really need is for your butcher to finely score the meat. 

Start your oven temp at 200°C, then once the crackling is perfect, lower it to cook the rest of the meat - crackling always cooks quicker. Then, to protect it from burning once it's done, cover the skin in butter paper. 

Contrary to popular belief, don't prick the skin before roasting. If you do, this will only allow the fat to drain out of the bird and the skin will end up soggy. The skin, in actual fact, holds the fat in the right place as it roasts, and as it renders it will baste the meat of the bird as it runs through.

Pork fat makes better roasties than goose or duck, as it's less greasy and helps to crisp up the skin. Be sure to choose your potato carefully - the best choices are Marfona, King Edward and Maris Piper. 

Parboil the potatoes until they're fluffy, an then once drained rattle them around in the pan. Get your chosen fat really hot before placing the potatoes in the pain, otherwise they will struggle to crisp up.

If you're cooking for quite a few people, Rump steak is deal. You can ask your butcher for a whole slice that's 2-3 inches thick. 

Firstly, sear it on a high heat, turning regularly until cooked to your taste, before resting well. Slice on a wooden board at a 45 degree angle and serve with chips or gratin dauphinoise with spinach wilted in a bit of cream and nutmeg.

Tim's perfect gravy is about the best you can find, but the most important part is this: 

Take the juices that are let from any roasted joint of meat to make a stockpot, which you can keep in the fridge, top up, an reuse. To make the gravy from this, remove the roasted joint from the tin, add stock to the meat juice and bring to the boil. Season to taste. 

The perfect stock is also pretty simple; put a whole carcass of roasted chicken in a pot with water,bring to the boil and then place in the oven at 80°C, cover and simmer all day. This will keep in the fridge ready to use as you need. 

Leftovers: According to Tim, the best thing to do with your leftovers is to put your goose, turkey or duck in a pie with smoked back, redcurrant jelly and chestnuts. 

Boxing Day Party: A fantastic shoulder of pork, stuffed with Sauterne-soaked prunes, wrapped in smoked streaky bacon and served with vegetables or salad. 

The Perfect Bread Sauce: Don't scrimp on the butter, add much more than you think you'll need according to the recipe.

Sprouts: Parboil and then fry with smoked streaky bacon and chestnuts. 

Cranberry sauce: Even if you buy the sauce from a jar, spice it up a little with a squeeze of orange juice, orange zest and a splash of port. 

And lastly, what does Tim eat at Christmas? Botterills 100-day Duck or Goose with red cabbage, roast potatoes and gravy.

Always use a metal container to cook Yorkshires, as it will reach a higher temperature than any other material. It is also very important to pour the batter into your metal dish when it is both hot and contains hot fat.

With the exception of bacon, meat needs circulating air in the fridge so as not to spoil, so it’s best to remove meat from its packaging once you get it home – think about how we display meat in our counters; this is how it keeps best.

If you’ve got plenty of space in the fridge, it will be fine on a plate at the bottom, not touching any other foods (store different meats separately).

If you’re tight on space, place meat on top of some kitchen paper in a clean, sealed, plastic container. Here are a few tips and a guideline to how long meat should keep – though the sooner you can eat something, the better.

- Make sure your fridge is running between 1-4 °C.

- Don’t overfill your fridge, otherwise it won’t maintain the correct temperature

- Store meat at the bottom of the fridge. Not only does this reduce the risk of cross contamination, but it’s the coldest part too.

- Never, ever mix cooked or ready to eat food with raw meat, unless you’re making a fine steak tartare!

 
STORAGE GUIDE

If you have asked for your meat to be vacuum-packed it will last a lot longer. It isn't ideal (especially for beef) as it pulls out those all important juices from the meat but it is very helpful if you are worried about shelf life and lasts a good week. 

Before you go shopping for beef, you must understand what cuts from different parts of the animal can give you in your kitchen.There's no point in trying to flash fry a tougher cut with more cartilage that is best for braising. The hard-worked muscles - such as those from the leg, neck and shoulder regions - are tasty and with good fat content. They need longer, slower, moist cooking and take well to casseroles and pot roasts.

The less-worked muscles such as rump and fore rib - are packed with flavour and are best for grilling, pot-roasting and roasting. 

The muscles that do no heavy work - such as the sirloin and fillet - are very tender and need very little cooking. Just a quick flash-searing or grilling are fine. 

Pork is best cooked on the bone with its fat, as both bones and fat deepens the flavour and enrich the final dish. The importance of pork fat cannot be underestimated; it gives sweeter, better flavoured meat, bastes the pork in the oven and stops it drying out. So never trim the fat from pork before cooking. It can be trimmed off on your plate if you prefer, after its done its work.

If cooked properly and slowly, pork fat will melt, seep through the meat and then disappear into the cooking juices from where it can be skimmed off, leaving a sweet, tender, juicy piece of pork and a greaseless sauce. This is vastly different from lean, fast growing varieties of pork that too often come at a suspiciously bargain price.