Tom Allen: "I ended up charring the turkey on a dirty BBQ"
Last year, I bought a rotisserie for the barbecue and decided it would be a lovely idea to cook our turkey on it on Christmas Day. I like to believe I’m quite good at cooking and I thought, ‘This will be fun – no one’s ever tried this before.’
On Christmas morning, I realised neither my partner, Alfie, nor I had cleaned the barbecue since using it in the summer, so it was filthy and needed a complete scrubbing down. Had
I factored that into the day’s schedule? Of course not.
We had 10 people due over, including my mum, my brother, his partner and their young kids. We plied them with drinks and crisps to distract them from the delay – and my attempt to wrestle the turkey on to the rotisserie. I’d marinated it with a dry rub of salt, sugar, herbs and lots of butter. As the butter dripped on to the coals, it was like pouring petrol on a fire, and flames flew up, completely charring the bird. I’d also decided to cook the potatoes in foil directly on the coals, but with the dripping fat turning the barbecue into an incinerator, they essentially turned into pieces of coal.
By the time we sat down to eat our very dry, very smokey turkey, everyone was drunk on novelty baubles filled with very strong pre-mixed cocktails gifted to us by a friend!
Tom’s podcast, Like Minded Friends With Tom Allen & Suzi Ruffell, is available on all major podcast providers.
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