If you’re going for the traditional turkey there are lots of ways to bring out some extra flavour. You could marinate it overnight with squeezed orange juice and cloves for extra moistness. Or try placing strips of streaky bacon over the top of the turkey while cooking. And of course, chipolata sausages wrapped in bacon are a lovely salty side dish.

Don’t forget the stuffing!
Duncan Boak, our Fifth Sense Founder, dishes. I use to laugh at my Dad when he insisted on eating pickled walnuts at Christmas but now I really know what he saw in them – vinegar and texture galore. suggest this variant on roast potatoes – par boil them then shake them in the pan and roll them in oats for Scottish Burns Night inspired roasties. Yum.

How about a ham?

Either for your main Christmas dinner or the perfect Boxing Day lunch, try boiling a ham in apple juice or, as Nigella suggests, in coca cola – crazy sounding though it is, cooking in coke makes for a particularly tasty and succulent ham, with extra sweetness and texture added by liberally painting it with treacle! Perhaps you should hear from the woman herself…
Or a nut roast will include gorgeous crunchy nuts, flavour and protein for a delicious alternative.

There’s a reason why we often serve accompaniments with our main dish – cranberry sauce offers a fresh tanginess while horseradish gives a fiery flavour to the blandest of meats. Then you have all sorts of pickles and chutneys to go with your salads and cold dishes. I use to laugh at my Dad when he insisted on eating pickled walnuts at Christmas but now I really know what he saw in them – vinegar and texture galore.