Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
On Christmas day, a piece of turkey and a piece of beef needs to be cooked for the correct length of time to ensure they are cooked thoroughly. The calculation for the time needed for turkey is:

90 mins of cooking time + 20 mins extra per kg of weight of the turkey

The calculation for the time needed for beef is:

20 mins of cooking time + 30 mins extra per kg of weight of the beef

A family has a piece of turkey that weighs 5kg and a piece of beef that weighs 2kg.

a) How long should each piece of meat stay in the oven?

b) If the family wants the both meats out of the oven at 1:00pm, what time should the turkey be put into the oven, and what time should the beef be put in the oven?

Suggestions:
This video is a very real example of maths in everyday family life, but often students haven’t thought about how mum or dad calculate cooking time of any food. Discussions often follow about hygiene and how to prepare safe and healthy food. Even though the total cooking time in minutes is quite straight forward, it is useful to get students to convert their answer into hours and minutes.  A simpler ‘turkey only’ video is also available.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• The beef calculation is based on ‘rare’ cooking style. Half of the family want their beef to be well done, meaning that their beef will need an extra 15 minutes of cooking time. How does that affect the plan for cooking all the meat for today’s dinner?