Difficulty: Rating: GCSE Marks:

GCSE Text:
On Christmas day, a piece of turkey needs to be cooked for the correct length of time to ensure it’s cooked thoroughly. The calculation for the time needed is:

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

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

a) What is the cooking time for that piece of turkey?

b) If the family wants the turkey out of the oven at 1:00pm, what time should the turkey be put into the oven to start cooking?

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 more challenging version of this video is available where a second meat needs to be cooked at the same time.

Extension Ideas:
Teachers could extend the learning by considering:

• Create a ‘cooking time’ list for each of the items of a Christmas dinner. If the meal is to be served at 1:30pm (the turkey needs to rest for 30 mins), students need to make a list of when to start cooking each element of the dinner so that it is all cooked and hot ready for 1:30pm.