"How to roast a turkey?"

Invite a bunch of his friends over, ply them with drinks, then let the roast begin.

Absolutely, in a black enamel pan. I think it is the easiest meal for 30 or 40 people you can make. I always have somewhere between 30-45 people at Thanksgiving and for about 20 straight hours- it's my holiday. It always has been because my Mom's birthday is Nov. 25 and I am the oldest daughter. We are strictly traditional European immigrants and my father LOVES to Thank God for America. It became our big holiday- period!

Too much about me- I know. But I want to give you context of how long and how much of the time I have been doing this. Over 40 years, and I had a Father in law that literally died trying to get to my house for turkey.

The stuffed 22 lbs. bird should fit with the lid- if you take everything else out of the oven- even the shelves.

And I always have two ovens and one is for everything else. Or I use a portable convection oven for vegetables.

The timing most everyone else uses to do turkey does not jive with the black enamel pan and lid method. It also keeps all the juices in and you NEVER baste or anything else. It's the easiest method in the world. The time is highly reduced with the black metal and the turkey stays moist and literally falls off the bone.

The hardest part of the entire process is getting everything out to make the gravy. This makes SO much of that and it is easier to de-fat as well.

My entire time to cook when turkey is stuffed, in the pan, and ready for the oven is at the most 5 to 5-1/2 hours at 325. You DO NOT lift the lid. The skin browns and curls- and they get in line to fight over skin. It has become a contest. This year I'm moving down a generation as the last member from my kid's generation just graduated from grad school.

New rules.
Now first in line will be the youngest generation, my grandchildren and peers who are starting to hit the double digits. Their arteries can still take it.

I still have visions of my mother, when I was a child, plucking feathers from a 50 lb. turkey. She gave up and bought a store bought bird.

I love reading all these replies! I've tried the grocery bag roasting and it was delicious. I usually use a rack in a roaster pan, onions, celery, and white wine in the pan, foil tent, and lots of basting. My Mom usually puts onions and celery in the cavity--dressing in a separate dish. Try putting a thin layer of dressing under the skin over the breast--thin so it will cook through (a British friend of mine does this) and you get a thin layer of dressing on the turkey slices when you serve it.
I tried brining last year--seemed like a lot of work for not much change in flavor or moisture.

John, is this your "thank you for topping this thread"?? :-p

What a bunch of turkeys :)

Gobble gobble... ;;)

What a great thread. The secret to a beautifully browned, crisp-skinned, moist turkey in our family is a good slathering of mayo all over, followed by lots of spices. The turkey is cooked covered or tented under foil for most of the time. The last 45 mins. or so the cover is lifted, the foil removed and the final crisping is done.

If you don't have a rack, you can make a turkey harness, so to speak, by making straps out of foil and putting one close to the tail and one close to the head, or where the head would be. When the turkey is done, just lift it out with the straps. Just make sure that you use a few layers of foil for each strap.
((c))

Reynolds turkey bag---very moist and so easy.

I will only roast turkey with Reynold's roasting bags. Just did one last month. Skin was crispy. I use one of those basting suction tubes to suck up most of the juices and release the juices in a pan for gravy.

The bag is the ultimate. You get wonderful drippings (esp. if you add some onions, carrots to the bottom of the bag), the turkey cooks faster, juicier, lovely brown, clean up is sooo much easier--I've converted everyone who's ever been to my dinners, AND the bag is so great I make turkeys many times per year. I've been cooking 20+ pounders for decades, and the gravy is terrific too.
THE BAG!!

OK, this thread is really funny. "in-laws will be Traveling to my house..."

:)

Like many others, I've become paranoid about cooking stuffing inside the bird. But I've found a way to get that "inside-the-bird' flavor. I remove the giblets from the bird as soon as possible and simmer them for a few hours with water, garlic cloves, celery leaves, and some poultry seasoning. I strain and reserve the stock. When sauteeeing my onions, celery and mushrooms, I really skimp on the butter. I mix the vegetables with packaged stuffing cubes and moisten with the stock and place the mixture in a caserole and refrigerate. (This can be done a day in advance). When the turkey comes out of the oven, I pour a couple of spoonsful of the drippings over the stuffing and pop it in the oven. The stuffing cooks while the bird rests and the gravy is made.
I haven't heard any complaints.

I really don't worry about the stuffing being cooked in the turkey as I have been doing it for about 40 years with no problem! This is one made with oysters (cooked first), butter and eggs, too. I do the stuffing Thanksgiving morning right before I put the bird in the oven, roast the whole shebang until the turkey is very done, and the stuffing is steaming hot. I have never had a problem, and among my friends who stuff their turkeys, none have either. :-)

So don't be afraid to stuff your turkey; I think it's definitely more flavorful that way ... but do it at the last minute, and refrigerate leftovers as soon as dinner is over.

I have used Alton Brown's (Good Eats on Food Network) method for cooking the bird a couple times and liked how it turned out. You heat the oven to 500 Degrees and cook it for 30 mins then drop the temperature to 350 and cover the breasts with foil for the remainder. It gets that great roasted look without drying it out.

Hmm...Can't believe it's already this time of year.

My thoughts after 30 years of cooking:

Cook turkey so its done a couple of hours AHEAD of dinner. Avoids last minute rush, Allows turkey to cool for easy carving

Don't overcook-hate dry turkey

I no longer cook stuffing in turkey-- it's easier and safer in pans plus you can make different flavors

Have an electric carving knife--but actually carve turkey--don't hack it up

Cheap turkeys are as good as expensive brand names.

The cook likes red or white wine while cooking!

Fairhope: I like your comment about the cooks like red or white wine in the kitchen!! A friend of mine is cooking for her husband's extended family and is dreading it. I told her just have a few glasses of wine in the kitchen while basting the turkey and then you won't care who likes who and so on....You can then enjoy your own holiday!LOL!!

Yes, but one year the cook drank a little too much red wine and burned her hand making gravy.

The black enamel roasting pan works like the bag exactly for cover/seal/juice evaporation etc- plus you don't have to rebuy the bag or have multiple gravy pans.

Great idea about the harness. I used to do that but don't anymore- too lazy and I get the biggest guy to lift it out with these humongous ladels/forks I have.

Yes, let it sit outside for at least an hour before carving. And I do remove all the stuffing before carving.

I'm with you bonniebroad about the stuffing, and put it into the neck and thigh skin pockets as well.

Just curious -- did the OP ever come back to tell us how it went?

Our holiday get-togethers got MUCH bigger after our children married into larger families, so I started keeping a record for each year. Who was there, size of turkey, timing, what else we had, and best of all, what I thought worked and what didn't. It's come in very handy!

For Christmas this year, I'm going to try the recipe from November 05 Gourmet (can't find a link). They cook the turkey at 450, and had excellent results. For Thanksgiving, we'll be at my vegetarian daughter's house: she's buying a ready-to-roast turkey from Whole Foods, and all you have to do is put it in the oven!

Just don't do what I did one year: put the turkey into the oven and set it to turn on an hour later, while we went to friends for a neighborhood party. Came home about 4pm to find the oven still stone cold, the turkey totally uncooked. Aargh! :-( After a desperation call to the turkey hotline, we finally ate about 8 pm. Thank goodness for wine with cooking... ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Fresh vs. frozen turkey breast? Anyone think there's truly a difference? I ask because I picked up a frozen turkey breast today, being too lazy to drive to another store for a fresh one! Since our family is small, I just do the largest turkey breast I can find. No one here will touch the dark meat.
What about favorite wines you'd TRAVEL to buy and serve with traditional Thanksgiving feast?

Done the covered pan thing. Done the brown paper bag. Done the tin foil tent. Done the basting. But for me the very bestest turkey has come from some tips I read in Chatelaine Magazine about 6 years ago.

First, poke a layer of stuffing under the skin over the breast (very easy, as it stretches away quite well). This will help the breast from drying out. Then roast the turkey upside down for the first hour (more for a very large turkey). This means the thighs and bottom cook more quickly so you don't have a turkey with nice breasts and bloody thighs, the juices run down to moisten the breast and you get more and browner drippings and the bottom of the turkey is crispy as well as the top. Then flip it over (easier said than done - this usually means grabbing it with a clean pair of oven mitts for the job - which immediately go into the washing machine). Finish roasting right side up. DO NOT COVER - EVER! Add chicen broth to the bottom of the pan as required to keep the drippings from scorching. Baste if you wish. Perfect perfect every time.

I love the suggestion here to line the cavity with cheesecloth before stuffing for a quick pullout of the dressing - gotta try that for Christmas this year. That would also have the advantage of giving you a cheesecloth flap to keep the dressing from spilling into the pan during cooking. Since the skin that's left on the darn bird never seems to be enough to do the job.

My personal favourite tip to make clean up easier is to use bamboo skewers (you know - the kind that come in a bag of about a million of them for $1.00) instead of metal ones. Then you just pull them out and throw them away. Not to mention that, when you inevitably poke in a skewer and it hits bone, leaving too much sticking out, you can just snip it off with kitchen shears.

Gosh - I'm hungry!

I am not sure there is such a thing as a fresh turkey any more. Two years ago I ordered a fresh turkey from a butcher and when he handed it to me it was frozen. Naturally I pointed this out to him!! He said it was "fresh frozen". So I suppose they leave the other turkeys sitting around until they are stale and then freeze them?
Does any one remember burning off the pin feathers and what a stink that made! That was a fresh turkey!!

I probably got into the wine early, but something possessed me to order a free range turkey this year. Will let you know if a turkey that has been trash-picking for food is any better than one that gets Purina Turkey Chow on demand.

Fairhope,

I remember my mom doing that - you are so right - whatta smell.

When we first moved into our country property, we raised both chickens and turkeys. The first year, we slaughtered and plucked ourselves - ended up with a lot of birds with ankle bracelets of feathers (and what a horrible job!). Needless to say, the next year we shipped them all off to a local abattoir for slaughter! We always used to slaughter turkeys just a day or so before Thanksgiving so we had a fresh bird for T-day. But, quite frankly, I never saw much difference between the Thanksgiving turkey (fresh) and the one that had been frozen for Xmas. But then, God knows how long the frozen ones you buy have been in the freezer. The really big difference we noticed is that we finished our birds off with straight corn feed for the last few weeks and that gave a bigger, fatter, crisper bird (and forget free range - free range translates to "free pickings" for the foxes, coyotes, wild dogs and various other varmints).

One year we had a huge tom that dressed out at 39 pounds! We took it to my brother's house for T-day. It wouldn't fit in the oven! So we high-tailed it to his hunt camp where they had a huge old Findlay wood stove. While we were there, a number of his hunting buddies and sundry family and friends showed up (final number was 36 for dinner). That turkey cooked in just over 3 hours in the woodstove and was the juciest, crispest and tastiest bird I ever enjoyed! What a wonderful thanksgiving that was. 5 generations of relatives, friends and strangers sharing an awesome day of sunshine, autumn leaves, fun and the best turkey ever.

Thanks for helping me remember that day!

My dad had a toy store and got a 26 lbs from a farmer in exchange but never a 39 lb--wow what a wish bone that would be!!

Fairhope - we drew numbers for the priviledge of pulling the wishbone. The kid who eventually won and got the big end wished for a new Milli Vanilli tape!

All part of the memories! LOL

I feel compelled to mention the lazy person's way of cooking turkey. On Thanksgiving and Christmas we have roast turkey with all the trimmings, but other times of the year, this way is a snap: get a little Butterball boneless breast (I think they're about 3 pounds) and put it FROZEN into a crockpot with one can of Swanson's chicken broth. You'll have to peel the little frozen gravy package off the side first. Cook it on low all day (7, 8 or more hours) and it's absolutely delicious!

Based on recommendations in this thread, I decided to try the Reynold's bag this year. One of the local grocery chains had fresh Perdue turkeys for 99 cents a lb. As there were only three of us, I got the smallest I could find, just over 11 lbs. The bag was a little large for such a small turkey. I think that might have made getting it out a little more awkward. But, on the whole, we were very pleased with the results. Very moist and great gravy!

So thanks to Judyrem and anyone else who recommended that method (not up to reading back through the whole thread at this point!).

Plain old grocery store brown paper bag works just as well. ((b))

Yes, I can remember, in the era of extended families, that it was Aunt Sarah's job to burn off the pin feathers. Disgusting smell.

I did something different this year for the turkey that <b>traveled</b> to our house for dinner. Someone mentioned above that Gourmet's November '05 issue had an article about this method, but I haven't seen the magazine. I used the high heat method from the website below after hearing the chef on a local radio talk show.

www.chefmarc.com

Brined our bird beforehand. Without a doubbt the best turkey I ever roasted.

Like, PamSF, I've been making the stuffing from the Silver Palate Cookbook for zillions of years. It's always a hit. Looking forward to leftovers tonight! Yea!

topping for Starrsville; the game can be played by more than one player!

You are so kind!
Have you read Budman's request on the oil thread?

You all are so naughty. Budman uses a brown paper bag to roast his turkey but can you wrap it in foil and roast it on the car engine on the way to Grandmas?

that's the most unbelievable recipe for roasting a turkey i've ever seen.....contradictory to all i've ever observed. i've cooked maybe one, (at 52!!!) but watched them all. Too many chefs in my family......i can hardly wait to try this and outsmart them all.....