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.

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 traveled 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.....