Do you have one?
Here's one I've used for years. I only urge caution if your oven fluctuates or is unreliable in temperature, or if you think the power will go out for some reason during the course of baking.
Take your bird, get it all ready to roast (stuff it just before you are prepared to bake it). Spray it with cooking oil spray. Put it in a large pan, preferably on a rack of sorts.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (moderately hot oven). Bake the turkey for 1 hour. This kills any bad bugs on the skin.
Now turn the heat down to 190 degrees, and bake it for one hour per pound. A 20-pound turkey bakes for 20 hours. (Don't worry! 190 degrees is safe and very effective for long-term cooking.) This is the same for stuffed/unstuffed turkeys. Take it out, let sit for about 15 min or so, and then carve.
Benefits: you can get the bird baking well before the panic of Thursday hits. There is no splattering all over the oven. You never need to baste it, not even once. Once it's in the oven, you can forget about it till T-day dinner. The skin comes out perfectly brown. The drippings are more plentiful and better for gravy than anything I've dealt with before. You can let the turkey stay up to 2 hours longer, if needed, and it won't hurt it at all. And it is MOIST, not dry!
If you want to try this recipe on a large turkey , start thawing it now (if it's still frozen) so that you can put it in the oven on Wednesday at the right time. (Calculate time carefully.)
Drawbacks: you wake up on Thursday am, and the whole house smells like a roasted turkey. It's very hard to wait until dinner!!!
Do you have a turkey recipe--or other special recipe--to share?
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