Recipe(tried): How to Cook a Turkey

There are several ways to cook a turkey. I normally do them in an oven cooking bag, because I often don't have the time for basting. If you do, then the cheese cloth and butter or shortening works well as does the foil tent. Often you may need both. Either will give you a lovely turkey. What will ruin the turkey is over cooking.

Be sure to put the turkey into the oven with the drumsticks and open cavity closest to the rear of the oven. Normally, that's the hottest part of the oven and you do not want the breast there, but the dark meat, which will take longer to cook. Here's some information from file I posted on a forum in CompuServe.

How to Cook Your Turkey:

There is more than one way to do this. The one-temperature
moderate heat method, the high heat at the beginning or end
method, the high heat all the way through method, in a bag or out of a bag and even encased in salt. Just remember that no matter how you decide to prepare it, someone, trying to be helpful, is bound to tell you that their mother or grand mother did it differently, and always had perfect turkey. This person may even be your mother or grand mother. Make your decision and stick with it. :)

*You will need* a pan, a meat thermometer, a long handled
spoon and/or a baster, kitchen string, aluminum foil, softened butter or margarine or oil and seasonings, a rack is optional but a V-shaped one is preferable if you choose to use one.

If you haven't checked your oven's temperature gauge
recently, do it now. Buy an oven thermometer, place it in the oven, set the oven to 325-deg. And when the temperature is reached, check the inside thermometer to see where the
temperature actually is. Adjust your baking accordingly or call in the repair man.

*The Pan:* The best pan for roasting turkey is a thick,
heavy gauge metal pan with 2-inch sides and just large enough that the turkey can fit without touching any sides. If the sides are too high the bottom of the turkey will not brown and will steam and not bake. The foil pans, sold at grocery stores, are not the best pan. They are too thin. If you must use one, use two instead, one inside the other.

*Prepare the bird*: Remove the giblets from the body and neck cavity. Look! Look again! There may be more than one bag and it's not at all unusual to hear stories of the cook who left the bag of giblets in the turkey. Don't let this be you.

Rinse and dry the turkey. If the turkey is huge, you may want to wipe it down with damp paper towels. Sprinkle the inside well with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you may wish. If you're going to stuff the turkey, just use the salt and pepper as your stuffing should have the necessary seasonings.

Bring the bird to room temperature. If not all of the cooking times in the charts below will be off.

Stuffing: At this point, the differences begin. Some people prefer to loosen the skin of the bird, gently with their fingers, and place the stuffing under the skin. The simplest way is to put the stuffing into the cavity of the turkey. It all depends on how you like it to be done. From a heart-healthy perspective, it's best to not stuff the bird (or not eat the stuffing) but cook the stuffing (now called dressing) separately in another oven. Fold the wings back, secure the neck flap. You can use a tooth pick for this if it isn't long enough. Use kitchen string to loosely tie the legs. You don't want them too tight as this can prevent the inside thighs from cooking procgiy. You can also make a slit in the tail skin to tuck the tips of the legs through, which will hold them very well.

Rub the bird well with softened butter or margarine or oil and place it into the pan or sack.

*How to Cook it* Again, differences: Some prefer to place the bird breast side down in the beginning, on a rack. This means that you will have to turn the bird while it's hot.

It's a two person process if the bird is large. It's up to you, I cook mine breast side up the whole way and cover with foil, if the breast is beginning to over brown. Baste the bird every 30 to 45 minutes, unless you are using an oven cooking bag. In the beginning there will be little juice, and you may want to use melted butter or oil for this.

Place the bird on the next to bottom rack or bottom rack for a large bird, in a pre-heated (325-deg. F. or 350-deg. F.) oven with the feet closest to the rear of the oven. This is the hottest part of an oven and the drumsticks and thighs need more heat to cook through. If one part of the bird is browning too quickly (usually the wings), cover with foil. Tent the bird about two-thirds of the way through cooking time to prevent it from over browning. Check for doneness about an hour before the end of the suggested cooking times.

*Cooking Times*
Turkey wt. In pounds Stuffed Unstuffed
8 - 12 pounds 3-4 hrs. Subtract 20-40 minutes
12 - 16 pounds 4-4.5 hrs. Subtract 20-40 minutes
16 - 20 pounds 4.5-5 hrs. Subtract 20-40 minutes
20 - 26 pounds 5-6 hrs. Subtract 20-40 minutes
At 350-deg. F.
Turkey wt. in pounds unstuffed stuffed
8-12 3-3.5 hrs. 2-3/4 to 3 hrs.
12-14 3.5-4 hrs. 3 to 3-3/4 hrs.
14-18 4-4.5 hrs. 3.75 to 4.25 hrs.
18-20 4.25-4.5 hrs. 4.25-4.75 hrs.
20-24 4.75-5.25 hrs. 4.5-5 hrs.

*Cooking Bag Method* (Be sure to use commercial oven cooking bags for this purpose as many of the brown grocery store bags are now made of recycled paper and may contain things that you do not wish near the food you plan to eat.)

Again, courtesy of Ann Criswell of the "Houston Chronicle" in her 11/15/95 article:

"Oven-bag roasting: With an oven roasting bag, the oven and pan stays clean, and the cooking time is cut by about one-third, a real consideration when you're preparing a big stuffed turkey. The meat also stays very moist.

You also can use an oven-roasting bag to prepare turkey in the microwave oven. Preheat the conventional oven to 350-deg. F.

Place the oven-roasting bag in a sturdy roasting pan large enough to contain the bag as it puffs up during cooking.

Place the stuffed turkey in the bag. Close bag with a strips of plastic cut off the end, leaving a quarter size opening. Insert the meat thermometer through bag and through the breast of the turkey, into the center of the stuffing so not to let it touch any bone.

Place the bird in a preheated oven and cook according to the suggested timetable. Start checking for doneness before the end of the suggested time. To determine tenderness, stick a fork into the thick portions of meat through the bag.

When the turkey tests done, remove the pan from the oven and let the turkey cool slightly before handling. Open the bag, carefully, as steam may escape, and remove the juices to make gravy. Let the turkey sit about 30 minutes before carving."

*Cooking Times*: A stuffed 8- to 12-pound turkey takes about 2-1/2 to 3 hours to cook in an oven-roasting bag; a 15 pound turkey, stuffed, about 3 to 3-1/2 ours.

*High Heat Method* This is adapted from Barbara Kafka's "Roasting A Simple Art" Start with a clean oven. It will be a mess when you finish, but less of one, if your oven was clean in the beginning and the smoke could be unpleasant. There will be smoke, regardless, so turn on a fan or open a window.

A 15 pound, room temperature, turkey will only take about 2 hours to cook in a pre-heated 500-deg. F. oven, but it may take several hours to reach room temperature. While bringing the turkey to room temperature, be sure to cover it with a towel or foil, as the skin will dry out. Ms. Kafka suggests removing the wing tips, along with the giblets and using them in the broth for the gravy. She also suggests that it will take 12 cups of stuffing to stuff a 15 pound turkey, allowing for some of the stuffing to be put under the skin. She, however seldom stuffs her turkeys, because of food safety considerations, She also suggests not trussing the turkey. (Her recipe is based on a 15 pound turkey.) Put a 20 pound bird on the bottom rack and others on the next to bottom rack.

Preheat oven to 500-deg. F. with rack positioned on the next to bottom level or the bottom level if using a 20 pound bird. Rinse the turkey inside and out. Pat dry. Sprinkle the outside with pepper. If stuffing, stuff cavity and crop, securing openings with long metal skewers. Lace them. Do not truss.

Put turkey in an 18x 13x 2-inch roasting pan, breast side up. Place in oven as suggested above (legs to the rear). After 20 minutes, move the turkey around with a wooden spatula to keep from sticking. Roast until the leg joint near the backbone wiggles easily, about 2 hours.

Time Chart for Turkey Roasted at 500 degrees:
Stuffed Unstuffed
9 pounds 1 hr. 45 min. 1 hr. 15 min.
12 pounds 1 hr. 50 min. 1 hr 20 min
15 pounds 2 hrs 30 min 2 hrs
20 pounds 3 hrs 30 min 3 hours

*When is it done?* This is where your meat thermometer will be a life saver. Officially, according to the USDA, the bird is done when the temperature is 175-180-deg. At the thickest part of the thigh, (don't let the thermometer touch a bone when checking) and the juices run clear. The stuffing should reach a temperature of 160-deg. F. If your bird is done and your stuffing is not, then remove the stuffing, place it in a buttered casserole and finish cooking it in the oven. Let the bird rest for 20 - 30 minutes before carving. This give you time to finish the gravy and get everything else ready to serve.