Cooking Thanksgiving Turkey

Every year, thousands of people try their hand at cooking Thanksgiving turkey for the first time with varying degrees of success. Cooking a Thanksgiving turkey doesn’t have to be a big trauma...all you need is patience and a little foil.

Before buying your Thanksgiving turkey, you should decide if you want to get a fresh or frozen turkey. Generally speaking, there is no difference between the two kinds of turkeys. I would suggest a fresh turkey if you are going to cook it very soon or the frozen variety if you need to transport it or store it for a long time.

Frozen turkeys need quite a long time to thaw before you can cook them. The best way to thaw a turkey is in a chilled environment, such as the bottom shelf of you refrigerator or a cooler filled with very cold water. Regardless of the method you choose, you will want to start thawing your turkey well before Thanksgiving Day or it won’t cook properly.

Fresh turkeys by definition do not need to be thawed, but they do need to be kept cold. A fresh turkey needs to be used right away, so it is best to buy your fresh turkey as close to Thanksgiving as possible.

When choosing your turkey, keep in mind that a fourteen to sixteen pound turkey will feed about 12 people. It is always better to have turkey leftover than to run out, so you may want to buy a larger bird than you think you will need. Your butcher should be able to advise you as to what size turkey will best suit your needs.

Cooking Thanksgiving turkey is pretty easy once you get it started. In fact, I think one of the reasons that turkey became the go-to bird for Thanksgiving is that once you have the turkey cooking, you have a good two hours to get all the other food made while the turkey basically cooks itself.

One thing that most first-time turkey cooks forget is to foil the bird. The breast of the turkey finishes cooking well before the dark meat is done. To keep the white meat from becoming overcooked while the dark meat finishes cooking, you need to take a piece of foil and place it over the turkey breast. If the idea of molding a piece of foil to a scorching hot turkey breast seems like it would be a difficult proposition, I assure you it is. This is why you want to mold the foil to the turkey breast before you place it in the oven and keep it to the side until the breast is done cooking.

• 1 12-16 pound turkey
• ½ cup of vegetable oil
• Sheet of foil large enough to cover the turkey breast

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
2. Take the giblets, neck, and anything else found inside the cavity of the turkey out of the turkey and either discard it, save it for soup, or prepare it.
3. Drain any liquids out of the cavity of the turkey.
4. Rinse and dry the turkey.
5. Fold the wings behind the body of the turkey.
6. Place the turkey in a roasting pan with a roasting rack.
7. Place the foil on the breast of the turkey, molding it tightly to the turkey.
8. Remove the foil form the turkey, but keep it handy.
9. Brush the skin of the turkey with the vegetable oil.
10. Roast the turkey for two hours.
11. Place the molded foil onto the breast of the turkey and roast for another 45 minutes.
12. Test the temperature of the turkey with an instant read thermometer. If the temperature is 180, your turkey is done. Remove it from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Fun variations include making a glaze to coat your turkey. Try this recipe:

1. Mix together one cup of orange juice and one cup of cranberry juice in a saucepan.
2. Reduce over a medium heat to about one cup.
3. Brush your turkey with this glaze just after removing it from the oven.

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