How to Cook Your First Turkey

For the single person living on his own for the first time, cooking a holiday turkey is a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Although there are many wonderful and nutritious recipes for cooking this all-American favorite, here is the most basic.

Select your turkey. Turkeys are available fresh and frozen, ranging from a nice-sized breast weighing under five pounds to enormous twenty pound birds. When you are buying your turkey, don't go bigger than you have to. After all, the bird is just part of the meal. The largest birds are tom turkeys and are less tender than the hens. Consider buying a bird with a pop-up timer. It makes cooking easier. When you buy your bird, also pick up a package of the cheapest, fattiest bacon in the store. This will be used to baste your bird during preparation.

Don't forget a pick up your stuffing. If you want to stuff the bird, buy a package of Bell's seasoning, some butter, celery and croutons. You can jazz it up with cooked sausage meat or other add-ins if you like. The basic stuffing recipe is right on the box. Otherwise, go with stove top stuffing.

Frozen birds will need to be defrosted in your refrigerator before use. Move a small to mid-sized bird out of the freezer and into the fridge by Tuesday morning if you want it on the table for Thanksgiving. Add a day for a jumbo 20 pound number. Alternatively, for quicker defrosting, you can cover the turkey with cold water from your sink changed frequently to always keep it both clean and icy cold. This will cut a day from the process, but is much more dangerous.

Bacteria grow fastest at room temperature. Under no circumstance are you ever to defrost turkey or any other meat on a counter at room temperature. This is tantamount to inviting salmonella to be your dinner guest. Furthermore, you are never to use the same cutting board to carve raw and cooked meat or put any vegetables on a cutting board that was used to cut raw meat earlier. A similar precaution applies to how you will handle the cooked meat later. Once the bird has been cooked and everyone has eaten his fill, whisk it into the refrigerator immediately. Don't leave it cooling for several hours on the dinner table.

Begin your prep work by pre-heating the oven to 325 degrees. While the oven is heating, prepare your stuffing. Stove top stuffing is easiest and doesn't even have to be put in the bird, but I like the second easiest way: croutons softened with water and butter and seasoned with celery and Bell's seasoning. If you go with stuffing the bird, make sure to remove all of it as soon as the bird is cooked.. Otherwise it will go bad and make everyone ill.

Don't forget to de-vein the celery before you cut it up for the stuffing. To do this: skin the celery, chop off the ends and insert the tip of a sharp knife under the edge of each tough little vein (they look like pipes running through the celery). Once you get hold of the vein, peal it out like a long thread.

Place your hand inside the bird and remove the bag with the giblets. Rinse out the cavity and fill your bird with the prepared stuffing. The giblets may be used to make a giblet gravy if you wish. A basic recipe for this can be found at allrecipes.com/Search/Recipes.aspx

Lay your turkey in a roasting pan covered with tin foil for easier cleaning and drape it with those pieces of cheap, fatty bacon. The bacon keeps the turkey moist and adds salt and a smokey flavor to the meat. Once every hour, you will check on the turkey and ladle a big spoonful of dripping fat onto the bird to keep it succulent and moist.

Allow about a half-hour of cooking per pound for a small or mid-sized bird, maybe twenty-minutes per pound for a jumbo. If you've skipped the pop-up timer, the bird will be done when juices run clear and free of blood after you stab it with a fork in a meaty part. Wiggle the wing. It will move freely on a cooked bird, although by that time, it may be a little overdone. Every oven is different, so you will need to check it for doneness a few times during the last hour.

When your turkey is cooked, rest it on the table for twenty minutes before carving. Then, ring the dinner bell, summon everyone to the table and start the feast.