Tips for Cooking the Perfect Turkey

A nice, big roasted turkey has become the most famous Thanksgiving day staple in America. Maybe you were volunteered to take over the Thanksgiving Day turkey for your entire family this year and don't know where to begin. Or maybe you would like to make a Thanksgiving Day turkey for just you and your spouse for the first time. Either way, here are some tips for cooking the perfect turkey during this upcoming holiday season.

Turkey has been a part of America for hundreds of years now and will probably be a part of it for hundreds of years to come. It is estimated that in 2005 there were about 46 million turkeys consumed for Thanksgiving and another 22 million consumed for Christmas. That's a lot of turkeys!

On average, each American consumes about 18 pounds of turkey a year. You would, naturally, assume that the majority of this consumption would be around the upcoming holidays but you would have assumed wrong. In actuality, only about 30 percent of the turkey eaten in the US is around Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

The turkey that you would purchase at your local grocery store is grown to provide you with a fabulous lean meat. This turkey contains high protein and low fat. The turkey breast has the lowest amount of calories and fat as compared to the darker meat of the turkey. At 161 calories, 3.5 ounces of skinless turkey breast is much healthier for you than the same amount of lean beef or pork, which averages around 225 calories.

With turkey being so healthy, why wouldn't we love it so much? It's yummy and good for you. But how the heck do you cook a turkey? The easiest, and least fattening, method is to simply roast the turkey in your own home oven. It takes time and patience but in the end you will have a beautiful, golden brown, moist turkey to share with your friends and family during this holiday season.

Store turkeys usually arrive to you frozen. So you will need to safely thaw your turkey before roasting it. The safest way to thaw a turkey is by leaving it in your refrigerator until completely thawed. A general rule of thumb is that you allow one day of thawing per every four pounds of turkey. You leave the turkey in it's original plastic wrapper and place it in the fridge, breast side up. I like to put a towel under it so that the thawing ice doesn't get water all over my fridge. If you are in a time crunch and just don't have the time for a refrigerator thawing then you can do a cold water submersion to thaw your turkey. With this method you fill a deep sink or even your bathtub with enough cold water to submerge the whole turkey. You will need to change the water about every 30 minutes in order for the water temperature to stay cold. With this method the thawing time averages about a minimum of 30 minutes per pound of turkey.

After thawing your turkey, there are several ways to achieve a wonderful, tasty turkey from your own oven. The first method is just the traditional way. This is the method that I have used most often over the years.

• First preheat your oven to 325°F
  
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• Check to see how much your turkey weighs in order to determine the corrent cooking time. (I will list cooking times below)
  
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• Remove the giblet bag and the neck from the turkey. Why do they even leave these in? YUCK!
  
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• Rinse the turkey, both inside and out, and then pat it dry with paper towels
  
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• Put your turkey on a rack in a shallow roasting pan, breast side up
  
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• Next, I like to rub the turkey down with butter and place dollops of butter inside the turkey. But this is optional.
  
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• Place meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh
  
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• Loosely cover your turkey with an aluminum foil tent
  
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• Place in oven and let roast until the meat thermometer reaches 180°F
  
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After your turkey has cooked for about half of it's recommended cooking time, you can remove the aluminum foil in order to brown the skin. I like to brush on melted butter every hour and a half to enhance the coloring of the turkey.

Once the thermometer reaches 180°F, your turkey should be done. To check for doneness, pierce the thigh with a fork. If the juices run out clear then the turkey is done. Allow your turkey to sit for about 30 minutes before you carve it. This will allow for the juices to soak into the turkey. If you carve too soon then you could end up with juices running out everywhere and a very dry turkey.

Cooking Times
8 to 12lbs: 2 3/4 to 3 hours
12 to 14lbs: 3 to 3 3/4 hours
14 to 18lbs: 3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hours
18 to 20lbs: 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours
20 to 24lbs: 4 1/2 to 5 hours

All times are for UNSTUFFED turkeys.

The next method in roasting the perfect turkey is the cooking bag method. I'm sure that you've seen these bags either on television or on the grocery store shelves. They are specially designed plastic cooking bags to use in your oven. You should NEVER use any other type of bags. Only use the ones that are made for the oven.

Instructions for the use of the oven bags are usually on the packaging but here are some general directions for using oven bags when roasting the perfect turkey.

Preheat your oven to 350°F
Remove giblets and neck. Rinse turkey inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels.
Have a pan large enough so that the oven bag doesn't hang over the sides.
Make sure that the racks in your oven are low enough to allow the oven bag to expand without touching the sides or top of your oven. The bag will melt if this happens.
Cute a few slits in the oven bag to prevent it from bursting.
Stick a meat thermometer straight through the plastic and into the turkey thigh.
The turkey is done when the meat thermometer reads 180°F.

The last cooking method that I would like to share with you is the aluminum foil wrapped method. With this method you need a higher oven temperature. You are actually steaming the turkey in it's own juices. Kind of like when you steam vegetables in an aluminum foil packet. With this method it can actually take less time to cook your turkey. It can reduce your cooking time by as much as 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450°F.
Remove giblets and neck. Wash turkey inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels.
Brush turkey with melted butter.
Use a piece of aluminum foil about 18 inches wide and three times the length of the turkey.
Lay turkey lengthwise on the foil with the breast side up.
Pull up the ends of the foil and overlap them over the turkey.
Insert the meat thermometer into the turkey thigh through the foil.
Place in shallow roasting pan and pull up the foil sides around the turkey. Do not make it airtight.

Just like with all of the cooking instructions, roast until the meat thermometer reads 180°F. If you would like to brown the turkey just open the aluminum foil during the last 30 to 45 minutes of roasting.

There are so many ways to cook a turkey that it boggles the mind. You can marinate a turkey. You can use a brine on the turkey. You can even braise it in a covered roasting pan. Some people even like to deep fry turkeys. No matter how you cook your turkey just make sure that you do it safely and that the turkey is done thoroughly before you serve it to your friends and family.