So, I'm cooking the Thanksgiving Turkey this year...

[Remyo]

in the future walmart and im sure other stores sell disposable aluminum pans designed for cooking turkey in.

[Rigor]

I have nothing to add to this thread, but I wanted to endorse the bread stuffing. Not scurrley(sp) with the oatmeal, but the bread stuffing. Best part of Thanksgiving.

Edit: Also a question, does your vegetarian friend give you shit for eating meat? Mine does, she is always sayin shit like "You know that Turkey was a living animal and probably had a name! Would you eat something with a name?" So I always name my meat before I eat it. The ensuing anger is amazing.

[Dezzimal]

Probably too late, but if you're not cooking it in a bag, you're doing it wrong.

[archibaldcrane]

Edit: Also a question, does your vegetarian friend give you shit for eating meat? Mine does, she is always sayin shit like "You know that Turkey was a living animal and probably had a name! Would you eat something with a name?" So I always name my meat before I eat it. The ensuing anger is amazing.

Nope, she's fine, she just doesn't eat it.


Oh, and by the way...

Great Success!

Took a little longer to cook than I'd hoped - til 3 p.m., so about 5.5 hours. The breast was nice and juicy, with not a touch of pink - cooking breast-side down is totally the win - no need for basting, no crazy turkey oven bags or whatever.

Had a bunch of good food there - the one problem is keeping it all hot, especially in potluck fashion, until everyone is ready to eat. But yeah good times, and turkey was goodz. I'll post pics when I get them from people.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Next time I'll do a few things differently - chop the carrots and onions much finer before stuffing the turkey, rub the spices under the skin instead of on the outside, and cook for the hotter temps (400 and 350 degrees) for longer portions of the cycle before I go down to 225 for the remainder, just to shorten cooking time a little. Other than that, I think this is the way to go.

[archibaldcrane]

As much as I told people I wanted pictures, noone managed to take one of my perfectly roasted turkey - this is the best I can do...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...keyplatter.jpg
Just can't trust people these days...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...vingspread.jpg
Nomnomnom

[Mizango]

Wow, thats a pretty nice spread. Looks really good man. Oh and congrats on your first Turkey, thats awesome.

[Norelco]

Who's the hot piece of ass in the background? Is that the vegetarian?

[archibaldcrane]

Haha naw, she's just some random girl, friend of a friend. (Not -that- hot close up).

This is the vegetarian (she doesn't make a big deal out of it at all, I didn't even know she was a vegetarian until this weekend and I've known her for like 6 months):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...bsupturkey.jpg