The Best Thanksgiving Turkey Anywhere

Here is Kate's write-up for how she cooks her Thanksgiving turkey. This year, she cooked her own pasture-raised heritage turkey, which was pretty fantastic.

The turkey is really an amalgamation of Julia Child and my take on it. The best write up she does of turkey is in From Julia Child's Kitchen and NOT in any of the later books where she takes to deboning and reconstructing the whole dang bird, way more work than they require. So here is what I do:

Take the neck and whatever innards you have out and brown in hot but not burning oil until brown. Remove them and add in about 2 cups each of chopped carrots and onions and cooked those in the pan, covered, about 5-10 minutes until tender. Take out half of the vegetables to use to flavor the turkey cavity (put the bones and giblets back in the post with the other half of the veggies, season with a little salt, some sage, a bay leaf, cover with stock and about a cup of white wine, and simmer partially covered for three or so hours, then reduce down to use as a base for your gravy).

For the turkey, make sure it is defrosted thoroughly, rinse and pat really dry, then smear all over with at least one stick of softened butter. Make sure you toss some in the cavity as well. Stuff the cavity with parsley springs, celery tops, dried thyme and sage (about 1/2 tsp each), a little salt and the half of the cooked carrots and onions you took out of the gravy starter. Tie him up (I don't try to do it too fancy, just get the wings secured to the body and the cavity closed up best you can, salt lightly, and place on a rack in a roasting pan breast down. Cook in a preheated 325 oven according to the time table below. Baste every 30 minutes. When it is about 90 minutes before the turkey is done, flip it on its back (make sure you do this no later than an hour before the earliest finish time for your turkey so the breast has time to get done). Cooking it this way ensures that the breast meat is moist and the skin is crispy all round. Do not forget to let the turkey rest before carving; it will fall apart -- much better to be done too early than to late -- you can always tent the turkey in tin foil until you are ready to carve.

Timetable for a moderately chilled, unstuffed turkey:

Pounds: 6-8

Hours roasting at 325: 2 3/4 - 3 1/2

Buffer: 20 min

Rest Before Carving: 20 min

Estimated Safe Total: 4 1/4

Pounds:8-12

Hours roasting at 325: 3 1/4-4

Buffer: 20 min

Rest Before Carving: 20 min

Estimated Safe Total: 4 1/2-4 3/4

Pounds:12-16

Hours roasting at 325: 3 1/2 - 4 1/2

Buffer: 30

Rest Before Carving: 30

Estimated Safe Total: 5 1/2

Pounds: 16-20

Hours roasting at 325: 4-6

Buffer: 30

Rest Before Carving: 30

Estimated Safe Total: 5 1/2 - 7

Pounds: 20-26

Hours roasting at 325: 5 1/2- 7 1/2

Buffer: 30

Rest Before Carving: 30

Estimated Safe Total: 7-8 1/2