High heat oven roasting for a juicy bird

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97guns

Senior Cook
Joined
Jan 24, 2010
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133
ive gone high heat for the past 4 or 5 years and have never had a dry turkey

i go 500 for the first 45 minutes - hour then around 475 for a couple hours more, usually takes 3 hours for an unstuffed 20# bird

my hand me down family tip is to cover/wrap the bird with a brown paper grocery bag
 
I can't remember the last time I had a dry turkey. I brushed it with canola oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and have it set at 350° with a meat probe in it; I'm planning to take it out when the breast reaches 155° and let it rest for at least 1/2 hour, which should bring the breast up to 165. Perfect :)
 
ive gone high heat for the past 4 or 5 years and have never had a dry turkey

i go 500 for the first 45 minutes - hour then around 475 for a couple hours more, usually takes 3 hours for an unstuffed 20# bird

my hand me down family tip is to cover/wrap the bird with a brown paper grocery bag


I like the high heat for my bird too. Always comes out great.
 
There are any number of different methods to cook a turkey and have it come out moist. Truth is, if you don't overcook it, it won't be dry. Simple as that.

So cook it breast side up or breast side down, use high heat, use low heat, use a combination of high and low, turn it sideways and jump up and down on your left foot for five minutes every hour. Any one or all of those methods will do the trick as long as you don't over cook it.
 
So cook it breast side up or breast side down, use high heat, use low heat, use a combination of high and low, turn it sideways and jump up and down on your left foot for five minutes every hour. Any one or all of those methods will do the trick as long as you don't over cook it.

LOL, no wonder some aspects of cooking remain a mystery to me:D
 
Jenny, I cook mine at 450 so there is plenty of stock to made gravy.

Do you mean drippings?

The smoke (burning) point of melted turkey fat is way below 450. They burn unless you fill up the pan with water and then you don't get any fond.

I'm a fan of high heat roasting, just not on T-giving when I want tasty gravy.
 
I took a looksee at Amazon. They make Better Than Bullion for everything. Including Vegetarian and Seafood. Both regular and organic. They even have a spiral bound cookbook for the product. It has 250 recipes. :angel:
 
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I like to put the bird in the oven at 450. close the door and lower the temp to 325.

Dx covered the turkey with an old (clean) cotton dish towel, poured 2 sticks melted butter and put yesterday's turkey in at 325 and said it will be done in 6 hours. Even with opening the oven and basting pretty often, it was cooked to temp just under 6 hours. It was moist and tasty.

Made the gravy in the roaster while it rested. I can't believe I made 2 kettles gravy in a row that came out tasting good. I never make huge pots of gravy.
 
I'm not sure if this is a turkey cook temp debate of a gravy debate but here's my 2 cents..

I also do a high heat turkey and there are fewer pan drippings BUT the ones there are more concentrated in flavor. At thanksgiving when an abundance of gravy is needed (and the drippings aren't enough) there is a good workaround.

Make a roux (a browned one) and use low salt chicken stock to make gravy. Add some sage, garlic and lots of cracked pepper. Make a lot and make it a little too thick. Do this ahead of time. Don't skip the browning of the roux - it adds an deep nutty flavor to the end product that is important.

Once the bird is cooked, pull the bird out of the pan, skim off some fat and add the condensed pan drippings (scrape every last bit out of the turkey pan) to the gravy. Magic will happen to that gravy....
 
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I might could try higher temp roasting a whole chicken. Does the skin get brown(er) or crisper using a higher temp?

The advantage of cooking a bird longer at a lower temp is you get to watch more of the football games. I got to watch most of the Detroit GB game yesterday. After that, we were busy, or at least occupied talking with guests.
 
Off the subject a little bit, but my sister in law cooks turkey well, but has a habit of opening the oven door, pulling out the rack to baste it. The thing is, it drops the oven temp quite a bit because she takes her time basting it. She does this quite a few times during cooking. I've always been of the mind to try and keep the bird cooking with as few oven cool downs as possible. Are many successive oven cool downs somewhat harmful to making the turkey cook up as best it can, or does it matter (takes longer)?

I'd be scared if she was able to read this, btw.
 
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Off the subject a little bit, but my sister in law cooks turkey well, but has a habit of opening the oven door, pulling out the rack to baste it. The thing is, it drops the oven temp quite a bit because she takes her time basting it. She does this quite a few times during cooking. I've always been of the mind to try and keep the bird cooking with as few oven cool downs as possible. Are many successive oven cool downs somewhat harmful to making the turkey cook up as best it can, or does it matter (takes longer)?

I'd be scared if she was able to read this, btw.

If she were to put a creased piece of foil loosely across the top of the bird while it is roasting, it would self baste. Take it off the last half hour and the breast will brown nicely. You might ask her if she is open to a suggestion. And then let her know about the heat loss and how to correct it. Or you could make it sound like you have a friend that does their bird another way. The thing is not to attack her method, but to offer or suggest another means of accomplishing the same effect. :angel:
 
If she were to put a creased piece of foil loosely across the top of the bird while it is roasting, it would self baste. Take it off the last half hour and the breast will brown nicely. You might ask her if she is open to a suggestion. And then let her know about the heat loss and how to correct it. Or you could make it sound like you have a friend that does their bird another way. The thing is not to attack her method, but to offer or suggest another means of accomplishing the same effect. :angel:


Noted...like I said, I'd be scared to tell her how to cook a turkey. It's just that she opens the oven door and keeps it open a long time. The oven temp drops like...100F or something while she bastes and tests the turkey temp. She does this numerous times during cooking. I guess it doesn't matter.
 
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I'm curious to know what she thinks the basting accomplishes. I quit doing that years ago. I brush canola oil over the skin, then sprinkle with salt and pepper and don't baste at all. The skin gets golden and crispy because the fat renders from under it and the oil on top of it (butter works, too, but not at high heat), not because drippings are drizzled over it.

My oven came with a probe thermometer; I set the desired finished temp I want and it beeps when it gets there. The display also shows the temp as it rises so I can keep track.

You could buy her a probe thermometer with a wireless remote and suggest that it would save her some effort since she wouldn't have to check the temp as often. I think opening the oven door frequently does lengthen the time it takes to cook.

ETA: Check out #10 - http://www.gourmetspot.com/listturkey.htm
 
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