Roasting turkey... on the oven rack?

[bentrinh]

Well this is the first time my family's made turkey, so we don't have any experience... or equipment for it. My mom and dad don't want to buy a roasting rack, insisting that I can do it on the oven rack itself. It sounds ok to me, but I think we might be short-sighted. Do you think it'd be ok?

 

[suziquzie]

Nope. it won't. Unless you like cleaning the oven.
You will have dripping burnt all over the bottom of the oven not to mention probably a smoke filled house.
Get a $2 aluminum roasting pan.

 

[GB]

It could also cause a fire.

Like Suzi said, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, get a disposable aluminum pan. Just be very careful removing it from the oven.

 

[ella/TO]

Yes, very careful.....they're not made to hold a heavy turkey...I would buy two disposable ones, one inside the other...it'll make it somewhat easier to take out of the oven......
What a MESS one would have if it was just put on a rack.....ugh. You do want the drippings for the gravy, don't you?
And, I'm not being sassy, but, do remember to remove the plastic around the edges of the aluminum trays....if you haven't done this before, you may just make a mistake!

 

[BreezyCooking]

Third agreement here that this is a bad, bad, BAD idea. Poultry releases a LOT of juices (that's where the gravy comes from), & except perhaps for making toast or baking pizza, your oven racks aren't meant as cooking implements.

In fact, I don't even like those cheap throwaway aluminum roasting pans. They're almost impossible to work with - & sometimes dangerous - when you're doing something as large as a turkey. I don't know where you're located, but if in the U.S., surely you must have a discount-type store (WalMart, K-Mart, Target) nearby where you can pick up a solid yet inexpensive roasting pan that will serve you for years in many other capacities?

 

[bentrinh]

Thanks everyone

 

[aesthete]

big lots usually has affordable options of reasonable quality

 

[Hungry]

roast turkey

Well this is the first time my family's made turkey, so we don't have any experience... or equipment for it. My mom and dad don't want to buy a roasting rack, insisting that I can do it on the oven rack itself. It sounds ok to me, but I think we might be short-sighted. Do you think it'd be ok?

Quite a few years ago I would roast my Turkey in brown paper bag on the oven rack.

Season as desired, I don't belive I stuffed it, put in a brown paper bag.
Bake at 300 degrees F
Put a pan underneath to catch the drippings.

I think i quit doing this with the influx of recycled paper bags. Probably would still be O.K.

Charlie

 

[bullseye]

Well this is the first time my family's made turkey, so we don't have any experience... or equipment for it. My mom and dad don't want to buy a roasting rack, insisting that I can do it on the oven rack itself. It sounds ok to me, but I think we might be short-sighted. Do you think it'd be ok?

A nice way to avoid needing the rack and add flavor to the gravy is to pile chunks of root veg for the turkey to sit on. Even though I use a rack for better browning, I put some roots in the roasting pan for extra flavor. Unless you put a pan directly beneath the turkey, I think roasting on the oven rack is messy and possibly dangerous, and if you have a big enough pan to do this, why not put the turkey in it?

 

[GotGarlic]

You can put one of those aluminum roasting pans on a large cookie sheet to make it more stable.