Thanksgiving turkey size poll

[aristocatz]

For the perfect, juicy turkey, would you recommend roasting one 24 pound turkey or two 12 pound turkeys?

 

[Disney.Dreamin.Dee]

My family always get a 22lb+ turkey so I went with the one 24lb.
Besides apparently its going to be hard to find small turkeys this year so you may not have a choice.

 

[SteveH]

IMHO its not the size but the preparation. Brine that sucker for a day or two, put it on a smoker and enjoy.

 

[aristocatz]

IMHO its not the size but the preparation. Brine that sucker for a day or two, put it on a smoker and enjoy.

No smoker Only have an oven to work with.

 

[fly girl]

We get big boys when we have extended family. And my family swears by the Reynold's Oven Bags ... juicy turkey every time!

 

[TwoMisfits]

It is more the cooking method than the size...it would probably be easier to prep and carve one turkey...

 

[WDWEPCOT]

Small turkeys always hard to find got to grab them early
I like getting a small for later and a big one for Thanksgiving
If it was me I’d do two so I could do them different - different brine / season / method - change it up for a variety

 

[bcla]

I heard an interview with a chef who said that roasting a whole turkey is a poor way to cook since it will be overcooked and dry in some parts. He also said that if one insists on roasting a whole turkey, the stuffing should be prepared separately, then placed in the turkey since the stuffing often doesn't reach safe temperatures to kill off any pathogens that inevitably get absorbed if it's placed in a cold turkey.

He said that it's much better technique to cut up a turkey first, then roast the individual parts. But with a whole turkey, it's going to get dried up on the outside in order to get it to safe temperature on the inside because there's often bacteria like salmonella. A chicken or a duck is pretty small, but a turkey is just too massive to get the whole thing cooked properly. I know some try basting it to keep the skin from drying, but even the best whole roasted turkey I had was ridiculously hard on the outside.

Here are some interesting articles on the food safety and pitfalls of roasting a whole turkey. There was a pretty crazy article on Vice that described the problem, but I won't link it here because the language used is a little bit salty.

https://www.epicurious.com/expert-a...-turkey-stuffing-dressing-safety-tips-article

But here's the part of the Vice article that's reasonably family friendly. Not 100%, but still reasonable enough to post here.

But why is turkey normally so bad? And what can be done to make sure that your turkey isn't as bad this year as it was the years before?​

​

The truth is, not much. If you're reading this and don't have your turkey already soaking in some type of brine (more on that in a bit), you've most likely lost the battle of the bird this year anyway. This isn't because you're not a fabulous cook. You very well may be. It's because it's almost impossible to roast a whole turkey (or 20-pound-plus anything) without overcooking it to the point of its being inedible. They're just too damn big. And as a big-*** whole turkey cooks, the moisture inside it escapes. Since you have no choice but to cook it through, everything that helps make the turkey consumable disappears like so many promises the white man made the Native Americans, and what you're left with is a pile of protein-packed cardboard.​

Here's a pretty good description of cooking a turkey in parts.

https://www.saveur.com/roast-turkey-parts-recipe/​

Breaking the bird down into its primal cuts allows the meat to cook more evenly, and in half the time. It also frees up more space in the oven—enough to cook as many as three turkeys at once—while you simultaneously simmer the carcass into a quick stock for gravy.​

 

[Disney.Dreamin.Dee]

FYI we put ours in the oven upside down.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The owner/head chef of a gourmet restaurant said the smaller turkeys are more tender.

Before hearing that, DGD cooked the biggest turkey she could find and it overwhelmed the oven -- just wouldn't cook it evenly. She tried pop-up indicators in at least three places, and cooked it in a bag but parts of the turkey were still raw when the rest of the bird was done.

 

[Kitty 34]

If I'm cooking a turkey for 2 or for 20 it's going to be a big turkey......at least a 20 some pounder.

 

[fly girl]

The owner/head chef of a gourmet restaurant said the smaller turkeys are more tender.

Before hearing that, DGD cooked the biggest turkey she could find and it overwhelmed the oven -- just wouldn't cook it evenly. She tried pop-up indicators in at least three places, and cooked it in a bag but parts of the turkey were still raw when the rest of the bird was done.

View attachment 614767

First, that stinks. All that work and no bird. Happened with my SIL years ago. So frustrating.

My guess the culprit of that is the bird wasn’t fully thawed. Those big boys need a lot of time in the fridge to thaw. Not only did I have my 22lb in the fridge for 6 days, I had it in a cold water bath that morning for a few hours just to make sure he was good and ready. (I didn’t want a repeat of SIL’s Thanksgiving where roasted Brussels Sprouts were the highlight. )

 

[Disneylover99]

Bigger is better for us.
Makes sure pan is huge
Put turkey on lowest rack at 325 degrees
Tent it with foil
Take off foil last half hour

 

[wfjny]

So, we seem to have more and more people coming this year. I guess the bigger the better.

But, with some people's suggestion, perhaps we may do two smaller ones, cooked differently. For the past 5 years we have always deep fried the turkey.

 

[fla4fun]

We always do a 22-24 pound bird. I move it from the freezer to the refrigerator the Saturday morning prior to Thanksgiving. On Wednesday night, the turkey gets cleaned and prepped and it spends Wednesday night in the fridge unstuffed. It gets stuffed Thursday morning and goes in the oven with a meat thermometer. When the meat thermometer says the meat is up to temp, the thermometer gets moved to the stuffing cavity until the stuffing comes up to temp as well. It gets basted frequently throughout the process, and as part of the prep, we mix poultry seasoning in butter and place it under the skin. We have never had a bad bird. My mom was a big believer in the Butterball brand, and we still only buy Butterball turkeys.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Given we heard of a Turkey shortage in my area (an actual chain store local to my area took out a commercial in JULY saying to order turkeys now because they don’t think they will have the supply they usually do), as well as people being able to travel and attend other side of the family’s thanksgiving, we went to our local deli. They had a beautiful Turkey breast, and my aunt (she does thanksgiving but stores the bird in our basement freezer) asked the butcher if there would be anymore soon. He said come back in a few days and sure enough she got another one. So currently we have two Turkey breasts sitting in our freezer awaiting Turkey day.
We also have the pork roast bought for Xmas in the same freezer as we were afraid if Costco was gonna have supply shortages too.

 

[abdmom]

This thread inspired me to check to see if Target had Butterballs in stock and they do! I just ordered a 10-16 pound turkey for pick up today.

 

[Meriweather]

There was no other. We don't do either.
Turkey breast and a couple of legs. Makes everyone happy

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

FYI we put ours in the oven upside down.

I've done this several times over the years and it's become a family joke as I do not intentially do it. However, the upside is the white meat comes out really juicy (just not browned on top).

Back to the question at hand, what I've read and heard is no more than 14-16 lb. bird otherwise you risk drying out the white meat since the dark meat takes longer to reach a safe temperature. Those size birds are usually the ones to sell first at the store.

 

[bcla]

I'm kind of wondering how the wild turkeys in my neighborhood would taste. They're mostly full-sized adults, so they wouldn't be the young toms that are typically sold for meat. They're also not white feathered, so they have spots on the skin.

That being said, this is probably the best way to roast a turkey.