Turkey will be the main attraction on many home and restaurant menus next week. A golden turkey, on a large platter, is a sight to behold as it’s carried to the table.
But be careful not to overcook your bird. Generally a turkey should reach 180°F (82°C) before you pull it out — a temperature that leaves the bird moist and tender, but is high enough to destroy bacteria. A stuffed, 25-pound turkey should be cooked for about 5 1/2 hours.
Roasting timetables give approximate times for each weight range. For instance, a stuffed 12- to 14-pound (5.5- to 6.3-kilogram) turkey takes 3 1/2 to 4 hours (unstuffed, approximately 1/2 hour less). And though a 20-pound bird is twice the weight of a 10-pound bird, the former doesn’t take twice as long to cook. There are several factors at work here, such as considerably more surface area for distributing the heat in the larger bird. So use an up-to-date turkey-roasting timetable rather than calculating minutes per pound as you would when cooking a beef roast.Let’s take a look at some of the factors that can affect the ultimate cooking time. To begin, consider the temperature of the bird going into the oven. Thaw unstuffed, frozen turkeys completely. If there is still a little frost inside, run cool water into the cavity, then dry thoroughly. Roasting times are based on turkeys just removed from the refrigerator, roughly 40°F (5°C).
A dark roasting pan absorbs more heat and therefore cooks a turkey faster than a shiny pan does. Likewise, aluminum foil deflects heat and can slow cooking quite dramatically. If you use foil, do so for only a portion of the cooking time.
A large roasting pan touching the oven wall blocks heat waves. Turn the pan several times during roasting to compensate for factors that may cause variations in cooking temperatures within your oven.
Don’t use a lid. It raises the temperature inside the roasting pan, so cooking happens faster than desirable. You’ll end up with a bird that’s tough and cooked an hour early. Lids also hold in moisture, so a turkey stews in its juices rather than roasting by dry heat. A crisp, golden skin only happens when the surface reaches 300°F to 400°F (149°C to 205°C), much higher than the temperatures reached in the turkey’s moist interior.
While the recommended temperature for cooking turkey is 325°F (163°C), ovens are often inaccurate and another reason one turkey takes longer than another.
So when is a turkey cooked? Eliminate the guesswork by inserting a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone. Take into account that the temperature will rise another few degrees after the turkey is removed from the oven, A 10- to 20-minute “standing time” allows the juices to settle, making the meat easier to carve. When ready to eat, the meat should register 180°F (82°C) and the stuffing 165°F (74°C).
(If you use pork in your stuffing, it’s a good idea to cook it first, before adding to the stuffing.)