I grew up with Thanksgiving turkey cooked in an electric roaster. It was always fabulous! My dad gave it to me after my mother died but my sister "borrowed" it and won't give it back! So now I have two small Nescos, a 6 quart and a 4 quart. The 6 is the one I use most of the time when I make a turkey breast. Using a conventional electric roaster, the bird won't brown as well as in a dry heat oven, since the electric roaster is a more moist heat which keeps the meat moist. However, Nesco has a fan lid (called the Roast-Air) that will brown things nicely. When I make a turkey breast, I cook it to about 150°, then turn on the fan and turn up the heat a bit to crisp it up a little if I want a crisper skin. Often though I'll pull the skin off and microwave it into "chips". Sometimes I'll take a baster and pull out excess juices and that'll make for a drier heat too if that's what you want. I cook turkey different ways depending on my mood.

Roasters are also great for any kind of baking. They are an oven. I've made breads, cakes, meatloaf, lasagna, hotdish and more in mine. They're far more functional than a crockpot for soups, stews and chili.

I wouldn't bother with the regular oven and transferring. Just put it in the Nesco (or whatever roaster you get) and forget about it. If you have a thermometer with an alarm, better yet. If it finishes early, turn down the heat and it'll keep nicely.

I always do the turkey in my Nesco electric roaster because I have other things in the oven. I do Christmas Ham in the roaster too. I don't start them in the oven either, they go right into the roaster.

The skin doesn't get as "crispy" as it will in the oven on high heat, but it gets nicely browned and I peel the skin off anyway, so I don't care how crunchy it is.

The bird cooks nicely, is tender and juicy and it's easy to make gravy. I just use the rack to lift the turkey out and make the gravy right in the roaster, so I get all of those little bits of goodness on the bottom.

Annie

I have two large electric roasters and they are great for turkey. No need to start it in the regular oven. It frees up the oven and keeps the kitchen cooler since I have mine in the garage.

Sue

Wow, thanks for all the feedback. And it's OK to use an electric roaster with a brined turkey too?

Of course it's ok to use for a brined turkey.

SHelley

Based on several recommendations from various folks on this site, I purchased a 18 qt Nesco last year for T-giving and ended up loving it.

Although, I did just a large turkey breast and not a full turkey. Also did another one in a large crockpot. Between the two - not a dry piece of meat to be found.

As you say - it really did free up the stove / oven for everything else.

One word to the wise.. If you get a Nesco....Be sure to break in the heating element in the machine before you try using it for the first time with food in it.

The one we bought recommended this and we found we needed to at least triple the amount of time suggested each of the 3-4 times we did it. Had to put it in the garage since it smelled so bad.

Once it was broken in though - it was fine.

Just give yourself enough lead time to do it or you may end up hating it.

iankh, you certainly can use it for a brined turkey, I usually get mine from a local Amish farmer and brine it before cooking, it's fine. I also stuff the bird and cook it in the roaster, it's still all good. In fact, my mother likes those crusty "corners" of dressing that kind of bake on and the roaster does those very nicely, LOL.

I wouldn't eat that greasy bread soaked in turkey fat for any reason, but she loves it, so she's happy. Gotta keep the old folks happy, you know. (grin)

Annie

Great advice from everyone!

Dontknow for the break in period of having to heat it up, did you do that only once or have to to that several times? If so, I'm going to have to make sure I allow for plenty of days ahead of Thanksgiving to do this.

I ended up doing it probably 3 - 4 times. The sheet that came with the machine only says it needed it once. Forget about that...

It stunk the garage up pretty bad and had to open the door. A couple times - with unusually decent weather on my side - I actually put it on the patio and did it with an exterior outlet. Obviously no smell there....

I'd forgotten about the strong smell when we first used ours...As I recall it reminded me of burning rubber. It scared me because I thought we might have bought a defective one and that some wires were burning.

I'd suggest letting it heat up a couple times in a well ventilated area before you use it.

We've had ours for 4 yrs. and have had great luck with it. I've never cooked turkey in it, though. Plan to try doing a breast after reading this post.

Good point about the burn in. Been years since I did mine. Funny thing, my 4 quart one didn't need much - maybe it was bought and returned? However my 6 quart... whoa! I put it in the garage and let it go for a while per the instructions. Garage smelled strong. I lifted the lid - I kept the lid on since it was so cold I wanted to keep the heat in it. Strong smell. I think it was maybe 4-6 hours I let it go or even a bit longer. Fine ever since. What you're doing is burning off the coating on some of the electrical components. Some old electronics had that issue.

Keep in mind that an electric roaster IS an oven. Anything you can cook in an oven you can cook in an electric roaster and more. It's hard to fill your oven with soup, stew or chili but you can do it in a Nesco! How long to cook? Use your regular oven as a guideline - remember, it's an oven.

One thing with Nesco, that's different on some electric roasters, is that Nesco does NOT heat from the bottom. The heating elements are in the sides. This makes for more even heating and less bottom burning.

Also you should season the cookwell, whether you have the nonstick or the enamel one. A little oil on it and heat it up occasionally. They're great units. I just made some sloppy joes the other day. Cooked the burget right in there then simmered them for a few hours.

Like any appliance there's a bit of a learning curve. But they're great helpers. Enjoy them.

How big of a roaster does one need to buy to roast a large turkey? I suppose the 18 qt.?

Is there an advantage to having the stainless steel cookwell?

And, Which brand of roaster do you all love?

Mine's a Nesco, it works great. I do have the big one, I'm only assuming it's 18 quart. My sister has a smaller one, maybe a 6 quart? A turkey wouldn't fit in it, though.

Annie