At Thanksgiving I've had groups ranging from 15 to 30. I used to always cook the turkey breasts in my portable convection oven and the big bird in the standard oven because that is where they fit. I've been using my convection for over 20 years. I find that the convection has more even heating because the air circulates. I like it. Recently bought a new oven that has the convection option and that is all I use now. If I time one of the ovens wrong I just take out the bird, tent it with foil and cover with towels. I never manage to get everything done at exactly the same time anyway because I need to free-up oven space for the side dishes.

Shoot- just wrote a long comment/question and it seems to have lost it. I just read this whole thread. I have cooked loads of turkeys but this will be first on convection. I have an almost 21# bird in the freezer (moving to frig tomorrow -Sunday). I usually brine but wanted to use less this year to be able to use the broth/drippings. I usually start breast-side down. I just read Pioneer Woman's article on trussing, so I am planning on doing that. I don't stuff but am open to the idea of putting butter and/or stuffing under the skin. (If it was going to be stuffed under the skin right before roasting, wouldn't it be okay to use my own stuffing recipe with eggs?) I have a digital probe thermometer that will beep when the set temp is reached. Question- How much salt is enough in brine solution and yet not too much to make the broth overly salty? I like MOIST flavorful turkey- I love gravy. I cannot stand the chokingly dry white meat my in-laws served years ago. ugh. That's what I really want to avoid.

Glad your turkey came out good. We cooked a beef tenderloin with the temperature probe for the first time and it worked great. Of course, my DH and son do not read the instructions until they have to. It worked. And in the oven below I made yorkshire pudding in popover tins and they actually came out great, like popovers should look. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I am enjoying the new kitchen and double ovens. Double oven is something I never had and I love it.

Renovator - I think I'm going to look into the bags for next time. Delilah - :) I think I could handle them! I would totally buy a precooked turkey too if I could get my hands on one. Kitschy and Sherry - Oh my!! All the planning and prep... the day goes so fast. I used regular old bake mode, stuffed the turkey, and followed Butterball's directions this year. It was good. I didn't use the probe because my pan was too deep and I just could see it turning into a mess. I'm going to test out the roast mode more and stuffing the turkey later while it rests. We had lots of food left over. The paper/styrofoam products weren't too big of a deal. They ended up being used more for dessert and the aunt did bring a few food items which I thought was also nice. Almost everyone showed up early while I was trying to finish up and wanted to help. You know how that goes - everything gets jammed up and hectic fast, lots of question flying at you, the list goes on! There definitely will be a layout change someday with the kitchen. It was a nice day. My kitchen looks like a bomb went off and I'm looking the other way. Tomorrow it's clean up, Christmas decorating, and leftovers! ETA - Yesterday I managed to somehow hurt my ring finger while putting away dry dishes. No clue what I did but it felt like I stoved my finger. About 10 min. later while making peach cranberry sauce I managed to tear off a large chunk of nail (back into the nail bed) on the middle finger on the same hand while grating orange zest. After the initial scream all I could do was laugh at that point. (Later the ring finger actually hurt worse than the missing nail.) Cleaned it up, bandaged up, and wore a sexy glove almost full time ever since. Ring finger is normal again today and missing nail is ....well, still missing. :)