I'm cooking our Thanksgiving turkey this very moment.. (we do it Saturday after due to family that has to work, etc..) SO anyway.. this is our first home, and the first thanksgiving we've held.. and I've never ever made a turkey before.. SO this is what I did.. and tell me if it's going to turn out disastrous or not! I preheated my electric roaster to 450F and rubbed butter, s&p, and paprika on turkey(its 18 lbs).. i browned it for about 30 minutes.. then i turned it down to 325.. and i also have a box of chicken broth in the bottom of the roaster. I started this whole process around 11:30am.. it's not 3:13pm.. and I'm hoping it's done by 4:30pm.. any ideas if it will be or not?? It's been cooking at 325F for about 3 hours now.. and I keep finding sites that say about 4 hours to cook.. i also just turned it up to 350 to be totally sure it cooks all the way

Dishwasher cooking? After you finish laughing, read on. I have always felt, the biggest challenge with cooking, IMHO, is not about flavor, it is all about texture/mouth feel. You can get pretty good flavor by follow T&T recipes measurements, but you will not get a good dish if you can't create the right texture. Warm ice cream and cold ice cream taste the same, and well cooked steak and overcooked steak taste the same, flavor-wise. Texture is mostly temperature dependent, and temperature behavior is governed by thermal conductivity. As it turned out, surprisingly the dishwasher may serve as a good cooking appliance. In general, a DW operates between 120F to 150F, depending on the brand. It vigorously circulates water (and detergent) at that temperature for the cycles. If you do some Googling, many foods give you the ideal texture if cooked between 120F to 150F. Scallops, Salmon, for instance has such wonderful juicy-ness cooked at 120F to 130F comparing the typical 212F way of cooking many people end up doing. The problem with cooking in a dishwasher is the non-compatibility of food and detergent and the wasteful use of hot water. However, let's say you would like to have scallops, you can vacuum bag the scallops, with you favorite seasonings, and put the bag in the WD with your dirty dishes. After the dishes have gone thru the cleaning, your scallops will be perfectly done and ready for that final searing on a hot pan. In effect, you have a giant sous vide cooker that is your DW, a water oven that circulates low temperature hot water to give you the perfect 100% uniform ideal texture. OK you can laugh again.:-) dcarch This post was edited by dcarch on Fri, Jan 17, 14 at 7:50

I decided I couldn't wait any longer, so I just ordered the 18 qt Nesco with the 2 day prime shipping. My son will cook the turkey Wed. using the make ahead directions previously suggested. Then on Thursday we will bring the cooked (and at least partially sliced) turkey to my sister's house with the Nesco so it can be plugged in/warmed up there. Hopefully I get lots of other uses out of it - have no idea where I will store it - will have to be the attic or garage!

I'd be careful about putting cloth or parchment over the turkey in this oven as it uses the broiler to sear. After would be ok. My choice would be cooking parchment. Chinchette, you shouldn't need to tent it while in the oven -- in theory at least. The breast skin can get very dark and crisp but there's stuffing under there and it gets nice and crackly. When it comes out, I let it rest so it's easier to slice and stays hot. I'd put some cooking parchment over and and a couple of dishtowels on that to hold in the heat. Also, forgot to mention. Before I bought the oven I had a long talk with the Miele consumer people who emphasized that when you open this oven it loses 30% of the heat. I see people open an oven, baste leisurely, then wonder why the turkey takes so long. Big bonus to no-basting.