Making some turkey pies for the freezer today. I use all the gravy, turkey, and some frozen vegetables, a few partially cooked diced potatoes and cut up carrots. Fill crust lined pie pans and cover with a crust. I like using the throw away aluminium foil "au Gratin' pans. These are a nice 'hearty' size and bake up in about an hour. Before filling each, I spread some margerine on the inside bottom crust to keep it from getting soggy when baking. They get put into Food Saver bags. Nice easy no mess meal for later on.

I agree on the pinkness. You can also get a pinky tinge depending on what the bird has been eating. If the texture is smooth and soft and glossy, it's under done. If it's cooked turkey texture, it's cooked. :) I can't deal with all the turkey gymnastics that other people put their birds through. The whole point for me is that it starts early and doesn't need any fussing. Mine goes on a short, silicone covered rack in my "goosepot", which is basically a 15 qt. Le Creuset oval dutch oven. I should say that I always start with a top quality, free range bird, usually about 22 lbs. in the Spring, which means it has defrosted for a few days in the fridge, there being no fresh turkeys that size at Passover time. Recently, I gave up on stuffing, which also shortens the cooking time so I may go back. Without stuffing, I put a lemon and a broken up tarragon branch in the cavity, and a blend of dried herbs and maybe garlic pepper, shaken all around. I don't know that it makes a difference, but it feels like cooking. :) A bottle of cheap (palatable) white table wine in the bottom of the pot. My birds are always too big for the pot lid, so I do the loose tent of heavy duty Reynolds Wrap. Just a sheet of foil, dangling loosely. Then I put it in the oven for the proper amount of time for the size of the bird, take it out, let it rest, and get one of the guys to carve because I'm way too busy at that point to care what happens to it. But it is always gloriously, beautifully brown and juicy. Not crispy skinned. We don't eat the skin, but it is appetizing looking. Because I have a tight fit in the roaster, and the wine in the bottom, people will tell you I'm steaming, rather than roasting the turkey. Fine by me. It tastes good. :) And one year I did six turkey breasts and thighs in the steam oven because I needed more turkey and the big oven for something else. :) I know you know how to cook. Maybe the trick is to not try so hard?

You answered your own question -- you should choose the biggest bird you can find that will fit your roaster. FWIW, I bought my sister a roaster several years ago and she uses it frequently for turkeys. She always roasts her turkey in a large bag. I don't know if that makes a difference, but her turkeys always come out great. Removing the turkey/bag can be really messy though. :p

That's neat to see! I'm not sure if our domestic turkeys can fly that high (they are probably too chunky lol) but wild ones surely can. Our turkeys perch on the farm gate at night next to the barn. There is a flock of chickens that perch next to them for protection. Owls do not bother them when the bigger turkeys are there at night. Normally the owls would have picked off any chickens perching at night. These chickens have been roosting with our turkeys for about a yr with no losses. Chickens are dumb but not so dumb lol. We have wild turkeys here as well. At our last house we had some that would come visit the tame ones outside of their pen. Then one hen escaped for a few days. We thought something got her but she returned. She had mated with a wild turkey! We realized this when this Slate Blue hen had all wild looking babies a month later and our only male was also a Slate Blue color.