Your difficulties could stem from how you're positioning the probe. The point of the probe should be in the meatiest part of the thigh, as far from bone as possible. Bones conduct heat, so temperatures will be slightly higher near a bone. People have been successfully cooking turkeys since long before the advent of temperature probes. Some old tests to determine if the turkey was fully cooked include jiggling a drumstick, If it feels loose in the socket, the turkey is done. Another old test is to pierce the thigh. If the juices run clear, the turkey is done. Consult your mother or grandmother. Chances are, they'll have other methods. Barring that, use the probe set to a slightly lower temperature than is recommended. When the probe tells you that temperature has been reached, begin checking with an instant read thermometer in 2 or 3 places to ensure that temperature is consistent. Finally, let the turkey rest for at least 45 minutes after removing it from the oven. Just tent it with foil and set it in a draft-free spot. It will still be plenty hot after the rest. Resting allows the juices to be reabsorbed into the meat, so that they don't run all over your cutting board when you begin carving. In my experience, most dry turkeys are the result of carving without a sufficient resting.

Whatever size, I always put mine in the frig, and then on Wed AM (or you can do it after work) I take it out and put in a sink of cool water. Empty the water every 30 minutes or so and turn the bird over and fill with cool water again. When the breast and the back feel soft, drain and put in pan in frig overnight. You should be good to go Thursday AM. I usually try to get the giblets out of the body and neck cavity before putting in the frig. You can go ahead and simmer them in water Wednesday night. You can go ahead and do this today and just put in frig until Thursday. Whatever you do do not put the turkey on the counter or in the sink without using the water method. Our grandparents could get away with this, but with our modern turkeys it is not safe.

And if it's still frozen on Thursday! How To Cook a Frozen Turkey Yes, you really can roast a turkey from frozen — and it’s delicious. Here’s how to save the day. Oven-roasting is the way to go. Size translates to oven time for a whole turkey, and size will be an issue when you are faced with day-of choices in your grocer’s freezer. As in, the ideal 12- to 14-pounders will be long gone. Generally, a frozen bird needs to spend about 1 ½ times as long at a low-ish oven temperature (325 degrees); an unstuffed 19-pounder that takes almost 4 hours to roast from a fully thawed state will take 6 to 6 ½ hours from fully frozen. The pan you use for this is nonnegotiable. It needs to be low-walled so as much air as possible circulates around the bird. You have the technology at hand: • Seat an ovenproof wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet. • Hoist the bird onto the rack. • Move the middle oven rack down one level, keeping the lower rack in place (for reheating sides) and removing any upper rack. • Pour a cup of water into the pan. That’s it. At 2 ½ to 3 hours in, the turkey will be thawed enough for you to deal with the giblets packet, and deal with it you must. Chances are that it is either in the main or neck cavity. Remove the baking sheet from the oven just long enough to retrieve the packet via tongs. The packet’s contents will still be usable, whether the bag is made of food-safe plastic or paper. Even if you don’t plan to use it, you need to remove it, because leaving it in will cause the meat to be cooked unevenly around it. At that same time, you can use a small, sharp knife to cut a slit just under each drumstick, which is a Jacques Pepin trick to help that deep joint get cooked through.

My favorite is cornbread dressing, but bread dressing can be good, too. I have one rule when choosing bread to become dressing. That rule is that it can't be at all sweet in any way. That is, if the old fashioned sage and onion dressing is the objective. Sure, you could shake it up and make a dressing that incorporates some sweet things like fruit and nuts and sweet spices and a bread with a bit of sweetness to it if you so desired. But, for the savory version that seems to be the most popular, you need a totally non sweet bread with a good strong texture and you need to let it become "day old" before you cut it up. Even with my cornbread dressing, I add a bit of bread to the mix. But I don't use any sweet in the cornbread and I will use a home made bread, too. If I had to buy bread for dressing, I would do with something like a loaf of sourdough or a baguette. No way is the average sliced sandwich bread good for dressing. Most of it is too moist, too finely crumbed, too sweet, and has a structure that will just collapse into a wet mush, or worse.