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.

As trailrunner says, there are recipes on the website including one for turkey. Re the probe -- it's excellent for large pieces like roasts and needs to be inserted all the way in. I used autoroast for the turkey last year. The way I cooked turkey forever is to jump start it at 425 for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 325 for the remainder of the cooking. I tent the top with foil after the first 20 minutes. That's what autoroast does more or less. I usually do a 12 pound turkey, which always was done in about 3-1/2 hours. But the 325 is very gentle on autoroast, I baste and that loses oven heat and it takes 15 minutes or so to come back up to temperature. So with the basting and time lag to return to the right temperature, the turkey was taking too long. So I adjusted the temp up to 335 for the duration, which is my suggestion unless you don't plan to baste. My oven is very accurate and I've done the same recipe for 20 years. If this is the first time you're doing a big turkey, I'll make some suggestions to help it along. I remove mine from the fridge before I go to bed and put it in the laundry room sink -- not stuffed. My laundry room is cold -- 62 to 68 degrees. You don't want to do that in an 80 degree kitchen but if you have a colder room (my sister in law used her screen porch) it will help. I don't put raw egg in the stuffing and I stuff right before roasting. So I leave the stuffing out overnight also -- again in a cool room (62-68 degrees). (If you need a mushroom/sourdough stuffing recipe I'm glad to share, send me an email). I do chicken right on the rack but use a roasting pan for a big turkey. Last year, I got the probe into the turkey leg first then connected it in the oven -- either way it's tricky since something is hot. I managed to get it into the thickest part of the leg, not touching the bone. I'd be interested in what others have to say but with an 18-20 pound turkey I think you're looking at 5-1/2 to 6 hours of cooking time with the autoroast at 425-335 provided the turkey and stuffing are not refrigerator-cold and ajusting for the quickest possible basting 4 times during the cooking (unless you have someone strong to take the turkey out of the oven to baste). You could call Miele consumer help people to verify that.

Oh you guys, I love your pictures and descriptions!! Carolyn - is there any way to slow down the slide show? The frames pass so quickly it is impossible to study your technique. Rhome410 - so happy to see a link to your blog. I checked it out and am most impressed - I had an odd thing happen with my turkey - 19 # - miele web site suggested 2 and 1/2 hours on auto roast which was close to my past experience. I did put a spoonful or two of stuffing in the cavity just to give it flavor, and set the auto roast probe to 165. At 2 and 1/2 hours the probe hit temp, but the turkey didn't really look as brown as it has in the past, and the thigh didn't feel quite loose, so I left it another 30 minutes and checked with my own thermometer - 170 in the thigh and breast - 165 in the cavity. Removed the turkey and let rest for 30 min or so while I made gravy.(OK, major run on sentance, but that is how my mind is working today). Carving, the meat looked great - super moist, turned the turkey and found a very uncooked, almost raw, section of the thigh closest to the body. I am certain that this bird was completely thawed as it was brined the day before, and as I handled it prior to cooking there were no real cold spots. The only thing that I forgot to do was to let the turkey sit out for an hour or so before stuffing. I had it in the ice chest in the garage - so I guess it is possible that the thigh could have been up against the bag of ice . At any rate, we carved the entire turkey with the exception of the undercooked thigh and it was great. Fortunately I had made a batch of stuffing seperate from the bird so we used it and not any of the stuffing in the bird.

"dcarch, would you please share more info re the J. Pippin method. Do you put the whole frozen bird into an oven set at 145? For how long do you cook the bird? I am very interested, because I cook most meat/poultry pieces in a frozen state. Have never cooked a whole chicken or turkey in the frozen state, but am most interested in doing so. Just need more information. Thanks." Jacques Pépin’s (Spellcheck keeps on changing to Pippin ) method is to cut up the turkey, similar to what’s known as spatchcock method. Basically cutting up the turkey in sections to cook, making it easier not to overcook the bird. Safety in cooking is very important. Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas many people get sick from eating improperly prepared turkey, from thawing to cooking. Many refrigerators are not cold enough to thaw a frozen turkey for a few days, and not using a thermometer is highly questionable. My method requires the use of sous vide cooking equipment, which can heat up food much faster using moving hot water at a precisely digitally controlled temperature. Temperature for cooking using sous vide electronics can be accurate to less than one degrees. This allows the turkey to be thawed and cooked much faster and cooked to known safe temperature inside and out. You cannot try to cook at a low temperature because oven hot air cannot conduct heat as fast as hot circulating water, and oven temperature can be off by as much as 40 degrees. dcarch Guaranteed perfect results for every part of the turkey