8 years of turkeys from Trader Joe's and all were bad? I'd try anything else.

I've had the cheapest frozen birds from Safeway and I've had expensive birds, and all have been good.

How do you cook it? We've always done the high-heat method and it always works.

Well, I just did a "test" turkey, and it was a Jennie-O, 37 cents a pound at Meijer. I usually buy a locally raised, free range heritage bird for the big meal, but they are just too darned expensive to play with. I did not brine or pre-salt, but I did use the high heat roast method from Barbara Kafka, as I just bought a used copy of her book "Roasting", which is why I bought the cheap turkey, LOL. The only stuffing the bird had was fresh herbs from the garden and a quartered orange, rubbed the bird with some olive oil, added a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I find most of the commercial birds are injected with "flavor enhancer", which is just water or broth and salt, so I don't try to brine commercial birds. Check your label for the percentage of added "flavor enhancer", although they are all similar. The Jennie-O had 9.5% solution made of turkey broth, salt, sugar and some chemical or another, of course. Butterball has 8% water/salt/spices/natural flavor. Honeysuckle says they use no antibiotics, which I like, and has a 9.5% solution of turkey broth/salt/spices/natural flavor and goes on to say that the natural flavoring is celery and rosemary, but that the flavor isn't strong of those components. Those along with the Meijer store brand are the ones commonly found here in my small town and I think they are very similar, although Butterball is my least favorite and seems "mushy".

The pop up timers, though? Don't count on them, they will tell you when the breast meat is about ready, but the legs/thighs need to be a higher heat, keep using the real thermometer.

It was a 12+ pound turkey and took about 2 hours. The turkey was thawed and at room temperature, the oven at 500F. Bird in a pan, Kafka says 2 inches deep but all I had was my roasting pan and so I used that, it's about 4 inches deep. Rack 2nd from the bottom, turkey into the oven "feet first". Watch to be sure it doesn't get too dark on top, you can cover that with foil, but I didn't need to. Here's what it looked like, and I roasted it to 180F when tested in the deepest part of the thigh. Let it sit 20 minutes and then carved it. It was tender, juicy, even the breast was not dried out. And it was pretty fast.

Good luck, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Annie

I have been in charge of roasting the turkey for the past 65 years. They usually turn out delicious. It must be whatever you are doing, so let's begin there. How do you prepare the bird and how big is it, what pan do you use, what setting in the oven, timing, etc.?

Jennie-O just did a massive recall.

I don't know if you can get them there, but the best turkeys in SoCal are Diestel. In Northern California, and they do ship, are Willie Bird. I haven't cooked a Willie Bird, but I've eaten them, and the reputation is deserved.

If you have a local grower, that's probably going to be the best.

I love Butterball brand turkey. I always get frozen and about 15 to 18 pounds. It needs to go from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw today. I cook at 325* and it takes about 3 1/2 hours. I do the covered roaster pan, because no one in my family likes the skin and I carve the turkey before anyone gets here. If you want the pretty whole brown turkey cook like Annie's.

The Chef Alarm needs to be deep in the thigh, not touching the bone. When it goes off, still check for doneness in several places. They say 165* for turkey breast and 180* for the thighs. It needs about 3O minutes to rest after it comes out of the oven. Yes, the thighs will wiggle.

ETA: The newest advise is showing 165* for thighs and breasts, But I haven't ever had the thighs done at 165*. I cook the breasts to 165* and the thighs to at least 170*.

Do you stuff your bird? If you stuff the cavity with the dressing, it takes a lot longer to cook.

Is it COMPLETELY thawed? Once, I had ice inside and that took longer to cook.

Check your oven temperature. It could be incorrect.

Here is a link to a cooking blog I like. Elise has a lot of good hints to read about timing and the size turkey to buy.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_roast_turkey/

ETA: Butterball is a prebrined turkey, so you don't want to add any additional salt or brining of any kind. You do want to rub the skin with oil if doing the open roaster method. You can add the the celery and onion also, if you wish. If getting a plain turkey, you need to either wet brine or dry brine after thawing. That is why I like the Butterball, it skips a step.

The Jennie-O recall is for ground turkey, not the whole birds.

I have good luck with Jennie-O turkeys so I'm a repeat buyer. Best price that I could find was 47 cents a pound w/ $25 additional purchase. (I'm in WI though and don't know how widely J-O's are distributed.

ETA: I use a cooking bag and cook the bird in a Nesco roaster. Only problem is that the skin doesn't get brown in the Nesco. We always serve the meat sliced off anyway, so it doesn't matter. I guess you could use a small torch to brown the skin if that is important.

Given that the 'new' oven sounds like it may have problems, if I were in your shoes, I would buy one of the big Nescos. AND, if you decide to go with a frozen bird, you need to get it today or tomorrow so it will have time to thaw in the refrigerator.

The Jennie-O recall is for ground turkey and raw turkey pet products. But

my news says salmonella is also being found in whole processed

turkeys and live turkeys. I would stay away from any Jennie-o turkeys.

As long as the turkey is appropriately cooked to a safe temperature, salmonella shouldn't be an issue, but it's one of the reasons I didn't stuff the bird, I wanted to be sure it was done completely. That's why I also tested at 180F in the thigh.

Of course, if your guests include the elderly, or anyone with compromised immune systems, or small children, then I'd avoid any risk that might be associated with the turkey recall. Other than that, cook the turkey completely, no matter the brand, and the salmonella will not be an issue.

Annie

I like the store brand turkey from Bi-Lo, a grocery here in the southeast. As mentioned above, Honeysuckle can be mushy and I stopped buying them years ago.

I use a version of the high heat method, but learned from my mother, not Kafka. I wrap the bird using two long pieces of heavy duty al foil in a disposable roasting pan or other large pan such as 9 X 13. Roast at 450 degrees for 2 hours or so until it reads the temperature you want (thighs at least 160), then fold back the foil and return to the oven to brown. This method keeps the bird moist and gives you plenty of pan juices to add to your gravy. I have a time chart for this method from Redbook Cookbook if you would like more specific information.

The method I’ve used has been exactly the same all years, following timetable in my vintage Betty Crocker cookbook (which always worked until I got the new oven).

The new oven has a convection setting, which I don’t use. We used that for the first bad bird and never since. That was the “half raw and half overcooked” one). One down side for this oven is that the oven itself is not deep, thanks to the fan at the back. I even have to put cookie sheets in sideways, ditto the big roasting pan.

I wish I still had time to do a test turkey! It would be challenging to eat it all, though, with just 2 of us at home. I have not tried any high heat method.

FWIW, we do not stuff the turkey. None of us like stuffing.

Junco, I would appreciate your time chart for this method. Thank you.

Here is a picture of the chart from Redbook. It is quite old so it has 180 degrees as the temp to cook to. I think 160 is now standard.

Junco, I see this chart lists stuffed turkeys. Do you roast yours unstuffed, and if so, how much less time? Thanks