Thanksgiving > Turkey TipsNovember 15, 2005

Turkey Baking Tip

At Thanksgiving and Christmas I buy the biggest turkey I can find - usually 20-25 pounds. Then I stuff it about 9 pm the night before and put it in a 350 degree F oven for one hour. After that I turn it down to 250 degrees for the rest of the night and wake up to the most fabulous smells ever!

My mom used to do it this way and I have always done it this way and no one has even gotten sick. In the morning you will have a pan full of juice to suction out for gravy and then depending on the size of the bird, I might turn it up to 350 again for an hour or so before I serve it.

Always use a deep pan to catch the juices and cover with foil.
Oh and I peel my potatoes and let them sit in water overnight in a cool spot (either fridge or in the garage) so all I have to do next morning is cook them! Saves so much time! Enjoy your holidays!
Enjoy the holidays!

By Starlight from North Platte, NE

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By
11/21/2005

Make sure that you let the turkey set out of the oven for 20-30 minutes before carving. Otherwise you will lose all the juices. PS I've used this method and it works wonderfully.
Susan from ThriftyFun

By Starlight (Guest Post) 11/21/2005

Mousie - I would turn it to 250 and leave it until you are 1/2 hour from serving - then up to 350 making sure you baste it every 1/2 hour or so to keep it moist! That last 1/2 hour you can remove the foil to brown up the bird if you want! Enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving..

By
11/20/2005

Starlight...If you don't eat till 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon do you leave the turkey in the oven at 275 till then or do you turn it lower? I'm glad you posted this!!!

By
11/19/2005

My Aunt Dollie was the turkey cooker in our family.Because it was so many years ago,she had no foil to cover the bird. She used a clean white flour sack.And since I sometimes spent the night before, would watch her take it out to check it during the night.I remember that the flour sack looked scorched,but that didn't matter when it came time to eat. Boy, Turkey tasted alot better then.GG Vi

By
11/17/2005

I also bake turkey all night but in the roaster, same as you did in the oven. So juicy and tender, done it for many years and no body got sick. The best drippings for gravy. If you want it browner, set in oven for 1/2 hr. although I don't just right for us.

RE: Turkey Baking Tip

By
11/16/2005

I would be afraid to leave my oven on all night.

By Diana (Guest Post) 11/16/2005

I have not tried this with mashed potatoes but...hear you can mash and then place in the crockpot until time to serve
does this work?

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