# High heat oven roasting for a juicy bird



## 97guns (Nov 28, 2013)

ive gone high heat for the past 4 or 5 years and have never had a dry turkey

i go 500 for the first 45 minutes - hour then around 475 for a couple hours more, usually takes 3 hours for an unstuffed 20# bird

my hand me down family tip is to cover/wrap the bird with a brown paper grocery bag


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## GotGarlic (Nov 28, 2013)

I can't remember the last time I had a dry turkey. I brushed it with canola oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and have it set at 350° with a meat probe in it; I'm planning to take it out when the breast reaches 155° and let it rest for at least 1/2 hour, which should bring the breast up to 165. Perfect


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## salt and pepper (Nov 28, 2013)

97guns said:


> ive gone high heat for the past 4 or 5 years and have never had a dry turkey
> 
> i go 500 for the first 45 minutes - hour then around 475 for a couple hours more, usually takes 3 hours for an unstuffed 20# bird
> 
> my hand me down family tip is to cover/wrap the bird with a brown paper grocery bag


 

    I like the high heat for my bird too. Always comes out great.


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## jennyema (Nov 28, 2013)

Tough to make gravy with high heat, though.

I do use it for chicken though


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## salt and pepper (Nov 28, 2013)

jennyema said:


> Tough to make gravy with high heat, though.
> 
> I do use it for chicken though


 
  Jenny, I cook mine at 450 so there is plenty of stock to made gravy.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 28, 2013)

How does the turkey cooking temperature affect the stock?


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## Andy M. (Nov 28, 2013)

There are any number of different methods to cook a turkey and have it come out moist.  Truth is, if you don't overcook it, it won't be dry.  Simple as that.  

So cook it breast side up or breast side down, use high heat, use low heat, use a combination of high and low,  turn it sideways and jump up and down on your left foot for five minutes every hour.  Any one or all of those methods will do the trick as long as you don't over cook it.


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## bethzaring (Nov 28, 2013)

Andy M. said:


> So cook it breast side up or breast side down, use high heat, use low heat, use a combination of high and low, turn it sideways and jump up and down on your left foot for five minutes every hour. Any one or all of those methods will do the trick as long as you don't over cook it.


 
LOL, no wonder some aspects of cooking remain a mystery to me


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## jennyema (Nov 29, 2013)

salt and pepper said:


> Jenny, I cook mine at 450 so there is plenty of stock to made gravy.



Do you mean drippings?

The smoke (burning) point of melted turkey fat is way below 450.  They burn unless you fill up the pan with water and then you don't get any fond.

I'm a fan of high heat roasting, just not on T-giving when I want tasty gravy.


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## Addie (Nov 29, 2013)

Didn't someone mention that they made "Better Than Bullion" for turkey?


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## GotGarlic (Nov 29, 2013)

Addie said:


> Didn't someone mention that they made "Better Than Bullion" for turkey?



I think PF mentioned she found boxed turkey broth. Broth is not drippings, though. The caramelized fond on the bottom of the pan is essential for great turkey gravy.


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## Addie (Nov 29, 2013)

I took a looksee at Amazon. They make Better Than Bullion for everything. Including Vegetarian and Seafood. Both regular and organic. They even have a spiral bound cookbook for the product. It has 250 recipes.


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## jennyema (Nov 29, 2013)

GotGarlic said:


> I think PF mentioned she found boxed turkey broth. Broth is not drippings, though. The caramelized fond on the bottom of the pan is essential for great turkey gravy.




Absolutely!  And fond will burn not carmelize at 450


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## Whiskadoodle (Nov 29, 2013)

I like to put the bird in the oven at 450.  close the door and lower the temp to 325.   

 Dx  covered the turkey with an old (clean) cotton dish towel,  poured 2 sticks melted butter and put yesterday's turkey in at 325 and said it will be done in 6 hours.   Even with opening the oven and basting pretty often,  it was cooked to temp just under 6 hours.  It was moist and tasty.

 Made the gravy in the roaster while it rested.  I can't believe I made 2 kettles gravy in a row that came out tasting good.  I never make huge pots of gravy.


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## Janet H (Nov 29, 2013)

I'm not sure if this is a turkey cook temp debate of a gravy debate but here's my 2 cents..

I also do a high heat turkey and there are fewer pan drippings BUT the ones there are more concentrated in flavor.  At thanksgiving when an abundance of gravy is needed (and the drippings aren't enough) there is a good workaround.

Make a roux (a browned one) and use low salt chicken stock to make gravy. Add some sage, garlic and lots of cracked pepper.  Make a lot and make it a little too thick. Do this ahead of time. Don't skip the browning of the roux - it adds an deep nutty flavor to the end product that is important. 

Once the bird is cooked, pull the bird out of the pan, skim off some fat and add the condensed pan drippings (scrape every last bit out of the turkey pan) to the gravy. Magic will happen to that gravy....


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## Whiskadoodle (Nov 29, 2013)

I might could try higher temp roasting a whole chicken.    Does the skin get brown(er) or crisper using a higher temp?  

 The advantage of cooking a bird longer at a lower temp is you get to watch more of the football games.   I got to watch most of the Detroit GB game yesterday.   After that, we were busy, or at least occupied talking with guests.


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## Caslon (Nov 29, 2013)

Off the subject a little bit, but my sister in law cooks turkey well, but has a habit of opening the oven door, pulling out the rack to baste it.  The thing is, it drops the oven temp quite a bit because she takes her time basting it.  She does this quite a few times during cooking. I've always been of the mind to try and keep the bird cooking with as few oven cool downs as possible. Are many successive oven cool downs somewhat harmful to making the turkey cook up as best it can, or does it matter (takes longer)?

I'd be scared if she was able to read this, btw.


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## Addie (Nov 30, 2013)

Caslon said:


> Off the subject a little bit, but my sister in law cooks turkey well, but has a habit of opening the oven door, pulling out the rack to baste it.  The thing is, it drops the oven temp quite a bit because she takes her time basting it.  She does this quite a few times during cooking. I've always been of the mind to try and keep the bird cooking with as few oven cool downs as possible. Are many successive oven cool downs somewhat harmful to making the turkey cook up as best it can, or does it matter (takes longer)?
> 
> I'd be scared if she was able to read this, btw.



If she were to put a creased piece of foil loosely across the top of the bird while it is roasting, it would self baste. Take it off the last half hour and the breast will brown nicely. You might ask her if she is open to a suggestion. And then let her know about the heat loss and how to correct it. Or you could make it sound like you have a friend that does their bird another way. The thing is not to attack her method, but to offer or suggest another means of accomplishing the same effect.


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## Caslon (Nov 30, 2013)

Addie said:


> If she were to put a creased piece of foil loosely across the top of the bird while it is roasting, it would self baste. Take it off the last half hour and the breast will brown nicely. You might ask her if she is open to a suggestion. And then let her know about the heat loss and how to correct it. Or you could make it sound like you have a friend that does their bird another way. The thing is not to attack her method, but to offer or suggest another means of accomplishing the same effect.




Noted...like I said, I'd be scared to tell her how to cook a turkey.  It's just that she opens the oven door and keeps it open a long time.     The oven temp drops like...100F or something while she bastes and tests the turkey temp.  She does this numerous times during cooking.  I guess it doesn't matter.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 30, 2013)

I'm curious to know what she thinks the basting accomplishes. I quit doing that years ago. I brush canola oil over the skin, then sprinkle with salt and pepper and don't baste at all. The skin gets golden and crispy because the fat renders from under it and the oil on top of it (butter works, too, but not at high heat), not because drippings are drizzled over it. 

My oven came with a probe thermometer; I set the desired finished temp I want and it beeps when it gets there. The display also shows the temp as it rises so I can keep track. 

You could buy her a probe thermometer with a wireless remote and suggest that it would save her some effort since she wouldn't have to check the temp as often. I think opening the oven door frequently does lengthen the time it takes to cook.

ETA: Check out #10 - http://www.gourmetspot.com/listturkey.htm


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## Whiskadoodle (Nov 30, 2013)

I admit I know there is heat loss when basting.  And I basted approx. per half hour the last 2 hours.  It takes time to pull out the rack, so you can get at the bird and dibble up some drippings with a baster and repeat.  I figure that  just makes it seem like you are cooking low and slow, although that wasn't the goal.  The turkey came up to temp just at 15 minutes well before the old 15-18-20 minutes/ lb that cooking instrux offer before I had a probe to check it.  

 G G did you cover your turkey with foil or a foil tent? 
 --

 New question.  What is the purpose of a Roaster Cover?  It doesn't fit once a turkey is in the roaster.  I think if you covered it, it would steam rather than roast.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 30, 2013)

Whiskadoodle said:


> I admit I know there is heat loss when basting.  And I basted approx. per half hour the last 2 hours.  It takes time to pull out the rack, so you can get at the bird and dibble up some drippings with a baster and repeat.  I figure that  just makes it seem like you are cooking low and slow, although that wasn't the goal.  The turkey came up to temp just at 15 minutes well before the old 15-18-20 minutes/ lb that cooking instrux offer before I had a probe to check it.
> 
> G G did you cover your turkey with foil or a foil tent?
> --
> ...



I tented it loosely with foil after two hours because the skin was browning really well by then.

I've never had a roasting pan with a cover, but my guess is that it could be used to turn the roaster into a braiser.


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## Addie (Nov 30, 2013)

GG, I had one when I first got married. I used to roast whole chickens in it. My husband brought it to the marriage. It does a beautiful job on chickens. They do have bigger ones for turkeys. The purpose is to do away with basting. My roaster had a vent on the sides. It controlled the amount of heat maintained inside the roaster. I used it for all roasts. Loved it. Don't know what happened to it. I think I sent a dinner to someone in it and never got it back.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 30, 2013)

Addie said:


> GG, I had one when I first got married. I used to roast whole chickens in it. My husband brought it to the marriage. It does a beautiful job on chickens. They do have bigger ones for turkeys. The purpose is to do away with basting. My roaster had a vent on the sides. It controlled the amount of heat maintained inside the roaster. I used it for all roasts. Loved it. Don't know what happened to it. I think I sent a dinner to someone in it and never got it back.



Basting was never necessary; it's one of those things people believed and passed on, even though there was never any evidence for it.

It seems to me that cooking poultry in a covered pan would cause it to steam, as Whiska said, and so it wouldn't brown and get crispy. Was that your experience, Addie?


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## Addie (Nov 30, 2013)

GotGarlic said:


> Basting was never necessary; it's one of those things people believed and passed on, even though there was never any evidence for it.
> 
> It seems to me that cooking poultry in a covered pan would cause it to steam, as Whiska said, and so it wouldn't brown and get crispy. Was that your experience, Addie?



No. My roaster had vents in the two sides. So the steam escaped. What didn't go out the vents, went to the top of the lid and fell down on the bird, constantly basting it. The roaster also had a low rack so that the bird did not sit in any accumulated juices that were emitted from the bird. I always put the bird in just seasoned and dry. No liquid. The bird made its own juices. Enough for a gravy. The two vents were adjustable and I could control the amount of heat that remained in the roaster. I usually (if I remember right) opened the one all the way where the head was and closed the one where the bottom of the legs were. That way, the breast browned without being soggy. Yet it still got basted. I never had a dry bird. 

I also used this roaster for a pot roast. For that I would close both vents as I wanted it to collect all the juices from the piece of beef. Halfway through, I would turn the piece of beef over. Always tender and moist.  

As my husband was a pro chef, he had this on any job he worked at. It was his personal roaster.


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## Addie (Nov 30, 2013)

Granite Ware Covered Rectangular Roaster | CHEFScatalog.com

My roaster was similar to this one only it was heavy aluminum and had vents. Take a look at some of the reviews and you will see why so many folks think a roaster is the way to go.


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## Caslon (Nov 30, 2013)

The  big vented roasting pan that comes with the oven that a lot of people never utilize?


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## Whiskadoodle (Nov 30, 2013)

Thanks for your explanations. 

 I'm pretty sure Dx gave away her big roaster like Addie's as her brother in recent years hosted T'sgiving, but now he's switching to Christmas,  so we had turkey day this year.  

Braising. That was the word I was trying to think of. I guess when you braise, it steams too. The roaster we used is more like the one pictured below, and it may not be as deep as this one looks or else the bird was almost as big as the pan. as there was no ability for any self basting. It sat on a flat trivet ( for lifting), but it stewed in its own juices, so to speak.

 Well,  the bottom line is the bird was moist, flavorful and juicy.    For some reason I don't worry about that when I (rarely )  roast a whole chicken uncovered and it's not basted.  And yes, it might get tented w/ foil if it starts to brown too much on top before it's done.   I think the size of a turkey seems more daunting.


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## jennyema (Nov 30, 2013)

Caslon said:


> Off the subject a little bit, but my sister in law cooks turkey well, but has a habit of opening the oven door, pulling out the rack to baste it.  The thing is, it drops the oven temp quite a bit because she takes her time basting it.  She does this quite a few times during cooking. I've always been of the mind to try and keep the bird cooking with as few oven cool downs as possible. Are many successive oven cool downs somewhat harmful to making the turkey cook up as best it can, or does it matter (takes longer)?
> 
> I'd be scared if she was able to read this, btw.



I always thought basting was pointless and complicated.  Then Alton Brown confirmed it.

Skin is a moisture barrier.  That's why you push butter under it.

Basting doesn't do anything meaningful on any front.


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## Addie (Nov 30, 2013)

Whiskadoodle said:


> Thanks for your explanations.
> 
> I'm pretty sure Dx gave away her big roaster like Addie's as her brother in recent years hosted T'sgiving, but now he's switching to Christmas,  so we had turkey day this year.
> 
> ...



That roaster has the handle on the top. It will often interfere with fitting the pan in the oven if the oven is on the small size. Like an apartment size stove. Mine had the handles on the side and made it much easier to remove the lid. Dang, I miss that roaster. Now that I think of it, I believe my sister borrowed it and never returned it. Now she's gone and I will never know what happened to it.


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## taxlady (Nov 30, 2013)

jennyema said:


> I always thought basting was pointless and complicated.  Then Alton Brown confirmed it.
> 
> Skin is a moisture barrier.  That's why you push butter under it.
> 
> Basting doesn't do anything meaningful on any front.


Sure it does. It gives you extra opportunities to burn your hands by brushing against the grates or sides or top of the oven. 

When I think about it, basting doesn't really make any sense. I won't be doing it anymore, at least not for birds.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 2, 2013)

Addie said:


> No. My roaster had vents in the two sides. So the steam escaped. What didn't go out the vents, went to the top of the lid and fell down on the bird, constantly basting it.



It seems weird that an environment moist enough to constantly baste/wet the skin was dry enough to crisp it.


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## Addie (Dec 3, 2013)

GotGarlic said:


> It seems weird that an environment moist enough to constantly baste/wet the skin was dry enough to crisp it.



True, but the secret is that the lids do not fit tightly thus a lot of the steam can escape. Yet enough remains so that you can have juices left for gravy. On my roaster, it was lost through the vents on the side. It does defy logic, but for some crazy reason, it works. A lovely browned turkey breast with moist meat. You have a Norman Rockwell turkey for the holidays.


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## auntdot (Dec 6, 2013)

First married, no $, just moved into very tired apartment, summer.  Found turkeys on sale at ridiculously low price and purchased a relatively small one.  Put in oven at 375 or so (long time ago - memory fade).  Hour and a few minutes later peeked - sure looked done.  Was a tad dry, but pretty good bird.

 Bought oven thermometer, found oven had two temps - off and tropics in Hades (well over 500 degrees).  Learned a whole lot about high temp roasting until lease ran out.

 Now inject with melted butter, roast at 375 with breast down until about an hour before anticipated doneness, then flip over.  Check thereafter carefully with good instant read thermometer. Very juicy birds.


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## bethzaring (Dec 6, 2013)

auntdot said:


> First married, no $, just moved into very tired apartment, summer. Found turkeys on sale at ridiculously low price and purchased a relatively small one. Put in oven at 375 or so (long time ago - memory fade). Hour and a few minutes later peeked - sure looked done. Was a tad dry, but pretty good bird.
> 
> Bought oven thermometer, found oven had two temps - off and tropics in Hades (well over 500 degrees). Learned a whole lot about high temp roasting until lease ran out.
> 
> Now inject with melted butter, roast at 375 with breast down until about an hour before anticipated doneness, then flip over. Check thereafter carefully with good instant read thermometer. Very juicy birds.


 
auntdot's back!  Good to see you.

Funny story


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## CarolPa (Dec 6, 2013)

I have a deep aluminum roaster that was my mother's and usually use that for turkey, without the lid.  This year, since I was cooking 2 turkeys, I used 2 smaller pans so they would both fit in the oven.  They each had a V-shaped rack that came with them.  This kept the turkey up away from the accumulated drippings, and since the pans were not deep they were just sitting up high in the oven.  I also used the "convection roast" feature of the oven.  They were nicely browned all over because they were not sitting down in the deep pan, and the breast meat was very moist and tasty.  This is how I will do my turkeys from now on.  Also, I was cooking them at 325 and when they appeared to be getting done too soon I turned the oven down to 300.  Convection cooks faster than the regular oven, I think.


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## Roll_Bones (Dec 11, 2013)

I am old school.
325° for the entire roasting time.
I brush the bird with oil or butter and heavily season the outside and the inside.
I roast breast side down for 1/2 roasting time.
I always use a rack.
I never baste or open the oven accept to check with a temp probe or to turn it over.

It works well for me.  Moist meat and crispy skin.


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## Mad Cook (Dec 6, 2016)

Whiskadoodle said:


> I admit I know there is heat loss when basting.  And I basted approx. per half hour the last 2 hours.  It takes time to pull out the rack, so you can get at the bird and dibble up some drippings with a baster and repeat.  I figure that  just makes it seem like you are cooking low and slow, although that wasn't the goal.  The turkey came up to temp just at 15 minutes well before the old 15-18-20 minutes/ lb that cooking instrux offer before I had a probe to check it.
> 
> G G did you cover your turkey with foil or a foil tent?
> --
> ...


I used to have one of these inherited from my Mother when she moved house. OK for pot-roast or braising with only a little liquid. The lid probably has "pimples" which are supposed to collect steam of fat and baste the contents. I ended up using mother's mainly as a stew pot


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## GotGarlic (Dec 6, 2016)

You sure have a knack for turning up old threads  This one's three years old


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## Addie (Dec 6, 2016)

Mad Cook said:


> I used to have one of these inherited from my Mother when she moved house. OK for pot-roast or braising with only a little liquid. The lid probably has "pimples" which are supposed to collect steam of fat and baste the contents. I ended up using mother's mainly as a stew pot



I have one and it has vents that are adjustable at each end of the cover. I will be using it today for the fresh pork shoulder roast.


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