I’m seeing many votes for Brining, which we’d planned on doing. We’d also bought an oven bag for turkeys. Would the Brining + oven bag together be overkill?
I’ve never understood what the logic behind those oven bags was.
A cousin of mine swears by them. She assured me that they keep the Turkey moist. (but then…I’ve never trusted that cousin…) 
I’ve used the bags for years, and when I started brining, I kept using them. It cuts down on the cooking time (a little bit - it’s not like you can cook a 25-pound bird in 30 minutes or anything), and also helps with keeping the bird moist.
I don’t understand all these problems with keeping a turkey moist. Shove it in a 450 oven, reduce the heat to 350-375; after 20 minutes or so, tent the breast with foil. Use a thermometer and baste frequently. Remove foil during last 20 minutes or so to brown the breast (for presentation). Voila! Moist turkey.
Agreed. The reason why most of these bizarre rituals “keep the turkey moist” is because it isn’t that dang hard to keep a turkey moist. Just don’t overcook it, or try to find a way to keep the breast from cooking as fast. I even think basting is largely a waste of time.
BiblioCat,
Thanks! This is very helpful! We’ll see how it turns out (the only other Turkey we’ve done is deep frying.)
Chefguy,
I personally become daunted by needing to baste frequently. (I would forget). 
Cook’s Illustrated doesn’t give a damn about basting and I don’t either. My turkeys are fantastic.
I didn’t baste mine last year once and it came out perfect, IMHO.
I think that the value of basting is not so much in keeping the bird moist (in fact, the reason for the skin is to keep moisture OUT), but to add flavor and crispness to the skin. Does it really help? I don’t know, but I’m not about to stop.
For people not salt averse, Cooks Illustrated has a “Dry Brining” technique that’s really good. You rub salt all over the thing, shove ice in the breast (so it cooks slower), then cook it upside down halfway and flip it for the final half (for the look).
I do it because my mother did it, and for no other reason. I like the crispness of the skin, I guess.
I’ve never basted, but I always get brown, crispy skin, even with the cooking bag.
Honesty, that sounds like a great reason to me. Plus, I guess you get to smell the turkey from up close more often.
Oh my god, my turkey…it’s…its SO JUICY! :eek:
Talked to a friend of mine who’s a good cook. He assured me that the salt won’t make things too salty, just flavorful. So I gave in and covered the bird with a combination of melted butter, garlic salt, the Lawry’s seasoning salt, and white pepper. I threw some onions and minced garlic on top and inside and turned in breast side down shoved it in the oven.
About 3-3:30 hours later, there was this OCEAN of juice! My god, did I have this much juice 2 years ago??? No, this must be more! It looks like the turkey snuck out of the oven and vampirically sucked out the juice from a dozen chickens! The oven pan was about 2-3 inches thick and it was overflowing! :eek: The soup we prepared was useless, we ended up drinking a lot of the juice and dunking the turkey burrito/soft taco into the juice like a beef dip.
Let me tell you, I have never had breasts so juicy in my life, turkey, chicken, or human. Because it was upside down and basically simmering in juice for hours, each bite was like medium rare prime rib. The meat fell off the bone when I tried to cut it, I didn’t get turkey slices so much as pulled turkey.
Add to that, I put a foil on it at 1:30 hours when I turned the heat down from 400 to 350. That apparently helped to preserve the crispiness of the skin outside. Either that or I lucked into the crisipiest, juiciest turkey in the world.
Anyways, thanks for all the help guys. Next year dinner’s on me! 