I have never cooked a full turkey on my own. Today will be my first time cooking a this glorious bird, in a new oven at that. I’m hosting a misfits Christmas dinner this even. If you know where I live, you could probably come and get some food as well.

First off I needed to figured out how long to cook it. I consulted my dad, who said 30 mins for every pound. Another article online said 16 mins per pound, while a friend said 20 mins per pound. I’m going to go with 20 mins per pound as the average and closely watch the meat thermometer.

I’ll update this post as I go along.

Update #1

I think the biggest thing people screw up when cooking a turkey is removing all the “goodies” inside. Sure, I knew they were there, but when I pulled out the neck and stuck my hand inside the bird, I didn’t think there was anything else. I was wrong. About an hour into the cooking, I reread the directions and noticed the park about fulling out the giblets from the neck area. So that happened.

I don’t know how long the turkey will actually take, so I’m closely watching the thermometer. Before putting the bird in the oven, I lathered it in butter, a lot of butter. I then put a small layering of bacon, because I like bacon.

We are coming on an hour and a half in the over and the bird is almost starting to read a number on the thermometer. I read somewhere to baste the bird every 30 mins. I attempted this but there was very little drippings in the bottom to work with. I’m hoping as the time goes by that more shows up so I can keep this turkey moist.

Also at this point the Turkey is uncovered in the hopes that a nice brown skin is created.