Lab-tested turkey tips

Will your bird pass our tests?

One of the first things I noticed when I came to ShopSmart was that our labs were always cooking turkeys—spring, summer, winter, fall, the season didn't matter. Birds were cooking away. I saw them being popped into the newest conventional ovens and those pricey, microwave-assisted speed ovens too. I saw them twirling around on rotisserie spits and also plunged into special turkey cooking gizmos—the safer, oil-free kind (though in past tests, we've deep-fried birds too). So for advice on knowing which cooking method is best for turning out the most delicious, succulent bird when the family gathers on Thanksgiving Day, I headed straight to our appliance testers.

As it turns out, many cooking appliances are judged on how well they cook a turkey, which is why the birds are used in so many of our tests. Our pros look for even golden color—there can be no scorching or white spots; nice crispy, crunchy skin, and moist, juicy, tender meat. If meat is on the dry side, the appliance loses points! And to make sure the appliances all have the same fair chance, we use meat thermometers to gauge when the birds have reached 165 degrees—the inner temperature the USDA says is safe. “You should use one even if your turkey has a pop-up indicator; they can be unreliable," says our appliance testing guru John Maccia.

So what's the secret to really great turkey? You'll get the best results in a regular oven or even on a grill, which we found can make birds that are nearly as tasty as those trendy deep-fried ones. Besides, roasting and grilling are a lot safer! And you can skip those oil-free turkey-fryer look-alikes; they may save fat and calories, but they tend to make dryer turkey. I also got some more tips from our testers that I'll be using the next time I roast a bird:

• Do use a shallow roasting pan—anything too deep ends up steaming the meat.
• Do season the bird inside and out with salt and pepper to taste and a spice rub mix of your choice.
• Don't cover the bird; if the skin is looking too dark and you have a lot of cooking time left, loosely cover just the breast with aluminum foil to keep the meat from drying out.
• Don't rely on the pop-up indicator. If you wait for it the turkey can overcook.
• Do use a meat probe or thermometer; when it registers 165 degrees, the turkey is done. The digital Polder THM-360 was the highest scorer in our tests.
• Do watch the bird like a hawk. To avoid a dry bird takes constant vigil! Check the thermometer every 10 or 15 minutes toward the end of cooking.