be on the roster year-round. (Turkey Association of
America, you can mail that check to my home address.) It’s
got more flavor than chicken, and everyone knows that
nothing beats leftover turkey for making soups, sandwiches,
and all manner of treats for the rest of the week.
In theory, roasting a turkey is not all that different from
roasting a chicken—the same basic problems and solutions
apply—it’s just a matter of adjusting scale and timing.

IF YOU follow food media, you may notice

that every single year, every magazine, blog, and television
show comes out with a brand-new recipe for roast turkey,
claiming it as the be-all-end-all-world’s-best-you’ll-never-
need-another recipe. Until the next year rolls around. Now,
one could give them all the benefit of the doubt and assume
that every year they’re telling the truth. If so, what a happy
world we live in, for, year after year, the quality of our roast
turkeys is progressing on a never-ending, sure-and-steady
upward path toward perfection.
Or you could go for the real answer: we food writers are
all liars.
OK, so it’s not so bad as all that. The truth is, there’s no
one best way to cook a turkey, and anybody who tells you
different is selling something, most likely a magazine or
book (wink wink). There is a near-endless list of goals and
restrictions, based on the tastes, skills, and time constraints
of different home cooks, and thus a near-endless supply of