Turkey - what should I be doing?

[MotherofTerriers]

Asking for advice about the Christmas turkey
In general, I’m a good cook. But I’m not good at cooking the Christmas turkey. I buy a Kelly bronze from my local butcher, cook it upside down, rest it for an hour or so. One year it was absolutely perfect, but I don’t know what I did differently that year.
The turkey is supplied with a thermometer. Last year it reached the advised temperature more quickly than I expected but was clearly not cooked through – still bleeding.
When I was growing up my mother cooked the turkey overnight, putting it in a very low oven Christmas eve. I have happy memories of waking up Christmas morning smelling cooked turkey. We tend to eat Christmas dinner late-ish, but I could slow roast from early Christmas morning.

I’m wondering about asking the butcher to separate legs from crown, then I could slow braise the legs (the best bit) and roast the breast separately. I’d lose presentation marks but it might be easier
Any tips? What am I doing wrong? I’m frustrated, its an expensive meat which should be treated with respect and I’m not doing justice to it. Give me a beef fillet/rib roast or a leg of lamb and I do a cracking job.

Where do you put the thermometer?
I would get a decent one rather than the free one it comes with and stuck it deep into the thickest part of the leg

Do you have an oven thermometer? I mean the kind that you hang off the bars of an oven shelf that tells you the temp of the oven, rather than the kind that you stick into the meat?
Oven temperature can vary wildly from the temp it’s supposed to be. And you may find hot/cold spots too.
I turn the turkey several times while cooking and I test the temperature in several different spots. IF the thermometer touches bone it may read higher than the temperature of the meat. That may be what happened last year.
Other things to consider to figure out the difference between the two years: as the oven cold or pre heated to start? Did you cook from the fridge or from room temp? Was there a difference in weight? Did you stuff? And if so did you calculate the weight after stuffing (I use a luggage scales to do this)

Get your turkey out of the fridge 30 minutes before you cook it. You’ll get less shrinkage when it goes into a hot oven.
Preheat oven to 200C. Always preheat your oven for at least 20 minutes.
Put the turkey in the tin breast side up. Spread the turkey breast with some butter and cover it with rashers of bacon. Cover loosely with foil. Place in the oven and roast for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 170°C. Remove the bacon (use later to accompany when serving). Turn it over so it is breast side down, then return to the oven and cook for 2 hours. Take the foil off at least 30 minutes before it's due to come out, to get some nice colour.
You can tell if it's done when the juices run clear from the thigh if you pierce it with a knife or a skewer.Turkeys between 4-6kg should be restedfor 1½ hours. Rest it breast-side down as the juices then flow into the breast meat. The skin isn't as crisp, but the flavour and texture is fantastic.

Is that fan oven temperature please?

Getting all meat out of the fridge a good hour or so before cooking, helps the muscles of the meat relax (really obvious with beef/steak). Ideally leaving till it gets to room temperature. Again, leaving it to sit after cooking as well.

Thanks everyone. I do have a decent thermometer. New oven this year which will make a difference I suppose. Don’t stuff the bird, not fridge cold going into the oven and plenty of resting time. But apart from the one year it turned out really well, it’s often a bit on the tough side.

here is a link to his website that gives the instructions for different weights of turkeys

Have you considered the turkey? We always buy higher quality free range birds but I had a revelation last year that my Mum doesn't and the turkey I ate growing up was a supermarket one, often frozen and defrosted and cooked overnight on Christmas Eve, I remember waking to the smell of it too
Free range slow growing turkeys can be a little tougher denser, much more so than FR chickens. I did a stuffed boneless crown last year which was beautiful if I do say so myself but I missed the dark meat.

Dense is a good word for it. And I do want a higher welfare bird that’s been running around. That’s why I wondered about splitting it and slow roasting the legs then the crown at a higher temperature

I often get excellent results the first time I try a recipe and then not so much when I wing it the second time, perfectly confident that I know what I’m doing
If you followed a recipe the first time it might be worth going back over it.
(Sorry if this sounds patronizing! It’s not meant that way!)

I think that sounds like a good compromise OP. I might follow suit and have a go at confiting the legs this year.

I always wondered why my turkey wasn't as good as my mum's and I think I was just used to standard turkey, the slower growing ones are a different texture

I always put slices of butter under the skin, cook in foil slowly at about 140c then give it a final hot blast for 10/15 minutes at 200c to crisp the skin. I only ever buy the crown though as no one eats the dark meat.

I've used Nigellas brining recipe for the past three turkeys I've cooked and it really does give a nice juicy bird.

Two questions:

Are "bronze" birds tougher? I've ordered one this year.

How the jeff do you turn your turkeys? I tried once and it all sort of collapsed. I do now have proper big forks now though.

I only do a turkey crown as no one eats the legs.
I place it upside down on a wire rack in my largest roasting pan. I fill the bottom of the pan with water and then cover the whole thing with foil and roast slowly. I check the water level every hour and top up if needed. Be careful as you open the foil as the steam produced can burn.
Produces a lovely moist bird.

Ooo GruffaloStick, confit legs sound much more appealing. I was thinking slow roast with liquid, but if I got lots of duck/goose fat.....
I think my basic problem might be that for a bird that has spent its time running up and down hills and weight training, the time needed to tenderise the legs will give me an overlooked/dry breast.