The last of your Thanksgiving turkey may be a frozen container of soup, but Christmas is looming, and in my husband's family, that means yet another turkey. If you, too, are facing a double turkey whammy and don't want to repeat your Thanksgiving approach to cooking the bird, consider my mother's method: long and slow and upside down. Like Gourmet's simple roast turkey, which cooks undisturbed in a hot oven for two hours, the upside-down version is fuss-free.
There's no need to baste because gravity does the work, drawing the juices from the dark meat down into the leaner breast. The dark meat sits higher in the oven and cooks faster, while the breast is protected down under. Even after it's roasted, my brother (the family turkey chef) keeps it upside down while it rests for 30 minutes and doesn't turn it right side up until he's ready to carve. His 16-pound turkey took about three hours at 325 degrees to get to 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the breast (the USDA's new turkey temperature). The good news for me was that when the breast was ready, the dark meat was at 175 degrees, where I like it to be—cooked through, not barely cooked, the way it would be at 165 degrees. And what about the all-important skin? Forget about crisp skin on the breast—it's going to be flabby. It's the skin on the bottom of the turkey that turns into something fabulous. It's thick and rich in fat, so when it gets its chance to be up high and exposed to the oven's dry heat, it gets crispier than breast skin ever does. But be advised: When turned right side up, the bird is downright ugly, not something to bring proudly to the table whole. Instead, carve it in the kitchen and present it already sliced. One last tip: If you've stuffed the turkey, don't bother taking the temperature of the stuffing. When the breast meat tests done, get the turkey out of the oven and scoop the stuffing into a baking dish, then cover it with foil and finish baking it, covered, until it reaches 165 degrees.
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