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The best ways to roast a turkey is something which most people in the Western world tend to ponder towards year end, be it in the lead up to Thanksgiving in the USA or Christmas on a wider scale across the globe. There are a great many people who have their traditional family method of roasting a turkey which they will never vary but equally, there are those who are constantly on the look-out for new and innovative practises.

The most important factor of course when considering the best ways to roast a turkey is the safety aspect. It is imperative that the turkey be properly prepared for the oven and that it be cooked for the correct length of time if one is to ensure that it is safe to eat. Turkey is exactly the same as chicken and most other fowl in that it must never be eaten in any way under-cooked.

Fresh turkey should be stored in the refrigerator after purchase but removed at least three hours before beginning cooking and allowed to reach room temperature. Frozen turkey should be defrosted in the refrigerator per the packaging guidelines and allowed to reach room temperature in a similar sense prior to cooking. The giblets - which are likely to be in the body cavity - should be removed and discarded at this stage, unless they are to be used for some unrelated purpose. The turkey should then be washed thoroughly under running water and patted dry with a clean dish towel.

The oven should be switched on to pre-heat at this stage - while the final preparations are made to the turkey - to an initial 425F/220C/Gas Mark 7. This is simply to get the turkey up to a high heat in the first instance prior to the heat being reduced to 325F/170C/Gas Mark 3 after around half an hour, for the remainder of the cooking time.

The roasting tray upon which the turkey is to be cooked should be covered in aluminium foil, one sheet lengthwise and one sheet across the way, of sufficient length that the two sheets may subsequently be folded up and over the bird to loosely seal it in a foil package. The turkey should then be stuffed, prior to sitting it on the tray. There are theories that the neck only of the bird should be stuffed as stuffing in the main cavity can soak up uncooked juices and cause food poisoning. This, however, is likely only to be the case where the turkey or the stuffing has not been allowed to reach room temperature prior to going in the oven and what the initial high cooking time is partly designed to avoid. The turkey should be weighed after it is stuffed

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