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How to cook a juicy turkey is not as easy as it seems, and this is especially true if your turkey is not top quality. Once I thought that a turkeys was a turkey that basically there was little difference between a fresh young turkey that had lived happily on a well adjusted farm before being shipped to a slaughter house and an old tom or hen turkey that had been frozen a year or two hence.

This past November I leaned better; it was a lesson well learned. The week after thanksgiving, I purchased a sale turkey simply because the price was so low I thought I was almost stealing it. Truth is, had I known how terrible it was, I would not have accepted it had it been offered to me for nothing. Even after cooking it for several hours it never got tender.

I ended up throwing most of it out since every bite I took made me care less and less for turkey on the plate and more and more for reliable directions on not only how to cook a juicy turkey but how to purchase one. This bird must have been either old when slaughtered, frozen for a year or so and reconstituted and passes off as fresh, or an old bird who had for years escaped slaughter.

Now, how do you cook a juicy turkey. The first thing you do, as I have already said, is to be sure you buy a bird of quality. They are not all equal. Then assuring yourself of this, read the directions carefully on the package. Even if you think you do not need to know that information, your packers may know more about this particular bird than you do. Not all are equal in the turkey business.

First of all wash it in clear water and remove the pouches from the openings and rinse well and pat the bird dry. Season the inside with a little salt and a lemon cut up in halves or quarters and possibly a stalk or two of celery and an onion. These will be discarded later. Rub the outside of the turkey with butter after you have tucked the legs under the band of skin at the tail end, or tie them with twine.

You place the bird on a roasting rack with breast side up and roast at 325 degrees. Generally, it takes about twenty minutes for every pound or until your meat thermometer registers 180 degrees Fahrenheit. The meat thermometer should be inserted on an inside thigh. (On some turkeys, especially those with quality, little pegs are inserted that will pop up when the bird is done; however, I have found these are not always reliable.

Drape the pan loosely with foil. At the last thirty or forty minutes of cooking remove the foil to allow the bird to brown. I add a little water to the pan but this is not absolutely necessary. During the cooking procedure check and baste once or twice but this this may hinder the cooking process by allowing some of the oven heat to escape. Use your own judgment. Another easier method is to enclose the turkey in a plastic cooking bag. This goes a long way to creating a juicy turkey. Or wrapping the turkey in aluminum foil works well too.

Generally, most people prefer to make the stuffing as a side dish instead of stuffing the turkey. It is a personal choice. One caution, to assure the turkey is not dried out, don't overcook. A tender young turkey will cook easily; yet is is necessary to be sure it is cooked properly for health reasons and to prevent a salmonella attack.

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