Cooking a turkey below an oven temperature of 325 degrees F is unsafe, because temperatures lower than this may encourage bacteria to grow inside the turkey where temperatures could stay below the danger zone of 140 degrees F. Cooking the turkey ahead of time and letting it sit in the refrigerator . Cooking a turkey ahead of time is OK, but leaving it whole in the refrigerator is not because a cooked bird is just too big too cool quickly enough in a home refrigerator. The solution is to remove the stuffing if the turkey is stuffed, and carve the turkey and store the slices in covered shallow pans in the refrigerator. When reheating, reheat to 165 degrees F. Forgetting the food thermometer . Both Berry and Rosenblatt say a food thermometer is a must.
Temperature is the true indicator that turkey is done.
Everyone wants to make sure their turkey is moist and pretty. When it s done, it s done. The temperature is going to tell you it s ready. Here s a word of caution on relying on cookbooks. Rosenblatt says temperatures have changed for cooking turkeys.