Roast Turkey (Dry-Brined Thanksgiving Turkey)

Method

1. 1Thaw the turkey in the fridge, and start 5 days before the dinner. Leave the frozen bird in its wrapper, put it on a tray to catch the drips and set it on the lowest shelf; at 4°C (40°F) or colder it needs about 24 hours for every 2 kg (4 to 5 lb), so a 5.4 kg (12 lb) turkey takes 3 days. Do not thaw it on the counter, because the outside sits warm for hours while the middle is still ice. When it is thawed, unwrap it and pull the neck and the bag of giblets out of both cavities; keep the neck for gravy.
2. 2Salt the bird 1 to 2 days before roasting. Mix the 40 g of salt with the baking powder, pat the turkey very dry with paper towels and set it breast side up on a rack in a rimmed tray. Pinch up the mixture and let it fall from 15 to 25 cm above the bird so it lands evenly: a little inside the cavity, most of it on the breast and thighs, where the meat is thickest. The salt dissolves some of the muscle proteins, so the meat squeezes out less juice in the oven, and the baking powder helps the skin brown and crisp.
3. 3Put the tray in the fridge and drape cling film loosely over the turkey. Take the film off for the last 12 to 24 hours so the skin can dry in the cold air; a dry skin is what crisps in the oven. By roasting day no salt grains should be visible and the skin should feel dry and tight under your fingers. Do not rinse the bird, since that only wets the skin again.
4. 4On the day, take the turkey out of the fridge 1 hour before it goes into the oven and pat it dry one last time. Mash the soft butter with the chopped parsley, sage, thyme and pepper; add no salt, the bird has enough. Slide your fingers between the skin and the breast meat to loosen it without tearing, push about half of the butter underneath and press on the skin from outside to spread it over both breasts. Rub the rest over the outside, tuck the wing tips under the back and tie the ends of the drumsticks together with kitchen string so the bird keeps its shape and cooks evenly.
5. 5Set an oven rack in the lowest position and heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Cut the onion into wedges and the carrots and celery into 5 cm pieces, scatter them in a shallow roasting tin, pour in the water and stand the rack with the turkey on top, breast side up. A tin 5 to 6 cm deep is right, because high sides shield the thighs from the heat and they are the slowest part to cook. The water stops the drippings from burning on the hot metal; add another 120 ml whenever the tin looks dry.
6. 6Roast for 30 minutes at 220°C (425°F), until the skin has started to turn golden, then turn the oven down to 165°C (325°F). For this size plan on about 2¾ hours in the oven altogether, roughly 30 minutes per kg, but treat that as an estimate: a salted bird often cooks faster than the tables say, so start measuring after 2 hours. If the breast is deep brown before the meat is ready, lay a loose sheet of foil over the breast only.
7. 7Check the temperature in three places with an instant-read thermometer. Push it into the thickest part of the thigh, in the crease where the leg meets the body, without touching the bone: it should read 74°C (165°F). Then check the innermost part of the wing and the thickest part of the breast near the neck end, where 71 to 72°C (160 to 162°F) is enough to take the bird out, because the breast keeps heating while it rests. If the thigh is not there yet, give it another 10 to 15 minutes and measure again, and do not rely on a pop-up timer.
8. 8Lift the turkey onto a board, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for 30 minutes, and up to 1 hour if the side dishes need the oven. Measure the breast once more before carving: it should now read 74°C (165°F), and if it does not, put the bird back in the oven for 10 minutes. Strain the juices from the tin into a jug for the gravy in the mashed potatoes recipe and taste them first, since they are salty and may need diluting with stock. To carve, cut through the skin between leg and body, pull the leg outwards and cut through the joint, then separate drumstick and thigh and take off the wings. For the breast, make one deep horizontal cut just above the wing joint and slice straight down towards it, so each slice falls free.