I am a huge fan of the Martha Stewart turkey recipe. It always comes out moist and flavorful. This year I substituted quartered onions, thyme and garlic for stuffing. I also decided to collect temperature data over time and see if I could get it to hit 180 °F at 40 minutes before plating. Here’s how that worked out.

I thawed my turkey in cold water overnight. Estimated time for cooking a defrosted 16 pound turkey range from 4-6 hours. I decided to plan for the worst and give myself 6. Once it was apparent I was going to be able to be done in 4, I reduced my cook temperature (top trace)

We had people coming by to eat at 3:00. I hit 180 at 1:30, but I went to 190 just to be sure. I pulled the bird at 1:50. That gives the bird time to rest. So long as nobody is late, that’s not bad timing. I’m glad I built the spreadsheet.