Golden Turkey

Le hubby and I bought a 14lb turkey sometimes in December. We thought it'd be nice if we ever decided to have a family dinner. Alas, our families are not near us and so the family dinner never did happen. The closest we got together for a sit down meal was a total of 4 members. Oh well, our turkey will always be remembered as golden and delicious.

PS: This was my first time baking a turkey. This role typically falls to my husband or my sister... that said, I had to look up a recipe/guide and found this lovely site: How to Cook a Turkey for Thanksgiving

The frozen turkey was slowly defrosted in the fridge for about 3 days.

After 3 days, I unwrapped our turkey, took out its "stuffing" and prepared a brine (water and lots of sea salt).

The turkey bathed in brine for another 3 days (in the fridge).

After its bath, it was placed on a rack, patted somewhat dry (not entirely dry bc then the salt won't stick), salted and peppered and then placed in the fridge to dry some more (2-3hrs). 

Preheat oven to 400°F and position an oven rack in the bottom third of your oven.

Pour 3-4 cups of broth or water into the roasting pan. Place the turkey in the oven and turn down the heat to 350°F. Every hour, remove the turkey from the oven, close the oven door (don't let that heat out!), and baste the turkey all over. [Picture above is after 1 hour]

Another hour later, another baste. It was also flipped for a more even golden color. 

Another hour later, another baste. This was the last baste so I used melted butter.

45 minutes later and we have a delicious golden turkey on top of our stove. Me = happy! :D

PPS: Since this was my first time baking a turkey, I didn't realize it was upside down until we were about to carve it. teehee.