My Best Turkey Ever 2014 - turkey from Ingle

Method

• 1. Brine the turkey. The day before: Thawed, take out giblets and put the turkey in a plastic bag with 1 gallon of water and the salt, dissolved (salt is approximately 5% of the water). Keep it cold and soaking for 24 hours before roasting.
• 2. Prepare the turkey for roasting. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (I used bake setting.) Rinse turkey well and dry with paper towels. The juice will still be salty, so try to get surface salt off. Put onion, carrot, celery and fresh herbs inside cavity. Pat 3 T softened butter over breast and drumstick, and put herbs de Provence on that to stick. Fold cheesecloth in fourths and lay over breast and drumsticks. Baste through cheesecloth with some of mixture of melted butter and Madeira. Put about 12 oz. water in bottom of roasting pan. Put the bird in at 400 degrees.
• 3. Roast and baste. After 20 minutes, baste again and turn the oven down to 325 degrees. Continue roasting, and baste through the cheesecloth every 20-30 minutes alternating between the butter-Madeira mixture and the juices in bottom of pan (don't let those dry out or they will burn--add more water if necessary.)
• 4. Take turkey out. Start testing with instant-read thermometer at 2 hours 10 minutes. If it's not ready to take out then, remove cheesecloth. Keep testing every 10 minutes. When it's 165 degrees at thickest point, take out of oven. Tent it with foil for at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes while you finish other dishes and make gravy.
• 5. Make gravy. Taste the juices in the pan. If they are too salty, add unsalted chicken broth. Add the giblet-cooking water. I had about 40% chicken or giblet broth, and the gravy was really dark and flavorful. Thicken gravy with water-flour mixture, add cooked giblets and serve