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4.5
This is going to have to be a long review...so bear with me. First and foremost this is a large roaster. Most are 18 quart. This one is 22 quart. The reason I wanted a roaster so large? Small turkeys (sub 20lb) have a low meat to bone ratio. Once your get over 20lbs you get a LOT more meat. No one eats the bone so why pay for bone? You can freeze the leftover meat and have turkey without having to cook another one - for a long time. :-)As roasters go, this one is well made. I like the stainless sides and all porcelain insert and interior. The lid is 'nice' and fully functional, but if I could make a suggestion to Hamilton Beach it would be design the lid underside with some other material. After a single use it is permanently stained and oxidized. I guess it doesn't really hurt anything BUT, it kept the turkey smell no matter how or how many times we cleaned it. Other roasters aren't any better.The rack that goes in the black porcelain insert works very well. I was able to lift the turkey out of the roaster with it and place it on the cutting tray without problem. First, of course since the roaster was cooking the turkey in another room, I lifted the insert out and carried it to the kitchen counter where I sat it on one of two adjacent white plastic cutting boards The other one was for the "cutting tray".Actual measured dimensions:EXTERNAL: The longest side of the insert (which extends out over the base) is 22". The handles on the base each extend almost an inch beyond that for a total length just shy of 24". The width of the insert (slightly wider than the base) is 15.25" with the temperature control knob sticking out exactly 1" beyond that for a total width of 16.25" However, the 2 foot long cord come out of the center of the other side so you would need a minimum of 16.5" for storage. Also for storage, you can flip the lid upside down for a total storage height of 8.5". With the lid right side up the total height is 12.25" including the lid handle. The lid itself is actually 4" but sits in a 0.25" recess lip in the insert. That lip is important because it prevents juices from "escaping" (running out over the edge).INTERNAL: How much room there is for a large turkey is determined by the Inside length and width of the insert. Length is 17.25" and the inside width is 11.75". Of course with large birds the 'head' matters as well. The lid adds 2.25" to the 6.25" of height in the insert for a total space of 8.5" for the height of the bird. In other words, you can comfortably fit a 16"L x 11"W x 8"H turkey in this roaster. I cooked a 23 lb turkey for Christmas and there was plenty of room. Should be able to fit at least a 25lb and probably a 26 lb turkey in this roaster. Is that great or what?!!!And yes, of course, you use either ALL cotton string or stainless wire to tie the birds legs and wings to keep them from falling against the wall and burning.Most of our experience was cooking turkeys in an oven. We were having company and needed the oven space for cooking other things. So this was a first. I called my son and my sister who have both used roasters for cooking turkeys for years to find out what the temperatures and times should be. WELL! Talk about two totally different sets of numbers! So, I just used a little common sense and boiled down all their numbers to what I thought made sense. I'm telling you this because the instructions for cooking a turkey that came with the roaster are all wrong. It says you can cook a 20 lb turkey in 2 to 3 hrs at 325°. No way. It would NOT be adequately cooked!Preheat for 15 minutes at 400°F.Put in the turkey and cook for 45 minutes at 400°F. The turkey is thawed but cold so you need to jump start the cooking process.Then drop the temperature to 340°F for the remaining cooking time.Now, I inserted three small dial cooking thermometers into the bird at 3 hours. One inserted in the meat behind the thigh, one in the breast meat and one in the filling that went right into the center. That's the same time I coated the bird with butter for browning. Then at 3 1/2 hours I checked the thermometers and coated the bird with butter a second time. turkey label 3.5 hrs 4 hrsstuffing 165°F 170°F 180°Fbreast 170°F 175°F 185°Fbehind thigh 180°F 160°F* 180°F* Behind the thigh is always the most difficult to get up to temperature.I did notice that throughout the cooking process the turkey was being constantly basted by the steam condensing and dripping from the lid all over the turkey!Bottom line is that we cooked a 23 lb turkey in 4 hrs flat! Then I turned it down to 200°F to hold it until our company arrived (late) almost an hour later. The bird was perfect. It was tender, juicy, AND perfectly browned! And you can see from the temps at 4hrs it was thoroughly and properly cooked. This roaster did a great job! I should have taken a picture of it.
