Servings depend on the size of turkey you get. If your goal is to have ample leftovers, aim for 1½ pounds per person whatever the turkey's size. 

The below measurements and timings are for a 10-pound bird, which will make about 6 generous servings.

Ingredients

Brine:

• 8 cups water

• 1 cup course salt

• 2/3 cups sugar

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, coarsely crushed

• 1 tablespoon wholespice, coarsely crushed

• 8 slices fresh ginger (or 3-4 teaspoons ginger paste)

• 6 whole cloves

• 2 bay leaves

Turkey:

• 1 10-pound turkey

• ½ white onion

• 1 celery stalk

• 1 large carrot

• 1 sprig each of fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage

• ¼ stick butter

• Salt and pepper

Gravy:

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 cup pan drippings

• 1-2 cups chicken broth

1. Thaw: Make sure the turkey is thawed if you bought it frozen.  To thaw in the refrigerator, keep breast up it in its unopened plastic for 2 ½ days (60 hours). To thaw faster, place the turkey breast in its unopened plastic breast down in a tub or large pot of cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes to keep chilled for about 5 hours total. 

2. Brine: If you thaw in the refrigerator, use the last 8 hours to brine. If you’re cold-water thawing, thaw the day before and then brine overnight 8 hours in the refrigerator the day before cooking and serving. Combine the 2-3 cups of the water, salt and sugar in a saucepan and heat until sugar and salt are dissolved. Cool and mix in all the rest of the brine ingredients in a large tub that will fit all the liquid and the turkey… and still fit in the refrigerator (otherwise you can use a sanitized cooler and ice system in the bathtub, just make sure the water temp stays below 40ºF). Place the turkey in the brine breast up. Make sure the brine covers the breast, if the bird floats, weight it down with a Ziploc bag full of water. It’s ideal to flip the bird at least once.

3. Brown: Preheat oven to 500ºF and remove all racks except the lowest one to make room for the bird. Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse with cold water, and pay dry. Chop the onion half into quarters and the carrot and celery into a few pieces. Fill the cavity with these veggies and fresh herbs. Make sure it’s not too full or you will end up overcooking other parts of the turkey because the inside isn’t cooking fast enough because it’s overstuffed. Place the turkey in a roasting pan breast up – it needs to be elevated from the bottom of the pan, so if you don’t have a roasting pan, or a V-pan, you can fashion a thick coil out of aluminum foil and arrange the turkey on top of that so it’s not resting on the pan bottom. With aluminum foil, fashion a shield that will cover the breast portion of the turkey entirely – mold the foil to the breast, grease the underside of the foil with butter or nonstick vegetable oil spray and then set aside. Rub down and massage the entire turkey with the ¼ stick of butter. Use more if you want. Place the turkey in the oven for 30 minutes, without the foil breastplate. 

4. Cook: After 30 minutes at 500ºF, remove the turkey from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF. Cover the breast with your pre-fabricated foil shield. I also make mini-shields for the wing tips because they tend to burn otherwise. Insert the meat thermometer probe through the foil into the deepest part of the breast. Put the turkey back into the oven and cook for another 3-4 hours until the thermometer in the breast reads 160ºF and another read in the thigh reaches 180ºF. Cover with foil and let it rest at least 30 minutes before cutting into it! 

5. Gravy: While turkey is resting, make the gravy. Plate the turkey so you are left with just the drippings in the pan. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for about 1 minute until you have a golden brown paste. Whisk in the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan. If you need more liquid, add in 1-2 cups more chicken broth (if you have more than 1 cup of pan drippings, use those first! If you know you love to pour on the gravy, double everything in this recipe. The day after, adding more chicken broth to the original gravy will also still taste great). Simmer up to 10 minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Make sure you watch it constantly and whisk often so it doesn’t burn! Season with pepper, and additional salt if necessary.