Over the last several days, in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, I have done a trial run of brining and roasting a turkey. In the first post, Holiday Turkey Brine, I provided a recipe for a brine that makes enough for a twenty pound turkey. The second installment was Holiday Turkey Brine: Part Two – Brining the Turkey. Today I want to show exactly how I prepared and roasted this brined turkey.
My bird was on the smaller side – a mere 13-14 pounds. Here’s a general guide for how much you will need:
12-15 lb turkey for 10-12 people
15-18 lb turkey for 14-16 people
18-22 lb turkey for 20-22 people
In a perfect world we would all have an organic heritage turkey that we hand fed and raised in our backyards and slaughtered ourselves. Just joking there. But seriously, it is nice to have a fresh turkey that has not been injected with lots of antibiotics and gluten-containing saline solutions. When I purchased what I thought was a “fresh” turkey I did not understand the meaning of “Kosher”. Turns out it means, among other things, the poultry has been soaked in unsalted water for half an hour and then packed in salt for about an hour. This means it has been partially brined. 
I ended up letting this kosher bird brine for about 18 hours but it probably could have gone for less time and been fine. That’s one of the nice things about brining, it is not an exact science.