Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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Am I a pussy for watering down my Listerine?
You are smart to mix water with oldschool listerine .
I bet you do not stuff the turkey and cook the stuffing on the side

I stuff it halfway through cooking.

Crunchier and oilier breading and the turkey does not dry out or lose out on developing an amazing fragrance and taste. Also more hygienic. I can't believe thermodynamically-challenged people stuff the turkey straight before cooking and think that lower core temp will somehow deal with the gross raw meat bacteria soaked into the breading.
At the risk of sounding "thermodynamically challenged", I would always have assumed that stuffing a turkey or chicken prior to cooking wouldn't really have much of a negative effect, in terms of bacteria. Surely (and don't call me Shirley), if bacteria from the meat were to soak into the breading [sic], the bacteria would still end up being killed since the entire contents of the oven would then be spending several hours at 180C (or whatever).
However, I know little about this and would like to be enlightened for future (Christmas dinner) knowledge. I wouldn't like to poison anybody (unknowingly).
A guess would be air does not insulate well against heat.
So the empty cavity allows the oven's heat to get inside and cook the bird's insides quicker.
A lot has to do with your cooking method for a big 10 kilo or 22 pound bird vs a 13 pound bird.
You may need to keep bird on the heat of 325 or 350 f for an extra 45 minutes which will dry out the breast meat.
say 6:45 not 6:00 even. Also if the bird is not fully defrosted you can have time issues and dry out the breast meat.
Of course you can spatch-cock that mother fucker which turns around all the rules of time and temp.
Better yet deep fry the bastard but you have to be sure the bird is thawed or hot oil will fly every where