So to simplfy things, I am going with the cook-from-frozen method.
Since the turkey had been thawing in the refrigerator for two days,
it was frozen but not hard-frozen when I took it out. It was just barely
possible to remove the neck piece from the cavity, and there
was some amount of ice in the cavity to be chipped away.

So I have guesstimated a 5 1/4 hour cooking time at 325 F for a 17.4 lb
partly thawed turkey. I started it breast-down and turned
it over at the 1 3/4 hour point. I'll let you'all know what the
total cooking time turns out to be. (I have both an oven thermometer
and a meat thermometer.)


Steve

Steve Pope > wrote:

>So to simplfy things, I am going with the cook-from-frozen method.
>Since the turkey had been thawing in the refrigerator for two days,
>it was frozen but not hard-frozen when I took it out. It was just barely
>possible to remove the neck piece from the cavity, and there
>was some amount of ice in the cavity to be chipped away.

>So I have guesstimated a 5 1/4 hour cooking time at 325 F for a 17.4 lb
>partly thawed turkey. I started it breast-down and turned
>it over at the 1 3/4 hour point. I'll let you'all know what the
>total cooking time turns out to be. (I have both an oven thermometer
>and a meat thermometer.)

Update: it took a little longer than I guessed above, but not by
much (15 minutes or so). I could detect no downside from starting
it from part frozen... the turkey came out fine; although had it been any
more frozen at the start, I would not have been able to remove the
wire/neck/giblets.

So, based on this, I would tentatively state that if the turkey
is within a couple days of being thawed, then just go ahead and
cook it instead of waterboarding it first.

Steve

The Right in this country don't care if they're wrong. They realize the politics of fear works well here, which enables the system to keep fleecing Americans the capital market way.