How we did it
For how we cooked the turkey, we kept it super simple to remove a lot of variables that could possibly skew results. We went with a recipe that includes “spatchcocking” the bird, which is just cutting out the spine, flipping the bird over and pressing down on the breastbone until it cracks, allowing you the flatten it out on a roasting tray. This allows for quicker cooking, and a more even roast because the cool and moist inner cavity is no longer skewing how fast or slow certain parts (legs versus breast) get cooked to the proper temperature.
We dried the bird, applied a tablespoon of canola oil to each side along with two tablespoons of freshly ground black pepper, and, for the turkeys that weren’t brined, one tablespoon of Kosher salt.
Our oven was set to 450 degrees and after an hour of cooking, a Bluetooth meat thermometer was stuck deep into the breast and set with a 150-degree alarm. Once that went off—most of them only took about an hour and a half to cook—the legs were then checked to make sure they hit the 165-degree mark. When all temps were OK, the bird was taken out and left to rest for 5 minutes before carving and taste testing.
Each taste tester was given skin-on breast meat along with a chunk of leg and thigh meat. They were tasked with studying the meat for tenderness, texture, and flavor, and then ranked each according to a one-to-five scale and they wrote down comments.
I has never heard of spatchcocking, so I looked for a video...
https://greatist.com/eat/how-to-spatchcock-turkey-best-way-to-cook-thanksgiving-turkey
You’re a braver man than I, Gunga Din.