Please elaborate on the dry brine “mistake”.
We accidentally left the oven temp at 450, forgetting to cut it back after the first 1/2 hr.
Except that the bony parts at the ends of the legs were black, it didn’t hurt the turkey at all; in fact it was the best turkey we’ve had. The story is in the first post of last week’s thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3365615/posts
We used only salt, for this first try.
We used the instructions in the article below, using only salt. We had a small, ~13-lb. turkey, and used about 3 T. kosher salt.
Just rub the turkey all over with the salt, and put the turkey in one of those oven-bags, in a tray, in the fridge. Do this early enough that it gets three whole days in the salt. The night before cooking, take it out of the bag, pat it dry all over, and put it back in the fridge with no covering, overnight.
Our plan was to put it in at 450 for 1/2 hour, and then reduce the heat to 350, until the probe in the breast read 160 degrees (we have the kind that constantly monitors the temp, and ‘dings’ when the pre-set temp is reached in the breast.) I don’t know how different it would be starting with a frozen turkey. We used a fresh one, purchased two days before we began the salting. Don’t rinse the turkey before cooking, and don’t add any more salt, just pepper. Hubby rubbed it with olive oil (not EVOO) and peppered it. He also tented it after 1/2 hour, with foil. (That was also the point where he would normally have cut the heat down to 350 for the rest of the cooking. It could be that things worked out despite our error, because we were doing a relatively small turkey.)
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/18/food/fo-calcook18