Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash turkey well and and remove the neck and giblets. Dry turkey with paper towels, salt the cavity and stuff with rough chopped onion, carrots, celery, apples. Rub the outside of the turkey with pure olive oil. Stick a meat thermometer into the turkey.
Place the turkey breast -side down in the roasting pan on a rack (this way the breast bastes itself, keeping the meat moist). Roast the turkey one hour at 350 degrees to destroy the bacteria on the surface. Then adjust the heat to 180 or 200 degrees for any size turkey. The turkey can roast in the oven on this low temperature for 15-30hours before you eat it. A good rule for timing is to allow about one hour per pound of meat.
For example, a 20 pound turkey that takes 15 minutes per pound to roast would take five hours by the conventional, fast-cooking method. The slow method is one hour per pound, so it would take 20 hours to roast.
If you are doing a 22 pound turkey begin roasting at 5:00 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Put the turkey in the oven and leave it uncovered until it's done the next day between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. You can take the turkey out, the meat falls off the bone, and carve it up and then wrap the meat in foil to keep in hot. Transfer to serving platter just before sitting down for your meal.
While you don't get to have the "drama" of bringing out the roasted turkey on a huge serving platter to be carved, you eliminate a lot of drama by having the turkey ready and your oven free for baking rolls, stuffing, etc. Enjoy!!
