Roasting Pans

I went looking on the internet for a picture of the roasting pan I use to make my chicken, which I found (only this shows the larger size), but it seems I've been using the wrong pan! I found a review of roasting pans here and it was most illuminating in light of our Thanksgiving turkey disaster. I've made a few turkeys now and I make roast chicken all the time so I figure I've got it down, right? Well, not so much this past Thanksgiving. I got overly ambitious and picked out a 17 pound bird, the biggest I've ever tried. I seasoned it all up like I have in the past, popped it in the large roaster, (I have 3 sizes), placed it in the oven, and went on with the rest of the preparations. Baste the turkey, baby the turkey, tent the turkey, love the turkey, feel oneness with the turkey, watch it turn a delicious golden brown, then take it out to eat. DH starts carving and gets part way in and announces "it's not done, not even close". ARGHHHH! We throw it back in the oven and it takes TWO HOURS more to finish cooking all the way through! How did I miscalculate? Where did I go wrong? I'm not a newbie to the turkey thing; how could I make such an error? I couldn't figure it out until I read the review- it's because of the LID. The bird was too big for the pan and the lid wouldn't fit on, thus the need for extra time; mystery solved.

As to the roaster, I haven't had the same experience with my enamel lidded roaster as the reviewer (when I can actually get the lid on), but I don't use the flip-the-bird method of cooking. (I'd drop it and send the turkey flying across the kitchen, so while it sounds good in theory I'll skip the flip, thanks.) (It's supposed to make it more moist by letting the juices flow to the top of the bird while it's upside down, then you turn it over to finish the cooking and brown the skin. I first heard about it on a cooking segment on NPR.)

And as for Thanksgiving, DH managed to carve enough from the outer portions of the bird for us to go ahead and eat so it really wasn't a total disaster. Gives me a good cooking story to tell, though! ;)