One thing I’ve learned in thirty years of slurping wine to overcome the dried out white meat of my holiday bird, is that you get moist and delectable meat out of a fresh turkey. Skip the frozen, even though it’s 40 cents a pound cheaper. And stuff it, with meat.
For stuffing, I used to go only with a bread stuffing, but my mother in law always did meat, and it’s great. The kids always love it. You have two cavities on that bird, the chest and the neck, and you can stuff them each different ways. Whatever’s less popular, stuff the neck that way.
Here’s a really simple meat stuffing, should fill the main cavity of an 18-pounder:
1 lb ground beef
1 lb breakfast sausage in a plastic tube
(Jimmy Dean, Jamestown, etc. Cheap is great.)
couple stalks of celery, diced
medium onion, diced
half the bird’s liver, cut very fine
pepper, salt (if you think you want it)
1 Teaspoon of ground sage
1/2 Teaspoon thyme
Mash it all up with your hands, and ram it in. Make crude jokes while you work. Name your bird (“Newt”, “William Jefferson”, “Paris”, etc.) Bake bird for an extra 30-40 minutes when stuffed. If you’re adept you can get the whole cooked stuffing out as a loaf and slice it. Produces a lot more pan drippings this way.
I’m sure you can figure out from reading the bird’s wrapper what temperature to cook him, and how long. Some salt and pepper and thyme on the skin, and a few pats of butter, and a tent of aluminum foil. Give it time, drink while you wait, baste the bird every 30 or 40 minutes.