Turkey and Most of the Trimmings

　　Whether you're a novice at preparing a holiday meal or an old hand, Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner can be daunting. Even if you are able to delegate preparation of some of the dishes to friends and relatives, more than likely you will be responsible for the basics; that is, the turkey, the dressing (that's stuffing to you non-Southerners) and the gravy.

And since friends and families like to get together for these dinners, you will no doubt find yourself cooking for more people than you are accustomed to. Cooking a meal for a comparatively large number of people is a challenge for most of us, unless you happen to be regularly employed as a quartermaster cook. The trickiest part of such a meal can be getting everything to the table, hot and ready to eat, at the same time. Many of us face this task with only four burners and one oven, so coordination and timing are important.
Selecting the turkey:
The "rule" stated by some authorities is three-quarters to one pound of turkey per serving; so if you are expecting 10 guests with healthy appetites that would mean you buy a 7- to 10-pound bird, right? Wrong. I don't know about your crowd, but I'd have a riot on my hands if I presented my Thanksgiving regulars with a bird that size. There are two reasons I ignore that rule:
It completely overlooks the deep and abiding need Americans have for Thanksgiving dinner leftovers; and
Turkeys these days are bred to have as much white meat as possible. In my experience, there are plenty of people who demand dark meat, and you need a bigger bird to accommodate them.
My advice, then, is to at least double the rule.
Okay, so that decided, should you buy fresh or frozen? If you know you can get a fresh turkey no more than a few days before you need it then, by all means, buy a fresh one. Some meat markets let you reserve a fresh turkey. If, however, you show up on Tuesday and discover that all the fresh turkeys have been gobbled up (couldn't resist the pun) and no more are available, you have a problem. Frozen turkeys take a long time to thaw. In an emergency, you can use the cold water method, but it's messy and troublesome. Quoting the Butterball people: "To speed thawing, place breast down in cold water, changing water every 30 minutes. Allow 30 minutes per pound. DO NOT THAW AT ROOM TEMPERATURE."
You can avoid all that by simply making sure that you buy your turkey early enough for it to thaw in your refrigerator.
Fresh or frozen, it doesn't matter a whole lot really. I've cooked many of each, and either can be excellent. I think it depends as much on the individual turkey, not to mention the individual cook, as anything else.