Covering a turkey for part of the cooking time helps keep the meat moist, but leaving it uncovered at the end gives you crisp, browned skin.

During roasting

• For most standard oven-roasted turkeys, loosely tent the bird with foil (or use a lidded roasting pan) for the majority of the cooking time to trap steam and reduce drying, especially in the breast.

• In the last 30–60 minutes, remove the foil so the skin can brown and crisp; if any spot starts to get too dark, you can loosely re-cover just that area.

When not to keep it covered

• If you leave the turkey tightly covered the entire time, the skin will stay pale and rubbery, and the meat can overcook because the trapped heat essentially turns it into a steamy oven inside the foil.

• Some turkey specialists specifically advise not tightly wrapping or heavily insulating the bird after it comes out of the oven, since it will continue to cook as it rests and can dry out if it stays in a “hot tent” too long.

Resting the turkey

• Let the turkey rest after roasting so the juices redistribute; many cooks tent it very loosely with foil so it stays warm without trapping too much extra heat.

• Aim for at least 20–30 minutes of rest for a smaller bird and up to about an hour for a large turkey, checking that it does not sit in a tightly sealed foil wrap that keeps cooking it.