I have an old roaster. It must be from the 50s. I use it every holiday season. I have cooked a turkey in it before, but prefer to cook the sides in it instead and save our oven for the bird. It's also great for keeping things warm while everything is coming together at the end.
The only problem with it is that it's really a huge, energy hog. It was made before, "energy efficiency," was even in our lexicon. We're off the grid and on solar and propane. We do fine 99.999% of the time, but when we plug that baby in, whooosh...there goes our back up electricity. Thank goodness we don't pay for our power! It would cost a fortune to keep that roaster on all day to cook a turkey.
~ C