Few issues with xmas meal I'd like to understand better

So it went well but there were a few hiccups I'd like to avoid in future or at least understand where I went wrong.

Firstly the roast potatoes took AGES. I had parboiled them and kept in the fridge overnight so they'd be nice and dry but they took almost 2 hours to take on the golden brown colour you want. They were cooked in a mix of goose fat and olive oil. I'm wondering if it were just because of the oven being full, but I had the temp up to 500F rather than the usual 375. This became quite a concern since I had to take the turkey out to fit the veg in the oven, and even with a turkey 2 hours is quite a long time to rest (it was losing heat so I had to cover with foil which made the skin less crispy).

Second issue was the turkey itself. It was a 12lb bird and the general consensus was to put into 500F oven and reduce to 300 and cook for roughly 3 hours. The turkey took on a great colour very quickly (had dry brined with baking powder) but I was getting temp readings beyond the 150/165 target after only an hour! I was always told to go by temp not time, but it was concerning how far off the time estimates were. It got to the point where I was worried of overcooking (legs reading 180+) however when I carved there was still pink (I know this can still be ok however I'd have expected it to be a lot less at these temps). I found it quite difficult to remove the legs which - in my experience of chicken - suggests it could have been cooked longer.

The only other issue was with my ham which was quite dry, but I expected this as it had already been smoked (uncooked hams are basically impossible to buy here for some crazy reason). The recipe (which did call for an already smoked ham) called for it to be SVed for 18 hours. I SVed for about 12 hours and even that seemed too much.

submitted by /u/y0ssarian123
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