225°F: smoke over skin
225°F is the lowest temperature worth using on a turkey, and it is a trade rather than a free win: at 30 minutes per pound a 8 lb bird takes about 4 h, roughly 1 h 20 m longer than the same bird at 275°F. What you buy with that time is smoke — the longer the bird sits in the 200s, the deeper the flavour goes.
What you give up is skin. Poultry skin needs heat to render and crisp, and at 225°F it never really gets it: the bird comes off pale and the skin turns leathery rather than crackling. Cook at this temperature if you are after maximum smoke and plan to pull the skin off anyway, or if you are finishing in a hot oven for the last twenty minutes. Otherwise 275°F is the better bird.
An 8 lb turkey is small — often a hen, sometimes a young tom. It cooks fast and dries out faster, so start probing well before the estimate is up, and consider brining. At this size a bone-in breast is a genuine alternative: less waste, less time, and all the meat most crowds actually eat.
How many people does a 8 lb turkey feed?
A whole bird is only about 40% servable meat once the bone, skin and carcass are accounted for, so a 8 lb turkey gives you roughly 3.2 lbs on the platter — about 6 adults at a half pound each, less if the table is loaded with sides and more if you are counting on sandwiches the next day. Cooking for around 10? The turkey for 10 people page does the shopping maths, and the portion calculator handles kids, sides and leftovers.