Hi I’m Marty Richardson from chefmartyrich.com. Welcome back to our daily tip series.  Today’s topic is Thanksgiving food safety.

Fresh Or Frozen?

It always starts with the turkey.  Fresh or frozen?  Well, if you buy a frozen turkey, your only constraint is whether you have enough room in the freezer to store or the refrigerator to start thawing.  If you buy fresh, purchase only 1 to 2 days ahead.  Most fresh turkey is sold semi-frozen.  The turkey is frozen to 28 degrees at the most.  It is not frozen solid like a rock.  Turkey sold “frozen”, is generally frozen at zero degrees.  That is the difference.  So don’t be shocked when you go to pick up a fresh turkey and it seems frozen.  The general guideline is that it takes about 24 hours of thawing in the refrigerator for every 4 to 5 pounds of turkey. After it is thawed out, you can leave it in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days.  If you have a small turkey, (up to 12 pounds), it might take up to 1 to 3 days to thaw.  Medium size turkeys (16 to 20 pounds) may take 4 to 5 days to thaw.  And a great big turkey, (up to 24 pounds), may take up to 5 or 6 days to thaw.

Cold Water Bath

Now, if you don’t have room in your refrigerator, or you were not planning to have Thanksgiving dinner, or twice as many guests come than you thought, or you just plain forgot to thaw out the turkey – don’t panic.  You can thaw out your turkey in cold water. That’s right…Cold Water. Do Not, even in a panic situation, use hot water to thaw out your turkey.  It creates a really dangerous bacteria environment.  To rush it up the thawing process, change the cold water more frequently.  It is suggested that you change the water every 30 minutes.  If you are in a panic – try every 15 minutes.  The government (USDA) suggests that it takes about 30 minutes per pound to thaw a turkey using this technique.  Once the turkey is thawed, you must cook it immediately.  Do not use this cold water submersion technique, and then leave the turkey in the refrigerator for a few days.   Again, I think this is a long time to thaw out the turkey.  This formula means that a 20 – 24 pound turkey is going to take 10 to 12 hours to thaw.  Those are government (USDA) guidelines, your results may vary.

Time To Make The Turkey

Now, I want to talk about cooking times.  325 degrees.  Do Not cook your turkey at any lower temperature than 325 degrees.  This is another activity that invites bacteria growth.  You can cook higher temperatures than that, obviously, but don’t cook below 325 degrees.  An unstuffed turkey cooked at 325 degrees that weighs up to 12 pounds, might take 2 ½ to 3 hours.  Turkeys up to 18 pounds might take 3 ¾ up to 4 ¼ hours.  A great big turkey weighing up to 24 pounds might take 4 ½ to 5 hours to cook.  Now, if you must stuff your turkey, (which I wholly disagree with), but if you must, then, do not stuff the turkey in advance.  Do not buy a turkey that is already pre-stuffed.  This is another bacterial disaster waiting to happen. And stuff the turkey loosely, rather than packing it in there tight, so that the temperature of the stuffing reaches 165 degrees. 165 degrees is the golden number that you need to burn into your memory because it is the temperature at which the majority of harmful bacteria is killed. Use an instant read thermometer to be sure.  I say that all the time, but it is a very important point.

Mmmm Leftovers…

Once the turkey is cooked, let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes outside of the oven and you will be rewarded with a much juicier turkey.  The time frame from when you have taken it out of the oven, (let it rest, carved and served) until you need to get the leftover turkey back into the refrigerator is only 2 hours.  Do Not leave your turkey sitting on the table for hours and hours and hours.  When you are ready for leftovers, reheat them to 165 degrees to make sure that you have killed the bacteria. Hopefully, your leftovers are not going to last more than 3 to 4 days. If not they should be frozen or discarded.  You should have already cooked turkey soup and gotten rid of all that turkey before the holiday weekend is over.

If you have any other questions about turkey, make sure you leave a comment on the website or call in and register for a 30 minute free consultation.  I’ll call you and then you can ask me any questions you might have, right up until Thanksgiving Day. I will also leave the numbers for the Butterball Turkey hotline and the government (USDA) turkey hotline if you have any last minute questions/problems.  I will talk to you tomorrow.  Thanks.