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by Raquele on November 23rd, 2006

Raquele

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Does anybody know when a turkey is cooked thoroughly?

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  • by fatty29 on November 23rd, 2006

    fatty29

    The bug in question here is salmonella enteritidis. He's not friendly; however, now-a-days can be easily avoided despite the fact that close to 4 million cases of salmonella are reported in the US anually.

    Medically, to be safe, poultry needs to reach 160F for 15 seconds. At this temperature, the bugs are dead. The much more relevant issue is the bird's condition post-mortem/pre-cooking. In other words, how was it stored. Problems usually arise when manufacturers (or much more likely, consumers) mistreat raw poultry. Generally speaking, uncooked protein should be kept out of the danger zone - that temperature range from 40-140F. If your bird ventures into this range, you have roughly 4 hours before any existing microbials have reproduced to the level of causing a problem.

    Now most of us won't leave a raw bird on the counter for 4 hours. But for those of us feeding 20-25+ folks for the holidays, a 20lbs. turkey is not out of the question. And in a 325F oven, your bird may unexpectedly create a welcoming environment for aforementioned bugs. Aside from the meat quality (which is near impossible to get right in a bird bigger than 16-18lbs.), the surface to mass ratio of a bird that big lends itself to trouble.

    Culinarily speaking, turkey overcooks easier than just about everything (second to shrimp and scrambled eggs, I suppose). That's partly because of its leaness, fear of undercooking, and the mysteries of roasting large meats. We can combat these three problems thusly:

    1) Brining - by dissolving 1 cup of salt (kosher) per 2 quarts of water and soaking the bird for anywhere from 6 - 18 hours, the meat will actually become super-saturated with both salt and excess water, thus flavoring the meat and preventing it from drying out during the long roast.

    2) Proper temperature management - get yourself a digital thermometer. Check the deepest part of the thigh/leg, deepest part of the breast AND THE STUFFING. The inside of the turkey's cavity is exposed during processing and is therefore subject to the same contamination as the skin.

    3) Allow for carry-over cooking - a roast that size will carry-over at least 10F after it is pulled from the oven. Pull your bird when the thigh meat reads 155-160F for smaller birds (10-14lbs.) and 150-155F for larger birds (15lbs.+). Letting the bird rest under a aluminum foil blanket for at least 20 minutes will bring the temp up to a safe level and allow juices to redistribute. Believe me 30 mins.+ and your bird will still be too hot to touch in some spots.

    Most turkey's these days are squeaky clean anyways. Follow these simple rules and you should be OK. And if you are feeding 25+ people, get two smaller birds - more drumsticks.

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