Turkey Day is Coming!
Today marks the first in a series of blog posts about November’s favorite dish: turkey! Thanksgiving falls on November 22nd this year and creating the perfect feast takes time, so it’s best to plan ahead. Consult your favorite cookbooks, food-savvy friends, the Internet, and mine your own creativity to find the right recipe for your needs. Roast it, grill it, fry it—whatever you can think of to make your masterpiece.
Any masterpiece takes time, though, and turkey is no exception. When the big day draws near, don’t forget to thaw the bird in advance. It is always advisable to thaw food (especially bacteria-friendly meats and the like) in the refrigerator, never at room temperature. Place the turkey in a pan or other container that will prevent the juices from contaminating other foods in your fridge. It is also best to place the turkey on the lowest shelf so there isn’t even the possibility of juices dripping onto foods below.
Plan well ahead; thawing turkey in the fridge takes about four hours per pound and that usually adds up to two or three days. (A nice perk about that, though, is that having frozen foods in the refrigerator helps reduce the time your fridge has to kick into gear to keep the temperature low.) If you don’t have that much time, a faster (but more labor-intensive) method of thawing is to cover the turkey with cold water at room temperature. The water should be changed every thirty minutes. This method cuts your thawing time down to about thirty minutes per pound (which is still a total of eight or more hours for the average Thanksgiving turkey). If you miscalculate the thawing time for your bird, this is a good way to finish the thawing process more quickly.
On the other hand, thawing the turkey too early could leave time for dangerous bacteria to grow. Be sure to cook your turkey within one week of thawing.
So go on out and buy your bird. Calculate the thawing time it will require, mark your calendar, and check back with Serv-U’s Restaurant Guru often for more turkey tips!
