Do You Know What to do With That Frozen Turkey?

Turkey Tips

How long do you thaw a 10# turkey was my question to www.ask.com. Here are a couple of the answers:
• To thaw in refrigerator, allow 5 hours per pound.
• Allow at least one day of thawing for every 4 pounds of turkey!

How many people can I serve?
• Count on one pound per person. A 15 pound turkey will serve 8-10 with enough for leftovers.

After you read this blog, go to my blog from last year in November about a time line for your Thanksgiving Dinner!

COLUMN: HOW TO COOK A THANKSGIVING TURKEY
The first step to planning the perfect Thanksgiving dinner begins with the turkey. Yes, I know not everyone does turkey for Thanksgiving. That’s OK. I don’t watch the football games. We all have our own traditions. I can go without pumpkin pie -- and I don’t even have to have cranberry sauce -- but for me, it’s just not Thanksgiving without the big bird.

In colonial days, men and boys hunted wild turkey and brought it back to the womenfolk for plucking, gutting and cleaning. Ah, those were simpler times. Today’s turkeys are found at the supermarket, heaped in giant lumpy mounds of hard cold plastic: fresh, frozen, self-basting, whole, or breast. The decision you make in the store is a critical!

First, fresh vs. frozen -- I’ll keep it simple. A frozen turkey takes approximately as long to thaw out as Lake Erie in a February blizzard. Sitting in the fridge, it will take 24 hours for every four pounds of turkey. Alternatively, you can immerse the turkey in cold water, allowing 30 minutes per pound. This seems easier, but wait! You have to change the water every 30 minutes. If this sounds too labor (and math) intensive, consider buying a "fresh" bird.

Fresh or frozen, turkeys are sold in two basic sizes: too small and too big.

The National Turkey Federation recommends preparing one pound of turkey per person, assuming you want a little left over for sandwiches. (Assuming!) Like the majority of shoppers, this means I’m usually looking for a turkey weighing between 15 to 17 pounds. These are prized birds. Look in any turkey bin. You’ll see loads of hens in the 10 to 12 pound range, and a right jolly selection of 20 pound-and-over Toms. But the mid-sized bird is a rare and precious specimen indeed. The smart shopper buys early. Of course, once that turkey’s tucked into your fridge, good luck getting anything else in there. Creative cooks plan space saving pre-holiday meals -- commonly referred to as take-out.

Depending on what time of day you’re serving your Thanksgiving feast, you’ll need to figure out what time to "pop" the bird in the oven. I know a lot of folks are doing really cool things with turkeys these days, grilling them, blackening them with Cajun spices, deep fat frying them, etc. But since none of these really cool people have invited me over, I’ll be sticking with the traditional roasting method this year.

A roasting fifteen pound turkey needs roughly the same amount of attention as a healthy fifteen pound baby: you need to do something about every thirty minutes. With babies it’s feed, burp, and diaper. With birds it’s baste, check temperature, and cover loosely with foil.

Are you stuffing your bird? And really, if you’re bothering to roast a whole bird, why not? I’d love to give you a delicious stuffing recipe, but frankly, my mother always makes it. I do know that her special ingredients include chopped apples, crunchy bacon, and celery. In any event, don’t forget to make your stuffing up ahead of time. Before stuffing the bird, you’ll need to remove those nasty bits the packers leave in for reasons best known only to Great Southern Cooks and voodoo priests. Rinse the bird inside and out and pat it down generously with butter.

After you’ve calculated roasting time from the little chart provided with the turkey (example: 14 to 18 pound stuffed turkey, 4 to 4 ¼ hours at 325 degrees), you simply count backwards from the time you wish to serve, including an additional 30 minutes for standing and carving, to determine when to begin roasting. Really, it’s so simple. Hard to believe I missed it by two hours one year. Truthfully, I think it’s all one big guesstimate. The only way to know if a turkey is really done is with a meat thermometer. You need an internal turkey temp of 180 degrees before you ring the dinner bell.

A turkey has to "stand" for 20 to 30 minutes before it can be carved. (Correction, carved without tearing into soggy bits.) These are the 20 to 30 minutes when potatoes can be mashed, rolls baked, drinks poured, vegetables ladled into serving dishes, and – most importantly – gravy prepared. I’d love to give you a great gravy recipe, but, again, my mother always makes it. I do know from keen observation that it involves constant stirring of the roasting pan remains, with the addition of potato water, chicken bouillon (go figure) and cornstarch.

Finally, everything’s ready. Oh, sure you’ll have to jump up to grab the forgotten rolls out of the oven and re-fill a tea glass or two, but now it’s time to relax, enjoy, and give thanks.

Until the dishes.

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I hope you found some good use out of "my search" for answers. We are having about 20 people over with me cooking the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and the rest of the family bringing other "goodies."

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day Everyone.
Sandra Fatovich