Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

Let's Talk Turkey

I work at Central New Mexico Community College and we have this really cool Culinary Arts Program. At a meeting last week I was yapping on about stuffing, and then cooking, my turkey. Joyce Woodard, one of the Professional Cooking Instructors at CNM looked at me askance and said "that's totally not safe Alexis." It got me thinking, maybe its a good time of year to remind DCF readers about Thanksgiving Food Safety. Joyce went ahead and drafted these tips especially for DCF.

Please everyone practice safe food.

1. Sanitize Your Work Area And Cutting Board.
Avoid Cross Contamination. Begin by sanitizing your work area. Use a clean cloth dipped in a simple sanitizing solution made up of a mixture of one quart lukewarm water, mixed with one teaspoon of bleach. Sanitize any surface or work area that comes in contact with your raw turkey including your knife, utensils, and especially your cutting board. Continue to sanitize your work surfaces and cutting board each time you start to handle or cook different food products

2. Wash Your Hands-Wash Your Hands-Wash Your Hands.
Wash your frequently and thoroughly throughout your cooking processes.

3. Never Thaw Your Turkey At Room Temperature.
Be sure and plan ahead. If you buy a frozen turkey, give it plenty of time to thaw in your refrigerator. Yes you can run cold water over it all day to thaw it, but keep in mind that we live in the desert and we really shouldn’t be wasting our precious water.
Thawing Time Turkey Weight
1 to 2 days 8 to 12 lbs.
2 to 3 days 12 to 16 lbs.
3 to 4 days 16 to 24 lbs.
4 to 5 days 20 to 24 lbs.

4. Store your Turkey properly.
While storing your turkey, always store your turkey on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator so that its blood and juices do not dip on or into other foods.

5. Rinse Your Bird.
Rinse all poultry under cool running water, inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels and discard the paper towels. Be sure to sanitize your work area again.

6. Never Cook Your Stuffing Inside The Turkey.
Always cook your stuffing separately in a casserole or baking dish. If you are worried about the flavor not being rich enough because the drippings of the turkey add to the flavor, add some of the drippings from the cooked turkey to the stuffing before serving. Or, use a richer turkey or chicken broth in your recipe. If it’s important to you to present your turkey with the stuffing in it, here is a tip: Take the stuffing from your baking dish and stuff it in your holiday bird before bringing it out and showing it off to your guest.

7. To Assure Proper Temperatures Of Foods Use A Food Thermometer
If you don’t have an Instant Read Food Thermometer, you’ll need to make a quick stop to pick one up. They only cost about $5 to $9 and are available at many major retailers. This is a must-have food safety tool for all of your cooking. Use a cooking thermometer to determine if the turkey is fully cooked. The turkey should reach at least 165˚. You can use a meat thermometer during the cooking process, be sure you insert it in the inner thigh near the breast, but without touching the bone. Don’t rely on these goofy pop-up timers, they are not very accurate. Pull your turkey from the oven and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes before you carve it.

8. Store Leftovers Correctly.
Leftovers should be refrigerated properly after the meal. After your meal, don’t let that sleepy, groggy post-turkey feeling keep you from getting your leftovers put away before they become contaminated. Break down your leftover turkey, store in small containers or bags and be sure and cool them down immediately. Promptly reheat leftovers to 165˚ before serving. Never taste or eat leftovers food that looks or smells strange. “If in doubt, throw it out!”

9. Keep Hot Foods Hot at 135˚ Or Hotter.
Bacteria grow quickly at temperatures between 41˚ and 135˚. Keep in mind that one teeny-tiny bacterium divides into two, then two bacteria each divide creating four; the four become 16 and so on… It takes a very short time for one bacterium to produce millions more.

10. Keep Cold Foods 41˚ or Colder.
Be careful to store your cold foods in a refrigerator until they’re ready to serve. Or, if you know it’ll be sitting your food out for a buffet style service, be sure and set your bowls of cold food in a bowl of three-quarters ice and one-quarter water to assure it will maintain a temperature of 41˚.

Keep in mind that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that last year 76 million illnesses were caused by mishandled food. Theses foodborne illnesses resulted in 300,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. For additional information visit the CDC’s Thanksgiving website.

Most importantly, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Picture courtesy of Butterball.

14 Comments

Comment by G. Golden Crutcher on November 19, 2008 at 2:54pm: I'm in the turkey and the turkey's in me! Thanks, Alexis.

Comment by ColoMichelle on November 19, 2008 at 3:12pm: My family has ALWAYS cooked the stuffing inside the turkey and no one has ever gotten sick. To even suggest doing otherwise would get one thrown out of the house!

Comment by Kitson Harvey on November 19, 2008 at 3:18pm: Maybe Joyce should have said, "Never cook the stuffing inside the bird unless you're 100% sure that it contains no food-borne pathogens"?

Comment by Kitson Harvey on November 19, 2008 at 3:19pm: I do remember hearing somewhere that often when we think we have the flu it's really food poisoning.

Comment by NxDLamb on November 19, 2008 at 3:28pm: here, here....my family has always cooked the stuffing in the turkey for years, decades actually. no one has ever been sick from it either...

Comment by Masshole in Fringecrest on November 19, 2008 at 3:30pm: I like the old- cook stuffing in the bird, and also cook a bunch in a casserole dish for those more squeamish than myself- approach. I also put stuffing in between the breast and the breast skin, having wiggled it loose with my hands, as well as putting in the neck area skin flap with the same technique. I have never sickened a soul with my risky methods.

As an aside I also always put pine nuts in it. But that's neither here nor there.

Comment by jeff on November 19, 2008 at 3:35pm: a day full of scotch combined with the adrenalin-fueled recklessness of flirting with gastrointestinal trauma by stuffing the bird - that get's me thru the holiday just fine...

Comment by JeSais on November 19, 2008 at 4:07pm: my sister likes to put italian sausage in between the breast and the skin.
I like the stuffing OUTSIDE of the bird, which I guess makes it DRESSING
and INSIDE the bird I put onion chunks and apples and oranges to infuse the turkey with flavors and keep the bird moist.

Yummmm

Comment by Amy on November 19, 2008 at 4:53pm: See, in my family, we never, ever cooked the stuffing (we called it dressing) in the bird, we always cooked it separately. I had actually never heard of people putting the dressing in the bird until I was in high school and a friend was talking about doing that, and I was honestly grossed out. I had cleaned out turkey cavities during Thanksgiving prep at my Grandma's house and I couldn't imagine eating something that came out of there. Later, I had stuffing cooked in the bird and thought it was fine, but unless you get a BIG turkey, you don't end up with a whole lot of dressing and we REALLY like dressing in my family. One bird's worth would never have satisfied the ravening hordes I ate Thanksgiving dinner with.

So no stuffed turkey for us. However, we did have a tradition of leaving out all the Thanksgiving leftovers at room temperature for hours so people could pick at them between dinner and supper, during the all-important Thanksgiving football game. Amazingly, no matter how long the turkey, gravy, etc. sat out no one from my family ever got sick. Then again, these are the same people who used to eat calf fries, stewed okra, and steak tartare so maybe everyone just had a cast-iron digestive system.

Comment by mombat on November 19, 2008 at 5:27pm: Comment by mombat 1 second ago
Delete Comment We stuff the turkey and also bake extra stuffing too.
The only year anyone got sick was in 1987 when we lived in Roswell and had a big group of ABQ visitors. People got sick after they got home.
One of the kids turned the whole thing into her science fair project. She sent out a questionaire and determined that the people who stopped for lunch in Vaughn on the way home got sick, so not even turkey related.

Let's Talk Turkey

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