The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #163283   Message #3893787
Posted By: Steve Shaw
13-Dec-17 - 03:11 PM
Thread Name: BS: How to get a frozen turkey to the table
Subject: RE: BS: How to get a frozen turkey to the table
Stop looking at recipes. Every recipe is a bee in someone's bonnet. Anyone looking up a dozen "recipes" for cooking a turkey will get a dozen different ways of doing it. I've cooked dozens of turkeys down the years and I've found that every recipe that tells you to stuff turkeys is wrong, every recipe that tells you to turn it over halfway through is wrong and that they'll all give you different temperatures and timings and mucking about turning the heat down or up. For every turkey that's ever given anyone salmonella there have been a thousand turkeys cooked until they're as dry an old bone because the cook's been scared of salmonella. It's not like a shoulder of lamb or pork. There isn't enough fat in a turkey to forgive overcooking, simple as that. There are only four rules:

Your main battle is to stop the breast drying out. Cover it with bacon and stuff butter under the skin.

Don't overcook it. It's done when there's no pink juice when you pierce the thigh.

Don't cook it too hot. You'll murder the breast meat before the rest is cooked.

Let it sit for half an hour or more before taking the knife to it.

That's all there is to it. Medium to big bird, three hours ballpark. Monster bird, four hours should be plenty. You can't really mistime the meal because the spuds and veg don't need to go on at all until you're sure the bird is done and out of the oven. Even a hour and a half resting won't do much harm. Not even the stuffing needs to go in before that. If it's running late, just open another bag of popchips and another bottle of Prosecco.