Thawing the turkey

[fzxdoc]

I watched Alton Brown’s Good Eats on thawing and cooking Thanksgiving turkey. His process really surprised me. After Thawing the bird he spatchcock and let it set 4 DAYS! in the fridge to dry brine. Before cooking Alton Brown let’s the Turkey come to room temperature on the counter before placing in the oven.
You should be able to watch the program “On Demand” titled - Alton’s Countdown to T-Day
Like me, I said during watching- I can’t believe he’s doing it that way!

I love Alton, but he seldom preps and cooks on the side of food safety, IMO, especially with poultry. He is in good company, as many famous chefs don't seem to worry much with food safety, judging from their videos.

I enjoy watching the videos, but follow food safety guidelines pretty closely, usually from the FDA or agricultural extension websites.

Kathryn

[Ghawtho]

After watching Alton dry brining in the fridge 4 days am going to except that as excepted practice.

[rickgregory]

Four days is fine if your fridge is cold. I don't think there's a food safety concern with it assuming it was thawed conservatively.

But the 'let it come to room temp' is useless and could be dangerous. It would take a couple of hours to affect the temp of a turkey much and it's not going to make any difference to the cook time or results.

[fzxdoc]

I agree with rickgregory . Letting meat come to room temperature, especially something as large as a turkey, is questionable from a food safety standpoint.

Kathryn

[Santamarina]

I always start thawing a week before. Our turkey hit the fridge last night for Thursdays cook. Have t had any issues in the past, even with big 20+ lb birds.

[Bogy]

I usually thaw in the refrigerator. There are years when I pull ice out of the cavity, but it always comes out fine. This year we won't get to the vacation house, where the turkey is in the freezer, until Thursday. But we aren't eating Turkey with our son and his kids until Saturday. Doing the cold water method, and I have bucket liners, so the turkey will go into a 5 gallon bucket with a liner bag.

[JoeSousa]

Our garage fridge that is usually the only one with space for thawing turkeys and the like runs super cold. I did a turkey a couple weeks ago and had it in that fridge for 3 or 4 days and it was still quite frozen. I put it in a cooler in the cold garage (probably 45 degrees in there???) and the next day it was perfectly thawed and the whole bird was still below 40 degrees. I am getting my turkeys out of the freezer tonight and into that fridge. Hopefully they will be ready to spatchcock on Tuesday or Wednesday. If not they will sit in the cooler overnight again.

[Jim White]

I just bought a couple of fresh, never frozen, not injected turkey breasts. Not a bad price at $3.99 a pound. I can dry brine normally and will finally open my bottle of Meathead's poultry rub.

[fracmeister]

I dry brine chicken and turkey but if not thawed by Wednesday it is "wet brine" time

[realdocBBQ]

Just picked up a 15.15lb turkey from WM. I'm going to do it this weekend for a friend.

The 7.75lb'r of the same brand in the case next to it was more expensive. Not per pound, like total price.

15lbs was less than 7.75lbs. By a few cents.



The larger turkeys are already marked down, in that case of 15-24lb'rs, they were $0.98/lb. The case of smaller 7-10lb'rs were something like $1.98/lb. Or thereabouts. Just seems so strange.

[Ghawtho]

Turkey has been in the fridge 72 hours now and still hard as a bowling ball. It’s going in the Yeti cooler Sunday. Smoking the turkey Wednesday if the weather holds true. Our weather is holding at 26 degrees all day for Friday. It’s supposed to be 58 degrees on Wednesday but am not betting on it.

[Jerod Broussard]

There is likely a massive chunk of ice in the body cavity keeping things solid. I typically inject 2 days before smoking.

[Bogy]

Took part in this discussion, then went to have lunch. Over lunch my wife asked me if I had thought about thawing the turkey when we weren't getting to the house until later on Thursday. "No problem, it's all worked out!" Love it when I have an answer ready!

[Ghawtho]

Just checked the turkey, it’s been in the fridge 4 1/2 days now and just starting to thaw in some places but need to push with about 70 pounds of force to push a dimple in the meat. I regularly use a torque wrench so have a good feel for 70 pounds of force. Our weather is supposed to be 62 degrees on Tuesday and 55 degrees on Wednesday. I’m thinking about smoking the turkey on Tuesday.

[Bogy]

Wow, with temps that warm you'll hardly have to light the smoker. I'm hoping for 40 when I do the turkey next Saturday. It's 19 here now.

[Red Man]

What is the torque spec to push a dimple in a fully thawed turkey?

[Ghawtho]

Probably not much. Several areas in our bird are still 100% frozen after 4 1/2 days.

[Washblue]

This is one reason we have switched to chicken…. They’re a pain enough if they’re frozen…
This cold weather makes it easier to let them sit out in the garage to help the thaw…

[Ghawtho]

Jerod Broussard
It’s Monday morning 11/21 and started thawing in my Yeti cooler, monitoring the Yeti cooler temperature with my Fireboard. Who would’ve thought Fireboard 2 could be used for thawing turkey. Ha! 😆

[rickgregory]

HIgh: 55.5???

[Ghawtho]

rickgregory
Temperature 55.5 ° happens during setting temp probe in place. The Fireboard 2 ambient probes and temperature probes are not instant read thermometers. Unlike the Fireboard Spark
the external temperature probes are not instant read. The fold out probe on the Fireboard Spark is definitely instant read but would seriously doubt the external temperature port on the spark is instant read.

[rickgregory]

Phew. I had visions of you praying to the porcelain god.

[Ghawtho]

rickgregory
That’s funny. I got SICK about 4 years from a breakfast burrito. It was terrible, it was coming out both ends. I was either on my knees or setting.