Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | First attempt at cooking a turkey. My brother won a 11 pound turkey in a raffle a few weeks ago. Was at the local grocery store yesterday and the owner asked us what we were having for Christmas dinner. We told him we have a frozen turkey. His first question was, Is it still frozen ? We said yes. He said well you MIGHT get it done by Christmas noon meal. He also suggested buying a "turkey bag" to cook it in, my first experience with those too.
Got home last night and did a Google search on cooking a Turkey. What I found explains why the store owner was a little skeptical about us getting it done in time. It said you do not set the frozen turkey on a kitchen cabinet and give it 12 hrs to thaw. Doing that at room temp is a sure invitation to food poisoning !! It said the safe way is to slowly thaw it in the refrigerator over several days at 40 degrees. OH OH ! back to Google to see if there is a faster safe way to thaw a turkey.
Yep, Google says to put the frozen turkey in the bag in a roaster pan and right in the oven, heat it at 350. Only difference is that it may take twice as long to get er done. Cook it until the internal temp is 175-185.
OK I did it that way just operating on faith. At 3 hours 45 minutes the little temp thing popped up and my oven meat temp guage said 185.
Brother is cutting it up as I type. The meat just falls off the bones and is really nice and moist, tastes great !
Now to get some dressing mix done yet tonight. Us old coots will eat well tonight, tomorrow and for most of another week, as the little zip lock freezer bags are ready for the bulk of the turkey. |
Cooked my first Christmas turkey :)
