With Thanksgiving drawing near, many folks are starting to spend more time in the kitchen—cleaning, making menu plans, or preparing favorite dishes can make the heart of the home into a hive of excited activity. And central to many holidays meals with family is the turkey. This item can be a point of stress for first-time hosts and experienced cooks alike, especially when it comes to ensuring safe preparation. No one wants their holiday gathering to end with memories of foodborne illness due to mistakes or cross-contamination.
But the good news is that there are steps to take to make sure your holiday meal stays safe (and delicious!). We’ll break down some steps to safe meat handling during the holidays, and let you know how The Tub Pros can help make your kitchen safe and functional if you live in the Memphis Metro Area, Germantown, Collierville or Northern Mississippi and Arkansas.
What do I need to do while preparing the holiday main protein meat?
Preparation for cooking a turkey actually starts several days before any action with the oven. Many turkeys come frozen—and while you can cook a frozen turkey, this takes about 1.5 times longer than cooking a thawed turkey, and doesn’t allow for cleaning, stuffing, or brining the turkey or using family-favorite spice rubs.
So to make sure you can season and prepare your turkey the way you want to, start thawing it in the fridge several days in advance. A general rule of thumb is to allow one day for every four pounds of turkey—so a sixteen-pound turkey would need four days to thaw. Place the turkey breast-side-up in a tray to catch any liquids that escape.
To thaw a turkey more quickly, place it breast-side-down in cold water. Completely submerge the turkey, and change the water every 30 minutes. Make sure the water is cold to ensure food safety. This is different than brining your turkey—when submerging a turkey in brine after it has been thawed, be sure to keep it in the fridge.
Once the turkey is thawed, remove the bag of giblets in the center cavity—you don’t want to leave this in while it’s cooking. Many people—up to 78% of Americans who prepare turkeys—wash the turkey to remove possible traces of fecal bacteria left on the bird during the packaging process, though in recent years, the CDC and USDA have conducted studies that say that this can actually put you at more risk of cross contamination as water splatters and spreads bacteria.
But old habits die hard—so whether you’re washing the turkey or not, ensure that you disinfect your sink and counter with bleach after preparing the turkey. Move all clean utensils out of the way and disinfect faucets, soap pumps, and cutting boards—and don’t reuse a cutting board for raw and cooked meat. Consider using paper towels rather than cloth towels while cleaning and preparing, and put any towels promptly in the washer.
What can I do while the bird is cooking?
The biggest thing you can do to ensure that food is prepared safely is to make sure that your turkey’s internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature of the meat at the thickest part of the thigh, making sure not to let the thermometer touch the bone. This is because dark meat cooks more slowly than breast meat.
Also ensure that you remove the turkey from the oven and close the oven door when checking the temperature—this helps to keep heat in the oven so that the turkey cooks at a consistent temperature. And if you have stuffing in the turkey, make sure that the internal cavity where the stuffing is located has also reached 165 degrees.
Once the entire turkey has reached a minimum of 165 degrees, remove it from the oven and let it rest for 15 to 45 minutes in the pan—this is so the juices don’t run out onto your carving board. While you’re cooking that turkey, you can also use the giblets (minus the liver) and neck to make turkey stock—simmer these pieces in water and you have stock you can use to make gravy.
For those who want to deep fry a turkey, the thawing process is especially important—a frozen turkey put in hot oil can produce a huge fireball as frozen water crystals become liquid and in turn come into contact with the hot oil. Keep the deep fryer and thoroughly thawed and dried bird at least ten feet away from the house or deck—setting it up in the driveway can be a good option.
What about cleanup?
After a big Thanksgiving meal, cleaning up doesn’t sound inviting, but it is nonetheless important. Leftovers should be put away within two hours of cooking to ensure they don’t sit at a temperature where bacteria thrives. Make sure to put them into shallow containers, and portion out pieces of turkey to make sure they cool at the same rate—a whole carcass will chill unevenly. Leftovers should be kept in the fridge and eaten or frozen within three to four days of initial preparation.
How can The Tub Pros help me at Thanksgiving time?
At The Tub Pros, we help make your kitchen and bathroom spaces beautiful and functional again—two things that go a long way towards making your home a happy space for family, friends, and guests to come over and enjoy favorite traditions. So if you’re wondering how to revitalize Corian countertops, are feeling worried because your granite countertops have some damage, or are hoping to bring solid surface material into the modern era with faux granite countertops, we’re here to make it happen!
And we can help in the bathroom, too—whether there are cracks in the sink that make even the best-kept powder room feel dirty and tired, or whether there are guests for a holiday who could use a grab bar for help getting out of bathtub and shower areas, we’re here with our factory-trained team to get your house up and running in a fraction of the time of a bigger remodel.
If you’re looking for counter and sink reglazing near me in the Greater Memphis area, turn to The Tub Pros. Our online blog article library is a value added source of information for all types of kitchen and bath refinishing. Give us a call today at (901) 871-8827 or use our online form to get started on your refinishing project.
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