[Sca-cooks] Turkey Defrosting?
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Fri Dec 31 13:24:29 PST 2004
Also sprach Elise Fleming:
>Greetings! When I was (much!) younger, my parents always defrosted a
>frozen turkey in cold water in the sink. Now, I see on the back of my
>frozen turkey's packaging that it says not to defrost in warm water. Is
>the tricky word "warm" vs "cold" or shouldn't packaged turkeys be defrosted
>in water at all? If not, how can one get it to defrost in one day?? It
>isn't defrosting fast enough in the refrigerator.
>
>Alys Katharine
What Phlip said. Basically, you want to do two things. You want to
warm the bird enough to thaw it without getting any part of it, for
any prolonged period of time, above 40-45 degrees F. The trouble with
warm water is that salmonella will cheerfully, and in fact,
reverently, be fruitful and multiply (Hallelujah!) under the skin and
in other outer, warmer portions of the bird, while others are still
frozen. And because parts are still frozen, and you're going to,
presumably, wait until it's thawed, salmonella will essentially be
watching, but not waiting on you, if you get what I mean.
Probably your best bet is to use cold water from the tap in a sink
that is nearly full, or whose water level covers the bird, but drains
as fast as it fills. This may take some doing, and you may need to
experiment with weird things like using a kitchen towel as a drain
plug, but ideally, you'll get a combination that doesn't flood the
place, and doesn't have water which becomes excessively chilled by
the frozen bird, and which has some currents of both a physical and
convective, if that's the word, nature.
Adamantius, dealing with no frozen boids, but prepping Manilla clams
and shrimp for later this evening
--
"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils mangent de la
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them
eat cake!"
-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782
"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry
Holt, 07/29/04
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