[Sca-cooks] Turkey Defrosting?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

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