Cooking the perfect turkey

As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, many of you may be wondering how to cook that perfect turkey.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a great handout titled “Let’s Talk Turkey” that explains how to thaw a frozen turkey, how much turkey to allot per person, and how long to cook that famed turkey.

In summary, you should allot 1 pound of turkey per person, so you would need a 10 pound turkey to feed family of 10. Also, if you are like me and have that turkey in the freezer, you can thaw it one of three ways:
1. In the fridge: you will need 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds of turkey (so that 10 pound turkey will take 2 days to thaw)
2. In cold water: allow 30 minutes per pound
3. In the microwave (see your microwave instructions for proper thawing time).

How long to cook?

The general rule of thumb is roughly 15 minutes per pound. For that 10 pound turkey, it will take about 2 1/2 hours to cook (times may vary based on your oven). You will know when your turkey is done when the most internal part of the turkey is at a temperature of 165 degrees F.

Can you stuff that turkey before cooking it?

If possible, you should NOT cook that stuffing in the turkey because of high risk of bacteria from the turkey leaking into the stuffing. If you let the stuffing sit in the turkey before you cook the turkey, and if the stuffing is not cooked to the appropriate temperature (165 degrees F), then you could get food poisoning from the stuffing cooked within the turkey. If you decide to stuff the turkey, do this as a last step before you put the turkey in the oven to cook and make sure that both the stuffing and turkey are cooked at the appropriate temperatures before serving it.

Another key point is that you don’t want to keep your cooked turkey sitting out on the counter all day–put the leftovers in the fridge within 2 hours of serving them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

_{Smoked Turkey photo courtesy of Southernpixel}

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