Cooking Tips: Talking Turkey

cooking tips

november 97

Diabetic-Lifestyle Cooking Tips features useful ways to cook with more flavor, using less fat, salt, and sugar. Diabetic-Lifestyle offers recipes, menus, medical updates, entertaining - practical information enhances life while managing diabetes on a daily basis. - Home

Talking Turkey

November and December brings days of planning, shopping, preparing, and roasting the All-American bird. Did you know that early explorers of the New World liked turkey so much that they brought them back to Europe, and that by the 1500's, turkeys were raised domestically in England, France, and Italy?

The National Turkey Federation anticipates that 91% of Americans will eat turkey for Thanksgiving. The Federation shares that the old saw about tom (male) turkeys being more tender than hen (female) turkeys is not true. Rather, the tenderness of the bird is related to the age of the bird when processed. The Federation suggests that you purchase one pound of turkey per person to insure plenty of leftovers.

The turkey growers also suggest cooking a turkey tenderloin as an alternative for those who do not want to cook a whole bird. Buy a fresh turkey and having the butcher cut it in half, wrapping one half for the freezer and the other for roasting now. This is an excellent way to cut down on turkey leftovers that go on forever.

By the way -- do you know the most popular leftover by far is a turkey sandwich? It comes far ahead of soups, salads, casseroles, and stir-fries -- in that order. To contact the National Turkey Federation, you can call them at (202) 898-0100, or find them on the web at http://www.turkeyfed.org/.

Butterball Turkey can be reached at http://www.Butterball.com/ or by calling (800) 323-4848. They have shared the top ten questions asked last year by the more than 200,000 inquires. Here we've combined some of the questions and answers.

Buying the turkey?

Frozen turkeys can be bought well in advance, but remember to leave time for thawing before roasting.
Fresh turkey should be purchased no more than 3 days before roasting. To be sure of the right size, be sure to order in advance.

Thawing the turkey?

Thaw a frozen turkey in the refrigerator, allowing 1 day for every 4 pounds of turkey.
In an emergency, you can thaw a frozen turkey in a cold water bath BUT you must change the water every 30 minutes, estimating 30 minutes of thawing time per pound of turkey. Be careful and follow these directions exactly.
Thawed turkey can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days, but always use the turkey by the "use date" on the package.
When you open the turkey package, the turkey should smell fresh. If it has an "off" order, return the uncooked turkey to the store.

Safe Handling?

Thaw as directed, keeping the thawed turkey in the refrigerator.
Prevent turkey juices from dripping on other foods.
Place uncooked turkey on non-porous surfaces, not wooden cutting boards.
Use paper towels, not cloth, to dry off the turkey after rinsing well with cold water inside and out.
Wash your hands and all surfaces and utensils that touch raw poultry or its juices before handling any other food to avoid cross contamination.
Bake the stuffing outside of the bird -- inside the bird the stuffing must reach 160° F (71° C) to 165°F (74°C) and it will absorb all lot of turkey fat. If you are going to stuff the turkey, do so just before roasting.
Store turkey, stuffing, and gravy separately in the refrigerator within 2 hours after cooking. Use within 3 days.

Baste? When is the turkey done?

Spraying the bird with vegetable cooking spray or rubbing the skin with a little oil before roasting will help the bird remain moist.
Basting may increase cooking time because of heat loss when opening the oven door.
If you don't want to bother basting, try covering the bird with cheese cloth sprayed with vegetable or butter-flavored cooking spray.
A half hour before end of estimated cooking time, check the turkey internal temperature using an instant-reading meat thermometer placed deep into the thigh of turkey (not touching bone) or in the thickest part of breast, just above the rib bones. Roast to 180°F (82°C) to 185°F (85°C) in the thigh or 170°F (77°C) to 175°F (79°C) in the breast. When thigh muscle is pierced, juices should run clear, not pink. Don't rely on the color of the bird.

Another great site for holiday ideas and recipes is http://www.mrscubbisons.com. Mrs. Cubbisons' Seasoned Dressing and Corn Bread Stuffin' are terrific products, ones that we've used for years. You'll need to watch the fat content on some of their stuffing recipes, but there's some healthy and low-fat recipes as well. Take a look. There's some turkey cooking tips and super salads recipes as well.