Food safety question, turkey breast
socks
2 years ago
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Rose Pekelnicky
2 years ago
morz8 - Washington Coast
2 years agoRelated Discussions
Cooked the turkey breast: long cooking time
Comments (13)Thanks everyone. Yes, I used an oven thermometer. It's an old one (the standard metal frame) and I have no reason to think it's off, since setting the oven 25 degrees lower seems to work almost all the time.... and NOT setting it lower tends to burn/brown the food too much (though I haven't tried that for a long while....). In addition, I always put the rack in the middle of the oven (unless the recipe says to do otherwise), then put the thermometer in the middle of the rack on which I'll put the pan, and wait until it registers at (or very close to) the temp I want. And, yes, the breast was cold when it went into the oven -- I made the herb paste in the morning, spread it on, covered with foil, and put it in the fridge. I wanted to go for a bike ride and didn't want to cut that short to come back and prepare the turkey; all I'd need to do is stick it in the oven. No doubt, letting it sit at room temp for about an hour would have made a difference in cooking time. I bought it fresh, not frozen, and kept it in the fridge until cooking time. (I removed the foil except for the last 30 minutes.) So, next time I'll let it sit for about an hour at room temp before cooking, then let it reach 165 degrees before removing it from the oven. This was Ina's recipe and tried and true so I'm going on the assumption I did something differently. It wasn't overly dry.... a little on the dry side. The flavor is great and I would definitely make it again, but not for company until I get this right! I also made the dill potatoes (posted here before), and brussel sprouts blanched then tossed w/ EVOO and drizzled with finely chopped walnuts then roasted in the oven. Hubby (who does most of the cooking since he's retired and I am still working) said "This is really good, Hon." .... then, after dinner, "Good job!" All's well that ends well! :-) Thank you all so much!! What a great forum....See Moreturkey breast with pop-up--first time hosting
Comments (9)Agree with both preceding comments. Especially the need for a digital thermometer. Ignore the pop-up, there's really no substitute for a digital thermometer to properly cook meat of any kind. With poultry, it's for food safety, with beef or lamb, it's to be able to cook to whichever degree of doneness is desired. They're useful for far more than meat too. It's the best $10 you'll ever spend. 325 and 350 are really the same temperature, especially given how inaccurate and variable most home ovens are. At the lower temp, it will take a bit longer than 90 minutes, but the process is the same. At the risk of giving an obvious suggestion, remember to allow maybe 72 hours (+/-) of defrost time by moving the breast from the freezer to the refrigerator before you cook it. Also, I always pull turkey and chicken out of the oven at least 5 degrees below the target temperature. When you're clear it's in the high 150s or at 160 in the very center, take it out of the oven so that it doesn't overcook as the temperature will continue to rise for the next 5-10 minutes....See MoreCooking the turkey - questions and slight panic.
Comments (36)Renovator - I think I'm going to look into the bags for next time. Delilah - :) I think I could handle them! I would totally buy a precooked turkey too if I could get my hands on one. Kitschy and Sherry - Oh my!! All the planning and prep... the day goes so fast. I used regular old bake mode, stuffed the turkey, and followed Butterball's directions this year. It was good. I didn't use the probe because my pan was too deep and I just could see it turning into a mess. I'm going to test out the roast mode more and stuffing the turkey later while it rests. We had lots of food left over. The paper/styrofoam products weren't too big of a deal. They ended up being used more for dessert and the aunt did bring a few food items which I thought was also nice. Almost everyone showed up early while I was trying to finish up and wanted to help. You know how that goes - everything gets jammed up and hectic fast, lots of question flying at you, the list goes on! There definitely will be a layout change someday with the kitchen. It was a nice day. My kitchen looks like a bomb went off and I'm looking the other way. Tomorrow it's clean up, Christmas decorating, and leftovers! ETA - Yesterday I managed to somehow hurt my ring finger while putting away dry dishes. No clue what I did but it felt like I stoved my finger. About 10 min. later while making peach cranberry sauce I managed to tear off a large chunk of nail (back into the nail bed) on the middle finger on the same hand while grating orange zest. After the initial scream all I could do was laugh at that point. (Later the ring finger actually hurt worse than the missing nail.) Cleaned it up, bandaged up, and wore a sexy glove almost full time ever since. Ring finger is normal again today and missing nail is ....well, still missing. :)...See MoreBoneless Turkey Breast
Comments (28)Thank you for your well wishes, Linda. I've decided that widowhood is definitely not for the faint of heart. I've been a member of the club for ten plus years and although I'm a strong and stubborn ole Yankee who tolerates living alone perhaps better than most...there are times when it's more challenging than I would wish. I have no children of my own and the very few relatives that remain are too far away to be part of my active life. My neighbors are a self-absorbed lot not open to sharing much of anything with their own let alone with a single old lady. I learned very early on that married couples of almost any age bracket in this area do not want to socialize with single women...no matter what their age. They're really rather a strange collection and one of these days before I take my final trip...I plan to write about this entire experience. I've lived all over the world and I've never seen a population such as this. I don't know if they're a sign of the times or just a local oddity. Unfortunately...I don't have the option of moving so I just meander through daily life enjoying it through my eyes...giving and helping where I can...and ignoring the lesser attractive parts. It seems to be working! I would love to have some Le Cruset pieces but with the glass top stove...and my own slowly failing eyesight...it's probably safer that I don't. It's beautiful cookware. :-) When I bought this stove I bought a new edition of flat bottomed cookware from Cuisinart that has turned out to be a wonderful asset. It conducts heat very easily and evenly...and performs miraculous fetes over very low temperatures. I think its performance is probably why I've never invested in a crock pot. But once the holidays have passed and shopping becomes less of a physical challenge...I plan to take a look at what's available just to satisfy my need-to-know. Happy Thanksgiving, Linda...and once again...thank you for your help....See More
Judy Good
2 years agosocks
2 years agosocks
2 years agosocks
2 years ago
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morz8 - Washington Coast