Don't Poison the Family on Thanksgiving

Little Man told me the other day he sure would like to have turkey for Thanksgiving. What? We have had turkey every Thanksgiving since... well, forever. Then I realized ours doesn't look like what you see in ads and on TV. Mom pulls the meat for us. So instead of a golden brown bird on the table that has to be cut, my family has a huge plate of white meat. Who knows, I might try cooking a turkey this year. Gotta learn sometime, right?

For years, Liz Tarditi's mother tried to kill her family with turkey. Not intentionally, of course, but invariably, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, someone in the family developed flu-like symptoms. Mother blamed it on the weather and whatever influenza was going around, but the truth is they suffered from mild food poisoning that zapped their resistance and required weeks to fully recover.Tarditi, a professional personal chef, says the way to avoid "the flu" and make sure the holidays are as healthy as they are happy is to practice safe food handling techniques when preparing the Thanksgiving turkey.Most poultry contain small amounts of salmonella bacteria that, when ingested, can result in a variety of afflictions all the way from slight illness to death. The way to kill salmonella in food is with heat and on surfaces with an antibacterial agent.Professional chefs and caterers are required by law to handle food in such a way as to not poison their customers. They treat all poultry as if it has live salmonella. Unfortunately, most non-professional cooks don't take similar precautions so lots of people get sick needlessly, but rarely make the connection with their kitchen.

Every kitchen needs an effective antibacterial solution, but don't spend $6 for a 12-ounce bottle of cleaner. Make it yourself: Mix one gallon of cool water (no warmer than 70 F) plus one teaspoon of liquid bleach. If the water is any warmer, the bleach will evaporate; more bleach will harm some surfaces and fabrics. Measure carefully and stick with this perfect, dirt-cheap recipe that will not harm wood, paint, marble or fabric. Regularly sanitize all surfaces with this bleach water, particularly those that may have come in contact with raw poultry, including the inside of the refrigerator.

Clean out your refrigerator before you go shopping for a turkey. Make a place for a large sheet pan to catch the raw run-off drippings while it sits in the fridge. Leave the turkey wrapped and place it in the fridge on the sheet pan. Even sealed in plastic, it will drip. Let the frozen turkey thaw naturally. It will take one day per five pounds. Don't take it out and leave it on the counter to speed it up; don't try to quick-thaw it by placing it into the oven at a low temperature, or in a sink full of water. Don't "blast" it at 500 F for three hours before company arrives.Thawing a turkey any way other than in the fridge on a sheet pan for several days invites trouble because it increases the chances that bacteria will make it through the cooking process alive and well.Even if the turkey is thawed completely by say, Tuesday, just leave it fully wrapped in the refrigerator. It will still be excellent on Thursday.

Tarditi does not recommend stuffing the turkey. As the bird cooks, raw juices drip into the soft, absorbent stuffing. The stuffing may be steaming hot when you spoon it out, so you think it's fully cooked because the bird is. It's not. Turkey must reach an internal temperature of 165 F, and so must the contaminated stuffing. It's nearly impossible to cook a stuffed turkey to perfection and also guarantee uncontaminated stuffing.Prepare your stuffing as you always have, but bake it in a separate foil-covered pan while the turkey's roasting. After the bird is fully cooked and out of the oven, mix some of the roasting pan drippings and fat into the stuffing before you make the gravy.

The easiest way to roast a turkey is to set the oven to 325 F. Place the turkey in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and put it in uncovered. It will take about three hours for a six-pound turkey; add 10 to 12 minutes for each additional pound, up to six hours total for a 25-pound bird.Check internal temperature two-thirds of the way through the cooking time using a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh meat. It's done when it reads 165 F. Let the bird rest for 20 minutes before carving for juicier and more flavorful meat.

Article by Mary Hunt