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Practical And Sensible Tips For Cooking A Turkey

February 14th, 2008 by admin Subscribe To Our Feed

There seems to be an annual national panic around Thanksgiving in America and Christmas in England. Those are considered the most socially important meals of the year – and they both traditionally center around a turkey. Turkey is not cooked regularly enough during the rest of the year for people to remember the tips on how to cook a turkey that they learned last year. If becoming a vegetarian isn’t an option, then here are some sensible and practical tips for how to cook a turkey.

Bigger Is Not Necessarily Better

The best tip for cooking a turkey is in picking of the size of the bird. Turkey is incredibly heavy meat that sits in the stomach like a ton of bricks. One wise person once described eternity as “Two people and a turkey”. One or two pounds per person is more than enough if you don’t have a freezer.

You also need to be sure the turkey fits in your oven. This might seem painfully obvious, but it is amazing how many people (usually men) each holiday season ignore this most sensible of tips for cooking a turkey. Not only does the turkey have to fit inside of the oven you currently have, but it needs to fit inside of the roasting pan as well.

Get It A Week In Advance

Turkeys are usually sold frozen. If you can somehow gets yours fresh, then feel free to skip this tip for cooking a turkey. The rest of you – pay attention. Turkey meat takes longer to defrost than most other frozen meats. Often, this means it will take about three days for a 12 pound turkey to defrost. Planning on this is another great tip for cooking a turkey.

The safest way to defrost a turkey is to have it defrost on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. Get it about a week in advance and stick it in the bottom of your refrigerator until the day you need to cook it. Don’t be surprised if it’s not completely thawed.

Don’t Rush It

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist in order to cook a turkey. Most turkeys sold have instructions right on the packaging. They aren’t trick questions – these instructions are great tips on how to cook a turkey. Rinse the bird off, take out the giblets and stick it in a roasting pan. Cover with foil. Baste every half four or hour if you are so inclined. And that’s about it.