cooking turkey the day before thanksgiving

#Cooking turkey the day before thanksgiving skin#
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To be safe, take its temperature like the turkey, it must reach 165 degrees.ĭo I need a roasting rack to roast a turkey?Ī rack allows the heat of the oven to circulate around the turkey also, if the turkey is resting on the bottom of the roasting pan, the skin there will be flabby and moist. The concern is that cold or frozen stuffing, sometimes sold already stuffed into packaged birds, won't reach a high enough temperature to be eaten safely. The USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend cooking stuffing separately from the turkey. Is it dangerous to cook the stuffing inside the turkey? If you do stuff your bird, trussing helps keep the stuffing in its proper place, and it makes for a neater presentation. Allowing untrussed wings and legs to have hot air circulating around them helps them cook faster, so the white and dark meat will all be done at the same time. If you do not stuff your turkey, you do not need to truss it. And use an open hand when it comes to seasonings, since the turkey won't offer much flavor of its own. A conventional turkey should be brined it will noticeably improve the texture.

The variety is the Broad Breasted White, which was bred to have a plumper, broader breast. (Don't brine a kosher bird.)Ĭonventional: This is the standard supermarket turkey. They also undergo a salting process after slaughter that gives the meat a juicy texture. Kosher: Turkeys with the 'kosher' label have been farmed and slaughtered according to Jewish dietary customs, with rabbinical supervision. You must read the fine print to find out if the bird is antibiotic-free, free-range or raised on a vegetarian diet. But there is no government guarantee to back up the word 'natural' on a label. Natural: Natural turkeys are generally less expensive than organic, and are often of a comparable quality. Department of Agriculture requires that all turkeys sold as organic must be raised free-range, without the use of antibiotics, and fed an organic and vegetarian diet that has not been treated with pesticides.

#Cooking turkey the day before thanksgiving free#

But when it comes to supermarket turkey, the difference between fresh and frozen is negligible.įree-range: This is a bird that is not raised in a cage and is free to graze on any grasses or grains it can find in its pen, which is generally considered a more humane and healthy poultry-farming process. Some cooks swear by a fresh turkey, claiming that frozen varieties are not as flavorful. The array of turkey choices can be confusing, so we've broken it down to help you navigate your options.