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Emergency Turkey thawing help.

70 StangMan

70 StangMan

Well-Known Member
Donator
Well this year it is just the wife, son and I ( well just them actually) are making and enjoying the feast. In all of my years we/I have NEVER made the turkey. Has always been Granny or Mom. However life moves on... now the question. If tomorrow morning comes and my 12 lb. semi-frozen turkey ( which has been in the fridge since Mon) is not completely thawed WTH do I do to keep the wife from running down the road screaming that the world as we know it is going to end ?? The 'net is pretty cut and dry, but is there any home remedy's that will work without us dieing of dreaded bacteria ?? :skul
 
"dodgestang" said:
Fill sink with hot water, soak, rinse, repeat till you can get the innards out.
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See that's what I thought...all the web sights say " do not let the water get above 40 degrees and change the water every 30 min.or you will die"
 
"dodgestang" said:
I'm still alive....then again I maintain a high blood alcohol content which helps me fend off infections.
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In that case I'm more than safe. Thank's :thu
 
"70 StangMan" said:
In that case I'm more than safe. Thank's :thu
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If you are worried....use warm water and not hot water. My hot water isn't very hot..I keep it turned down so as not to burn the children when they are showering and the temp suddenly changes. I have also had success standing it up in the sink and just letting the water run filling up the cavity and then overflowing for a period of time.
 
"dodgestang" said:
If you are worried....use warm water and not hot water. My hot water isn't very hot..I keep it turned down so as not to burn the children when they are showering and the temp suddenly changes. I have also had success standing it up in the sink and just letting the water run filling up the cavity and then overflowing for a period of time.
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10-4 Nick...by the way.. if no one hears from me in a week or so, the turkey got me. :thu
 
If you're baking it, thawing in warm water, as Nick recommended, is fine. If you're going to deep fry, don't thaw it that way. It won't cook all the way to the bone and it ends up with splotchy looking skin. Since we've been deep frying ours for the past 20 years now, we sit it on the counter for most of the day. Overnight we put it in the fridge (not the freezer). If it's still frozen right now, leave it on the counter until the morning. It'll be thawed by then. As long as it is cool it's okay. Keep in mind, if you're cooking it (no matter which method), the heat kills the bacteria! It just has to be cooked THOROUGHLY!
 
It's recommended you need to use cool water and change it every 30 minutes. I've had a turkey 1/2 thawed before and just stood at the sink with cool water washing the cavity & outside. PITA but it took 1/2 hr to 1 hr so start early as you need to factor that into the eating time: working backwards from the eat time, figure in the cook time, then the prep/cleaning time (1/2 hr) then the thaw time.

For a moist turkey, lightly stuff it (don't cram the stuffing into the cavity) and carefully using a spoon so as not to puncture the skin, I separate the skin from the breast and shove some butter between the skin and breast to "self-baste" the breast. Loosly tent the bird to prevent over cooking the skin but remove the tent approx 1 hr before pulling it out. After removal, wet a dishtowel and drape/cover the bird for 10 minutes while the meat sets. Don't forget to remove the giblets from the lower cavity, no need to remove the turkey & baste it of you use the butter in the breasts, basking just cools the oven, lengthtens the cook time and only makes the skin look good.

Good luck, it's easier than people think.
 
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