I swear I’m gonna write a book about my in-laws someday. Though it’ll have to be filed in Sci-Fi since nobody will believe it.
There is a 15 pound store-bought turkey sitting on my counter right now. It’s almost 1 am and it’s been there since noon. Twice tonight I’ve put it in the fridge to let it thaw in a manner as to not kill anyone eating it. Twice the MiL pulled it back out, the second time admonishing me to leave it be cuz time is wasting.
There are 2 days (3 since purchase) to let it thaw in the fridge and reduce the chances of food poisoning. But, nooooooooo, it has to sit on the counter for 30 hours before refridgeration because, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” :rolleyes: I’m surprised my wife lived long enough to marry me.
I half-snapped and told her I wouldn’t be eating any, since it’s so very, very wrong to leave raw poultry at room temp. She said not to worry, as it was frozen and therefore safe from bacteria. She was arguing that since the core was still frozen, the whole thing was frozen.
Did I bother to point out that the core being frozen doesn’t mean the outer parts are not thawed and raw? Well, I’m glad you asked. Of fucking course I did! :smack: And now she’s pissed I have an attitude about her cooking the dinner, and maybe she should spend the day with her sister. I can’t fucking win on this one. That’s why I’m dumping on all of you. Again. :smack: :smack:
So on the counter it shall sit tonight. And likely most of tomorrow. I, however, am looking forward to some tasty grilled brats with my potatoes and pumpkin pie. I can just see this being one of those wierd news items you see at the back of the paper’s front section.
I spent time in Wales with distant relatives a couple of years ago, and for one supper, my cousin cooked a chicken. Couple of days later, we were getting ready in the morning to take a nice drive, and she suggested making up sandwiches from the leftover chicken. Fine with me! I like cold chicken sandwiches (although nothing beats cold pheasant, cheddar cheese, and butter and pepper…but I digress).
Looked in the fridge for the bird, none to be found – I thought maybe her husband and son had finished it. Oh, no, was looking in the wrong place – after supper that first night, she did what she always did – put the rest of the chicken on the kitchen counter and covered it with a dishcloth, and the rest of the family picked on it, as usual with all the leftovers from every meal.
Everything and anything I ate from then on out came sealed in a packet; I lived on bananas and Jaffa cakes (which I hate) for the next week and a half.
Cooking something doesn’t necessarily mean that every last bacterium in the thing is dead. It just means that you kill off a lot of them, hopefully so many that the ones that are left won’t make you sick. The longer you leave the thing out so that the bacteria can breed, the less chance you have of killing them all. Obviously, it is not a good idea to eat spoiled meat, whether or not you cook it first.
All the health advisories I’ve seen, not to mention my mother and aunt’s formidable breadth of experience, advise against defrosting things for days on the counter. But for certain people in this thread, I would have thought that that was relatively common knowledge.
Blech! I’m with the OP. I always thaw mine in the fridge for a day or so, then in a sink full of cold water, just like the package suggests. Especially since I roast mine low and slow.
If you absolutely have to, take the meat the farthest away from the backbone. My butcher once told me that the backbone is typically the place with the highest amount of bacteria. He recomended having the butcher saw out the backbone if you planned to smoke the turkey.
[Groucho]
I tried to smoke a turkey once but I couldn’t keep it lit
[/Groucho]
Duffer, do you realize what a friggin’ baby you sound like in that post?
People have been thawing poultry like that forever.
And, it’s Thanksgiving with the inlaws. Stop acting like a sissy, and start acting like a family member.
“Well fine. Thaw it that way. I’m not eating any turkey.”
Get over yourself, eat the bird the way that whole family has been eating it for years.
I’m not gonna argue there’s not an increased risk of some toxin in the bird, but do you really think that thawing a bird that way and cooking it properly gives you a LIKELY chance of food poisoning. More likely, you just moved from .05% risk to the .08% risk. THAT’S the kind of thing you’re stinking up their Thanksgiving over.
Way to sacrifice to keep things running smooth at the holidays.
How many people do you know have really gotten sick from poorly cooked turkeys?
Way to ingratiate yourself with the inlaws.
Ya know, it’s not the drunk dirty uncles that ruin holidays. It’s people like you, that don’t sacrifice a little, don’t let things move smoothly, want to make a scene over every little thing, and just make things that little bit more stressful every step of the way.
My french heritage, of course, tells me I can eat all sorts of things that are raw, moldy, and possibly have been sitting on the counter for a few hours.
But that, of course, is only me. Strangely, I’m still alive, and I eat my steak blue.
Chances are you’ll be just fine with Mother-In-Law’s bird. Take one for the team, chum.
I must say, duffer, your recent Pit threads about your family lead me to cut you a lot more slack when you go off on some loonie liberal here at the SDMB. I guess you have to let it all out somewhere, eh?
I think duffer would die at my house. Not only does the turkey thaw on the counter, but after dinner the turkey and the ham sit out for hours on end as the entire family continues chopping off pieces and eating them.
It doesn’t hit the fridge till the last person goes to bed.
I must say that your rigid avoidance of all things salmonella is going to bite you in the butt someday. Sooner or later, you will slip up and get a dose, and then your body will have no defenses. I practice somewhat lax sanitary practices in all aspects of my life, ensuring that I get small doses of salmonella, e. coli, and campylobacter every day. My immune system is toughened by frequent exposure, so I suffer no ill effects, even when I get a larger than normal dose.
Face it, no matter how vigilant you are, sooner or later, you’re gonna be exposed, then you will suffer far worse than if you had not been so rigid about avoiding all bacteria exposure.
Family tradition is fine and all that, but at some point you have to stop catering to ignorance. Food poisoning is a significant health hazard, especially to the young, old, and sick. See http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/f/food_poisoning/prevalence.htm
Yeah, yeah, so we’ve been doing it since time immemorial and we humans are still alive today - well, the ones who didn’t die of food poisoning that is. Sheesh, that’s like arguing you don’t have to wear seatbelts because plenty of people never had them in the '50s and hey, we’re alive today, right? (Except for those accident victims who never lived and people don’t think about, that is.)
Another thing is, we didn’t have the bacteria strains “back in the good old days” that we do now. Thanks to overuse of antibiotics, delightful farming techniques like feeding rendered fellow farm animals to the living ones, and so forth, we’ve got strains of bacteria now that we didn’t have back then.
Food practices like some people are talking about would get most restaurants shut down by the health department, and everyone would be aghast that a restaurant would treat its customers so badly. But I guess it’s ok if you’re just doing it to your family?
Fear Itself, everyone gets mild doses of most bacteria every day; it’s pretty much inevitable. Courting disaster by setting up proper breeding conditions for dangerous strains of bacterium - well, even healthy and “germ-tolerant” adults can get bitten hard by that.
astro, refrigeration or freezing does not kill most bacteria. Refrigeration at 40 F or below slows the rate of reproduction tremendously, but once food is no longer refrigerated or frozen, it starts right back up again. Cooking the turkey fully might kill the bacteria, but the toxins will still be there - and a house that doesn’t believe in proper meat defrosting might also have other lax standards that leads to cross-contamination of food that doesn’t get cooked, like lettuce for a salad laid on the counter next to the dripping turkey, for instance.
Could be worse… You could be forced to spend the holiday in Pittsburgh with shudder the in-laws. <HELP ME>
So, just eat your skanky turkey like a good boy and be thankful dammit!
There’s also fear mongering, or whatever you want to call it.
You hear people say, “none of us used car seats as kids. It’s a miracle we’re alice today.”
Yeah, a miracle. Especially considering that almost no one I know was actually IN A CAR ACCIDENT when they were kids. And of those that were, the car seat reduces the risk of serious injury, by. . . exactly what percentage now, assuming you’re using it correctly and not in a fashion that actually INCREASES risk of injury?
You see it in all aspects of life. People have an irrational fear based on isloated cases, horror stories, and percentage increases of risk, no matter HOW SMALL the absolute risk remains.
And Duffer is going to stink up Thanksgiving over it.
There are cases where there’s no trade-off, and you put the turkey in the fridge. Here, there’s the trade-off of adding to the thanksgiving strife and adding the risk of not having the turkey thawed.
You know, the pilgrims didn’t have refrigerators. They had to thaw their turkeys on the counter and they did just fine.
Seriously, Duff, It takes a bird a long time to thaw and your chances of salmomella from a room temp thaw are really pretty remote, especially since its going to be thoroughly cooked anyway. You’re going to be fine.
I had to check the date of the OP before responding – So it’s been just under 24 hours that it’s been sitting out? I think that’s perfectly alright. I’ve even seen that as being recommended. But I wouldn’t let it go much longer than 24. A bird can fully thaw at room temperature overnight. So enjoy your turkey and keep the family peace. As long as that bird is back in the fridge by noon today. Otherwise, thaw those brats.
I’m with you duffer! My fiancée insists on eating stuff that was left out over night or not stored properly. At first I tried to stop him, but he insisted it was ok. Now, a year later, which one of us do you think missed so much work due to illness he was fired and which had plenty of sick and vacation time left? That’s right. You gotta be careful what you choose to put inside of you.
Oh, Turk? I remember reading health books from the 50’s that advocated smoking for weight loss and advised that drinking a few glasses of wine a night were quite healthy for pregnant ladies. We’ve learned a lot since then.
:eek: :smack:
