# Turkey cooking: food safety question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707 "2008-11-27T15:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/1 "2008-11-27T15:25:47Z")
I’m at my aunt’s house, and she is in charge of the turkey. We’ve got a 20-plus pounder, and she put it in the oven late last night to cook slowly. I woke up at 6 am, and the oven was off. I figured maybe it was cooking too fast, so she decided to slow things down. But when I woke up at 9:30, the oven was still off. I’ve only cooked a turkey once, in a screwed-up convection oven in an unfamiliar kitchen with an unfamiliar temperature system in England, and it wasn’t fully defrosted, so it didn’t work out so well - so I’m certainly not the turkey expert. My aunt is still asleep, and I haven’t been able to ask her what her plan for the turkey is. I know it’s really not a good idea to let it cool down for hours on end, so I turned the oven back on at 300 to heat it back up again. We’re supposed to eat at 5 pm, so what combination of time/temp would be best so that the thing is cooked between now and then, but not dried out like shoe leather? How should I get the thing back up to a safe temperature, but then cook it on as low a temp as possible until dinnertime? (Sorry if I’m not mkaing sense; I haven’t been properly caffeinated yet.) In any case, I know people will end up eating the thing, but I might stick to the other turkey that my other aunt is bringing, and tell my 91-year-old grandmother to do the same. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/2 "2008-11-27T15:31:21Z")
Uh…that bird’s dead, Jim. And you might be too, when your Aunt wakes up. No, what she did was not good food safety, and might have made people sick. But what you did will ensure turkey jerky by dinner time. Our 18 pound bird’s still in the fridge, drying the skin after brining. We’ll put it in about 4 hours before dinner - 400 degrees for 20 minutes to brown and 350 after that. A 23 pound bird takes about 5 and a half hours. There are people who do the old fashioned “low and slow” cooking for hours and hours, but 300 is way too high for that. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/3 "2008-11-27T15:42:01Z")
I was just doing the 300 to get it back up to a safe temperature - then I was going to turn it down, but I don’t know to what temperature, because I would never have done things this way to begin with. It was only on 300 for maybe 20 minutes. Sigh…now my aunt woke up, and she is pissed that I am suggesting that what she is doing is unsafe. I will keep poking around for further instructions, but if anyone could point me to a really scary site on turkeys and food poisoning, maybe I can convince her otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/4 "2008-11-27T15:51:05Z")
Don’t worry, the turkey was probably overcooked already, if it was cooking all night. Even a 20 lb bird only takes about five hours. Of course, your aunt also had the oven too low to be safe, so maybe it was just crawling with bacteria, not overdone. Try the [food poison blog](http://www.foodpoisonblog.com/2008/11/articles/food-poisoning-information/turkey-holidays-foodborne-illness/) for reference. The USDA says the oven must be at least 325, and that turkey should be refrigerated within two hours of cooking. While your motives were pure, turning the oven back on was no guarantee - to my knowledge, you can’t make something safe to eat after it’s been sitting in the “danger zone” for hours. You couldn’t pay me to eat that turkey, and definitely keep anyone who might be weak or susceptible to serious illness, like the elderly and children, away from it! ---
**Author:** ![JaneSaintClair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JaneSaintClair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneSaintClair)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/5 "2008-11-27T15:53:59Z")
Might I suggest consulting some of the experts…🆒 Turkey Talk-Line® “No question is too tough for these turkey talkers, and they are ready and excited to tackle any challenge you throw at them. Give them a call at 1-800-BUTTERBALL throughout November and December or, starting in October, you can email them at [talkline@butterball.com](mailto:talkline@butterball.com).” And I agree with the previous posters… I don’t think you killed the bird. The bird was dead when you found it this morning. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/6 "2008-11-27T16:11:13Z")
Assuming you can convince your aunt that the bird isn’t safe to eat, is there anyplace open where you can get another bird? Like **WhyNot** said, you have plenty of time to cook a bird and still have dinner at 5 p.m. A fresh bird would be best, but you could quick-thaw a frozen one under cold running water. Has your aunt ever cooked a turkey before like this? Poor deluded woman. ---
**Author:** ![criminey.jicket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@criminey.jicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/criminey.jicket)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/7 "2008-11-27T16:31:29Z")
That bird was waaaaay too long in the danger zone. It sounds like your aunt (intentionally or unintentionally) did everything right to make a petri dish out of her roaster. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/8 "2008-11-27T16:46:28Z")
High roast, people. This is the secret. We had a pretend thanksgiving last week for friends who were going out of town, with a 16 pound turkey. Fully thawed and dry, just sprinkle some salt over the skin, put some chunks of onion into the cavity, rub some sage under the skin, and toss it into a 450 degree oven. Two and a half hours later, the bird is cooked through, with dark crispy skin. Just poke an instant read thermometer into the thigh and check that the thigh meat is over 160. No brine, no muss, no fuss, no hours and hours of waiting. The turkey described in the OP is probably not safe to eat. Roasting OVERNIGHT? Since, say, midnight? And expecting to serve this monstrosity at five the next day? Yikes. Even if you want to live dangerously and don’t care about food poisoning, the turkey will be mummified. Low and slow is a myth. You don’t need to roast a turkey for hours and hours and hours! Stop the insanity! ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/9 "2008-11-27T17:23:38Z")
Is your aunt the beneficiary of anyone’s life insurance? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/10 "2008-11-27T17:37:27Z")
There’s still time to cook a turkey for 5 as long as you can get a new one. You can quickthaw using the running water trick, then high roast at 450 degrees. Even a big bird will be roasted in 2-3 hours. The hard part is getting the damn thing thawed before 2:00. The other hard part is finding an open grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/11 "2008-11-27T18:52:41Z")
I hang out a couple of BBQ boards where overnight cooks are not uncommon for large pieces of meat like whole briskets, and pork butts or shoulders. Sometimes times the fire will go out during the night. A thread will be posted if the meat is safe, and the reply is always the same, no more than 4 hours **MAX** between 40F and 140F. When it doubt, throw it out. I would also note that due to the way the meat is processed, from a bacteria point of view, with poultry this is doubly important. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/12 "2008-11-27T19:15:07Z")
Anyone else a bit nervous that we haven’t heard from **Eva Luna** in a while? ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/13 "2008-11-27T20:48:26Z")
Hi guys, I’m fine, but then we haven’t eaten yet. 😉 My cousin swears my aunt does the turkey this way every year, but all the same, I’m not eating it. And I’ll try to keep Grandmom from eating it. Gotta run - people are starting to show up. Later! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/14 "2008-11-27T20:52:24Z")
What you aunt was doing with her turkey is practically what labs do to grow bacterial cultures. She really, really needs to stop doing that - just because people haven’t died YET doesn’t mean she isn’t going to make someone really sick someday. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/15 "2008-11-27T21:48:37Z")
“No thanks…I really do like grilled cheese for Thanksgiving, really!” Yeah…that sounds like plague on a plate to me. BTW, regarding cooking time, most sites suggest oven temp of 325, and allow 20 minutes per pound for smaller turkeys, and 15 minutes per pound for large turkeys. Do NOT open oven while cooking, and do not baste (opening oven screws up oven temperature and basting is a waste of time and energy and accomplishes nothing). Ours is 24.6 pounds, I put it in at noon and figure it should be ready about 6 PM or so, but also have a meat thermometer inserted to make sure it is fully cooked. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/16 "2008-11-27T23:51:24Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > What you aunt was doing with her turkey is practically what labs do to grow bacterial cultures. She really, really needs to stop doing that - just because people haven’t died YET doesn’t mean she isn’t going to make someone really sick someday. Yeah, no kidding. When I described this cooking method to my dad, he asked whether the aunt stuffed the turkey with agar. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/17 "2008-11-28T01:51:26Z")
You know, in retrospect, I’m wondering whether the fact that she only buys Kosher turkeys has at least partially protected everyone from salmonella - for those unaware, the process of koshering a turkey involves soaking it in a salt brine, which is antibacterial at least somewhat, no? (And yes, I managed to avoid eating it, though she forced some stuffing on my plate and I had to sneak into the kitchen to chuck it in the trash.) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/18 "2008-11-28T02:55:07Z")
That could be part of it - the bacteria that can’t tolerate salt should be out of play. There are still some good 'uns that can tolerate salt, though (like _Listeria monocytogenes_). ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/19 "2008-11-28T03:09:10Z")
OMG, she did that with a **stuffed** turkey?! Urgh… ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707/20 "2008-11-28T03:17:34Z")
Yeah, I know, believe me, but what could I do about it? Trust me, I come from a looooooong line of VERY stubborn people. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-cooking-food-safety-question/474707.md?page=2)