November 12, 2010

Cooking a Turkey





The supermarket had turkeys on sale this week for .49 cents a pound for the frozen ones.

They were the good ones too - the all natural kind with no preservatives or additives.

If our freezer hadn't given out earlier this week, I would have bought an extra one for after the holidays.

I ended up cooking the one I did buy last night for dinner, and it was delicious.

It came with a pop-up in its breast to let us know when it was done, but I never like to rely on those little plastic pieces.

I made sure it was cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees in the breast meat and in the thigh meat.

The turkey weighed 21 pounds, and it took almost five hours to cook in a 350 degree oven.

What surprised me the most was the amount of fluid in the roasting pan.

In the past I have had to keep taking out the water as it cooked or it would drip all over the oven and make a mess.

I kept a careful eye on it, but I didn't have to remove any.

Must be that the all natural ones aren't filled with water that comes out during the cooking.

I have posted below the USDA recommended cooking times for a turkey.

Unstuffed Turkey
4 to 8 pounds.............1-1/2 to 3-1/4 hours
8 to 12 pounds................2-3/4 to 3 hours
12 to 14 pounds...............3 to 3-3/4 hours
14 to 18 pounds...............3-3/4 to 4-1/4 hours
18 to 20 pounds...............4-1/4 to 4-1/2 hours
20 to 24 pounds...............4-1/2 to 5 hours


Stuffed Turkey
8 to 12 pounds................3 to 3-1/2 hours
12 to 14 pounds...............3-1/2 to 4 hours
14 to 18 pounds...............4 to 4-1/4 hours
18 to 20 pounds...............4-1/4 to 4-3/4 hours
20 to 24 pounds...............4-3/4 to 5-1/4 hours



Enjoy!












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