So I was doing the routine of thawing my frozen 13 lb. bird in the sink with cold water...exchanging the water about every 30 - 40 min. It didn't seem to be making too big of a difference so after doing this for 1.5 hrs I decided to just leave the turkey in cold water for another few hours and stopped changing the water. I then moved it to the fridge to wait for a brine.
Should this bird still be safe given how long I left it in the sink? When I took it out of the water and moved it to the fridge, the water was still cold...but I didn't bother checking the water temp for the 40 degree mark.
thanks.
WSM * 22 1/2 Performer w/Touch-N-Go * 22 1/2 One Touch Silver * Smokey Joe
Posts: 56 | Location: Chicago | Registered: January 17, 2008
Originally posted by Jeremy Laux: So I was doing the routine of thawing my frozen 13 lb. bird in the sink with cold water...exchanging the water about every 30 - 40 min. It didn't seem to be making too big of a difference so after doing this for 1.5 hrs I decided to just leave the turkey in cold water for another few hours and stopped changing the water. I then moved it to the fridge to wait for a brine.
Should this bird still be safe given how long I left it in the sink? When I took it out of the water and moved it to the fridge, the water was still cold...but I didn't bother checking the water temp for the 40 degree mark.
thanks.
How many hours is a 'few'?
You should allow 30 minutes per lb to thaw when changing the water every 30 minutes.
Personally if the water was still cold and you didn't leave the bird in the water for 5 or 6 hours, I wouldn't worry about it. Just ensure the bird is throughly cooked by using accurate meat thermometers. This should be the case all of the time.
Good luck and Happy Holidays!
Larry Wolfe
Posts: 4125 | Location: Virginia | Registered: April 28, 2004
