How Long To Cook A Turkey
I recently showed you to how to cook a simple yet delicious Thanksgiving turkey.
However, unless you've got x-ray vision, knowing how well done a roast is on the inside, from looking at it from the outside, is impossible.
It’s no wonder most of us end up with dried out, overcooked turkey at Thanksgiving as we’re trying our best to make sure we don’t serve dangerously undercooked turkey!
Today, we’re going to show you, once and for all, how to ensure your Thanksgiving turkey is cooked through safely, without overcooking and drying it out.
The Size of the Turkey
How long you need to cook your turkey will depend on the size of your turkey.
We recommend you allow around 1.5 pounds of turkey per person. Simply count how many people you expect at your Thanksgiving gathering and then multiply it by 1.5.
As a general rule you should allow 20 minutes of cooking time per pound but that can vary depending on your oven.
Everybody’s oven is different. Depending on how old it is, whether it is fan assisted, and a myriad of other reasons, each oven will take different lengths of time to cook food.
Warning: Always keep in mind that, when calculating cooking times, the result is simply a guideline.
How to check if your turkey is done
Some people swear by checking that the juices run clear for ‘doneness’ of meat. This is a terrible idea.
The reason why raw meat has a red or pink color is because of a molecule called myoglobin. The theory behind checking for clear juices is that myoglobin loses its color when heated.
However, the point it changes color can fluctuate.
For example, you can cook turkey to 155°F (well under the 165°F recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture) and the juices can still run clear.
You can cook another turkey to 170°F (5°F over the USDA’s guideline), and yet it may still ooze pink juices!
No, the only way you can be sure you are serving your loved ones meat that is cooked through (whilst also not serving them burnt dust) is by using a cooking thermometer.
We recommend you use the Chef Remi Cooking Thermometer as it has been designed to give you instant accurate temperature readings.
It has a long probe, so you can get right into the middle of your roast where it is the furthest away from the heat source.
And it has a ‘freeze' temperature button, which allows you to 'freeze' the temperature while the probe is in the food. This is because, as soon as you remove the probe, the temperature it registers will drop as it reacts with the cool air.
Without this freeze function, you may assume your roast is cooler than it actually is, and you end up cooking for far too long and ruining your roast!
Here’s how to get the most accurate temperature reading using our cooking thermometer:
1. Push the thermometer into the thigh of the turkey, where it is attached to the drumstick.
Push your thermometer into the thickest part of the turkey thigh, just above the crease between the thigh and where the turkey breast begins.
When you first push the thermometer through, the reading should jump up and then start to drop as it reaches the coolest point.
Please note, do not check for the temperature whilst initially pushing the probe in. You’ll find that the probe jumps forward in bursts as you apply pressure as it goes through different materials, such as connective tissue, fat etc and it makes it hard to get accurate readings.
2. Now, retract the thermometer probe through the meat
By slowly retracting the probe back through the meat, you can check for the lowest temperature as you hit the coolest point. This is the temperature you should go by.
As you’ve already ‘punctured’ your way through, pulling the thermometer out is a much smoother process, and you get a much more accurate reading.
A Thanksgiving turkey roast is safe to eat at 165°F, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Make sure the coolest part has registered to at least this temperature. If it hasn’t, your turkey needs cooking for a little bit longer.
With the Chef Remi Cooking Thermometer to hand this Thanksgiving, you can wave goodbye to guesswork, and cook your turkey to moist, delicious perfection!
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