Urgent! Food Safety Advice About My Turkey Needed
I have a 8.5 lb Diestel turkey sitting in a huge pot covered in brine. When I put it in the brine last night, it was still frozen solid ( I couldn't get the neck piece out because it had freezed with the body). Therefore, I let it sit in the cold brine and covered in the pot over night. I was going to move to pot into the fridge this mornign before I left for work but I forgot to. Is my turkey ruined now and dangerous to eat? Or do you think it might be still somewhat frozen/cold enough to continue to use. I can go home around lunchtime to move it to the fridge. At that point it will have been in a pot of cold brine at room temp for about 12-14 hrs. BTW, I have no heat on in my home right now either if that makes a difference.
Help! Do I need to go buy a new turkey and start over???
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Will Owen
Nov 26, 2008 03:24 PM
I'm not brining my turkey, but when I went out to the garage last week to see how thawed my Li'l Butterball had gotten, I found the Back Fridge's coils completely encased in ice and the interior scarily warm. The plastic had also gotten a tear in it and there was pink water all over the fridge's floor. In a panic, I carried the bird into the house, carefully removed the wrapper and rinsed and dried the thing off. Then I poked the thermometer into the breast - yippee! 26º! So I carefully wrapped it in HD foil, stuck it in the Main Fridge and went out to defrost the other one. Mr. Turkey is out back again - that old turret-top GE holds 30º like magic, so he'll need a good warming up before he's cooked tomorrow.
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Sam Fujisaka
Nov 26, 2008 10:10 AM
Your turkey is fine
On which to dine
With many glasses of fine fine wine
After all, no cootie can live in brine›2 Replies -
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I would check the temperature of the brine. If it's below 40, that's definitely ok (the turkey cannot be warmer than the brine.) If it's above 40...maybe I will do some math to figure out how long it's been above 40 for you (or someone else on the board, maybe.) It does make a difference what temperature it is in your house.
Unfortunately, the brine will speed up the defrosting process...(salt lowers the melting point.)
