Thursday, November 16, 2006

Thanksgiving Turkey Tips

The USDA has overhauled its decades-old recommendation that turkey be cooked to a temperature of 180 degrees, which kills salmonella but also dries out the bird.

The new recommendation is to cook turkey to 165 degrees, which is sufficient to kill bacteria yet will leave the turkey in a moist condition.

Today's L.A. Times had a nice section with a variety of ideas for preparing your Thanksgiving turkey.

Mark Bittman in the New York Times turns his attention to stuffing. While his suggestions are always worth considering, I can't say I agree with him that stuffing from the bird is a "soggy, unappealing mess" -- I love it! I follow a family recipe for preparing stuffing in a way I don't typically see in cookbooks -- the stuffing from the turkey is mixed in with more stuffing (dressing?) prepared in the oven, which results in the entire mixture having a lot of great turkey flavor. It's all moistened with broth made from simmering the neck and giblets the night before Thanksgiving.

The N.Y. Times also ran an article on the perfect pie crust.

Hard to believe it's just a week till Thanksgiving! Wasn't it just Halloween?

7 Comments:

Blogger Sean Carter said...

Well Thanksgiving is almost here and those are some really helpful things you've posted there...thanks for sharing it with us...and hey for some more resources you can check out my Thanksgiving Blog sometime and enjoy all it's got to offer!!!

1:50 AM  
Blogger Cathy said...

goofy spammers....

3:18 AM  
Blogger J.C. Loophole said...

I am with Alton Brown on this one- I am a Dressing person all the way. My grandmother makes a cornbread dressing that is so delicious, moist and tasty that I could actually have Ham on Thanksgiving as long as her dressing is there.

7:03 AM  
Blogger Irene said...

This post is making me hungry! We are such a small family now that I just get a large turkey breast and roast that which means stuffing has to be prepared on the side. It's all good :)

PS I went to Disneyland Wednesday afternoon and activated my Annual Pass. Yipee!! I posted a thread on MiceChat under Disneyland Resorts titled Trip to Disneyland with Photos 11/15. It has now moved to page 2.

7:46 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

Love hearing everyone's feedback!

Irene, what beautiful photos you took of the castle! I love the closeups of the ornaments. Congrats on your AP pass!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Laura

11:28 AM  
Blogger jau said...

What a great idea to mix the out-of-bird and in-bird stuffing together!? Thanks. And I'm with you and Alton and the others - stuffing is what it's all about.

2:08 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

It's hard to believe that when I was little I didn't like stuffing. It's the very best part of Thanksgiving! :)

Laura

2:12 PM  

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