On 12/4/2010 12:30 PM, Steve Pope wrote:
> I'm sure there are many opinions on this but here goes:
>
> I have a 17 lb, presently frozen turkey. (It was in the refrigerator
> case at the grocery store today, but still seems pretty completely frozen.)
>
> I need to cook this turkey Monday, that is pretty much 48 hours from now
> it need to go into the oven ideally completely thawed. By my calculation
> it will not have thawed sufficiently by then if I just leave it in the
> refrigerator.
>
> How should I approach this?
>
>
> Steve

You should forget about the defrosting instructions that come on the
bird and while you're at it, forget about the cooking instructions too.
What most folks don't know is that the stuff printed on the bag only
applies if you're lucky enough to be living in an alternative parallel
universe. It's likely your mom followed the instructions to a "T" and
you know how those turkeys were when you were a kid - dry!

A lot would depend on the ambient temperature of your kitchen. Here in
the tropics, letting it soak overnight in a salt water solution works
fine. Of course, you can't soak a bird pre-injected with a salt
solution. In this case, you'd use just plain water and soak longer. If
your room temperature is below 70 or so degrees, you'd need to soak it
in water longer. I don't bother changing the water cause I'm lazy nor do
I see the rational for that except that you're in a big hurry. I just
stick the turkey in a 5 gallon pail or if I don't have a big pail, will
put the turkey in a 13 gallon kitchen rubbish can liner and fill the bag
with the turkey in the sink.

Most importantly - don't ever follow whatever Alton Brown sez about
defrosting a turkey. I have no idea what he sez about defrosting a
turkey but most likely it involves some newspaper, a brick, and an
electric fan...