(accidentally multi-posted to alt.food.cooking; sorry!)

I know "they" say one should stuff a turkey just before baking, in order to
reduce the chances of bacterial contamination as the stuffing absorbs juices
from the turkey. Being on the inside, it gets less heat than the turkey
itself.

I took a turkey out of the freezer Sunday evening, and intended to cook it
today. We made a big vat of stuffing to put into the bird.

Upon opening up the bird, we found it was already stuffed! I didn't even know

"they" marketed turkey in this fashion. The wrapper (who ever reads wrappers
on a blasted TURKEY?) says to cook from frozen.

How do I get myself out of this debacle?

My inclination is to use the pot of homemade stuffing tonight, to pull the
stuffing out of the bird, and to bake it separately tomorrow at something like

400° for a good hour or hour and a half. If it gets a little crispy, so what?

Does this sound reasonable, or am I flrting with disaster - brain cancer or
whatever - from consuming the bird's stuffing even after substantial cooking?

Art

Michael \"Dog3\" wrote:
>
> Art, here is a website that seems like it's dealing with your dilema...
>
> http://www.ehow.com/how_6593_prepare...ed-frozen.html
>
> Don't know if this will help or not. I've never eaten a pre-stuffed
> turkey that was frozen.

Yes, that website says:

"Never, ever defrost a frozen stuffed turkey. The interaction
of the thawing stuffing with the turkey meat causes bacteria
to form, so the cooking process, which destroys the bacteria,
needs to be started immediately."

Sounds like both the turkey and the stuffing need to be
tossed. What a shame! You really screwed up! :-)

<snip>
Stuffing fowl is so dangerous that in the military it is a court martial
offense to stuff and cook a turkey.
Another thing I didn't realize is that when making large amounts of
stock/broth, that one has to be careful, and have the facilities to cool the
liquid very quickly. Seems the stock/broth is the perfect nutrient for
bacterial, says Alton Brown. He said if you don't have a walk in freezer,
to fill the bottom of an insulated picnic chest with ice, place the stock
pot in it, and cover the pot with ice too. Immediately after removing from
the heat.
.. . . .I bought a 16 quart aluminmum stock pot before I was aware of the
danger. Luckily I have not yet used it for stock. But it is a great cheap
($30, and very rugged) addition to my collection. I even later bought the
10 quart style with the pasta strainer ($35 total). I nice family metal
spinning business in Penn.


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

"theChas" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...
> <snip>
> Stuffing fowl is so dangerous that in the military it is a court martial
> offense to stuff and cook a turkey.
> Another thing I didn't realize is that when making large amounts of
> stock/broth, that one has to be careful, and have the facilities to cool
> the liquid very quickly. Seems the stock/broth is the perfect nutrient
> for bacterial, says Alton Brown. He said if you don't have a walk in
> freezer, to fill the bottom of an insulated picnic chest with ice, place
> the stock pot in it, and cover the pot with ice too. Immediately after
> removing from the heat.

Watch out someone doesn't report you for pot abuse!

I learned that, too, but in real life cooking for myself my thinking is
this: my stock is boiling when I cover it and turn off the heat. Where are
these bacteria coming from that are going to ruin my stock? I would not
leave it longer than it takes to cool for refrigerating or freezing,
although our greatgrans did and reboiled it everyday. Artusi says to reboil
it morning and evening.

Even if you refrigerate stock, you should reboil it every 3 days for a
minimum of 5 minutes at full boil.

It's all this that has taught me to reduce my stocks to a concentrate so
that instead of many liters to chill, I have a small amount that can chill
quickly in a flat pan on ice. It's intense and in use is usually diluted
with a great deal of water, but is faster to handle and smaller to store.

OTH, if my kid has been to visit I will have Better than Bouillon in the
fridge and I like it.

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:08:29 GMT, (Arthur
Shapiro) wrote:

>(accidentally multi-posted to alt.food.cooking; sorry!)
>
>I know "they" say one should stuff a turkey just before baking, in order to
>reduce the chances of bacterial contamination as the stuffing absorbs juices
>from the turkey. Being on the inside, it gets less heat than the turkey
>itself.
>
>I took a turkey out of the freezer Sunday evening, and intended to cook it
>today. We made a big vat of stuffing to put into the bird.
>
>Upon opening up the bird, we found it was already stuffed! I didn't even know
>
>"they" marketed turkey in this fashion. The wrapper (who ever reads wrappers
>on a blasted TURKEY?) says to cook from frozen.
>
>How do I get myself out of this debacle?
>
>My inclination is to use the pot of homemade stuffing tonight, to pull the
>stuffing out of the bird, and to bake it separately tomorrow at something like
>
>400° for a good hour or hour and a half. If it gets a little crispy, so what?
>
> Does this sound reasonable, or am I flrting with disaster - brain cancer or
>whatever - from consuming the bird's stuffing even after substantial cooking?
>
>Art

I've never seen a pre-stuffed turkey... if it was mine I'd remove that
icky germ-laden stuffing and toss it in the trash, thoroughly wash the
inside of the bird, and cook it as usual. I'd never stuff a turkey -
cook your nice big pan of stuffing seperately.