I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.

So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?

Turkey is from the local grocery store known for high prices deceptive
practices and ripoffs 11mos of the year. They always "give back" to the
community in December. So tonight for example 98cents for a dozen eggs,
ground chuck $1.99 lb, chicken breast $1.59 lb, many other specials.

my mom unused to say she was taking something out of the freezer to let it
"unthaw". Years later in Colorado, I happened to say it and a coworker
pointed out that made made no sense. Irregardless, I never noticed till
then. When I moved back to the midwest, noticed a couple instances where
other people said "unthawed".

"z z" > wrote in message
...
>I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
> turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
> tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.
>
> So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
> coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?
>
> Turkey is from the local grocery store known for high prices deceptive
> practices and ripoffs 11mos of the year. They always "give back" to the
> community in December. So tonight for example 98cents for a dozen eggs,
> ground chuck $1.99 lb, chicken breast $1.59 lb, many other specials.

Not sure what you mean by a "small drinks" refrigerator. I have an electric
cooler that is really small but only lowers the temp of the food or drink a
little bit. If you want a cool drink, you'll get one. But you won't get a
cold one unless perhaps it is the middle of winter. Because the cooling is
based on the temperature around it.

I have a little fridge and freezer that is designed like a big fridge but I
have determined that it does not keep food at a safe temp. So we only keep
cans of soda, bottles of water, etc. in there. And blue ice in the freezer.

I have seen fridges that are designed specifically for beverages. Whether
or not they keep a temp. that is safe for food, I do not know. What does
your fridge thermometer say?

On Thu, 6 Dec 2012 22:35:16 -0600, (z z) wrote:

> I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
> turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
> tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.
>
> So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
> coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?
"Alton Brown did a demo of various defrosting methods with different
temps of water, etc. on his roast duck episode. Cold, slowly running
water is the fastest way to defrost."

http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2008...ting-meat.html

--
Ann's Little Brother Bob

In article >,
(z z) wrote:

> I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
> turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
> tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.

That's around a twelve pound turkey. It won't be thawed on it's own by
Saturday night in a fridge if you bought it solid frozen. I'm assuming
you bought it late Thursday.

> So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
> coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?

I'd leave the refrigerator alone for a turkey with the time you've
given. If you have the time, I'd thaw it in cold water in your sink or a
tub/bucket on Friday. All day. If the turkey is already in a heavy-duty
plastic shrink-wrap, soak away. If the turkey is able to be exposed to
the thawing water, I'd change the water every four hours. But that's
just me.
I'll be surprised if it's thawed by Saturday without doing water thawing
starting *now*. If you have a big enough microwave, that'll do the job
poorly.
2 cents

leo

z z > wrote:
> I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a
> small turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin
> thawing tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.
>
> So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
> coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?
>

It is safe within that time frame. However it may not be fully thawed by the time desired. Use a cold water bath if it is still pretty solid early Saturday.

z z wrote:
> I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
> turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
> tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.
>
> So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
> coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?
>
> Turkey is from the local grocery store known for high prices deceptive
> practices and ripoffs 11mos of the year. They always "give back" to the
> community in December. So tonight for example 98cents for a dozen eggs,
> ground chuck $1.99 lb, chicken breast $1.59 lb, many other specials.
>


How are you planning to cook this turkey? It doesn't have to be fully
thawed to cook it. I roasted an 18# bird on Thanksgiving; took it out
of the freezer at 9:30AM, put it in the roaster at about 10:30, and it
was ready to eat at 5:00PM. It tasted great, but would not have made a
very pretty "presentation". That's OK, I cut it up in the kitchen. I
don't like carving at the table anyway.

It works better if it's at least partially thawed. Your bird will be
partially thawed by Saturday; that's good enough unless you want to
stuff it.

Bob

On Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:30:45 -0700, Christine Dabney
> wrote:

>On Thu, 6 Dec 2012 22:35:16 -0600, (z z) wrote:
>
>>I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
>>turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
>>tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.
>I think I would forget about it being ready on Saturday night. It is
>going to take quite a few more days to thaw, I would say.
>
>Christine

An average size turkey (~15 lbs) needs at least five full days in the
fridge to thaw... by Saturday (tomorrow) that bird will be rock hard.

z z wrote:
> I succumbed to the lure of cheap frozen turkeys tonight. Bought a small
> turkey for 59 cents per pound $7.53 total. Figured if I begin thawing
> tonight it might be thawed by Sat night.
>
> So I have one of those small "drinks" refrigerators. I set it on the
> coldest fridge setting. Safe to thaw a turkey?
>
> Turkey is from the local grocery store known for high prices deceptive
> practices and ripoffs 11mos of the year. They always "give back" to the
> community in December. So tonight for example 98cents for a dozen eggs,
> ground chuck $1.99 lb, chicken breast $1.59 lb, many other specials.
>


Don't leave us hangin', how did the turkey turn out?

Bob

It is completely thawed-I used a cold water bath this afternoon. Not
sure if I should have done this, but I put it back in the fridge tonight
and intend to pop it in the oven when I get up in the morning.

On 12/9/2012 1:10 AM, z z wrote:
> It is completely thawed-I used a cold water bath this afternoon. Not
> sure if I should have done this, but I put it back in the fridge tonight
> and intend to pop it in the oven when I get up in the morning.
>
You had me worried! Had I lost count of the calendar and Xmas was
tomorrow :-)

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not" in Reply To.

I haven't cooked many turkeys-partly because I only have two feet of
counter space :-) I popped it in the oven 1.5 hours after beginning this
morning-one forgets how much work this is...

I was so hungry and my stuffing looked so good I almost ate it for
breakfast.

I tossed the giblets and the neck for expediency. The turkey had a wierd
plastic truss inside the turkey holding the legs and that was the devil
to remove. Glad I caught a glimpse of it. The tail was still attached I
trimmed it and the ugliest portion of the breast skin off.

Washing and drying the bird went ok-I threw away the hand towel.

I have never had success smearing butter on a turkey so I loosened the
breast skin and stuffed lemon slices and pats of butter under the skin.
Stuffed quartered lemons in the neck cavity. My sausage pecan
honeysoaked cornbread stuffing is in the chest cavity. I sprinkled
rotisserie seasoning over the breast and covered it with a bit of
tinfoil.

I had bought one of those roasting racks I wanted to try. Due to my
small oven the bird is now on the bottom oven rung because the rack
elevates the turkey above the pan-but I really really like the rack. I
chickened out at the last minute and did not put it breast side down.

I stopped at the store last night wanting to buy some skewers-they were
sold out.

Two hours and counting-smells like turkey.

Out of the oven-the popper popped but I am not satisfied with the degree
of doneness on the bottom of the turkey so I have popped just the bottom
back in the oven. It is mainly due to my tiny oven I believe-not enough
clearance all 4 sides for good heat flow. It's been fun but will
probably be another 10yrs before I do it again. Jill's cornish hens
would be a much better choice :-)