I tried posting this to r.f.r, but I guess it wasn't recipe-ish enough.

I saved a web page from the Utah State University's Extension Food Safety
office that Pastorio posted a few months ago about cooking frozen turkeys
straight from the freezer. I tried it last night, and it works
beautifully, although my 12 pound turkey was done almost an hour early
(maybe because I cooked it in an electric roaster instead of an oven.) I
can't find the web page anymore, so here are the instructions converted to
plain text:

Best regards,
Bob


Cooking a Frozen Turkey [11/27/2003]
By Pauline Williams, MPA RD CD

The following instructions on cooking a frozen turkey are from
USU Extension’s food safety specialist Dr. Charlotte Brennand.

Steps for roasting a frozen turkey:
- Take turkey from freezer and remove plastic wrap.
- Put the frozen turkey in a shallow pan and cover with a foil
tent. The edge of the foil should just hang loosely around the turkey.
- Put the frozen bird in the oven and turn the oven to the desired
temperature (see chart below). Note: the giblets and neck will
still be in the craw; these can be removed halfway through the
cooking if desired, or just prior to serving.
- During the last 15-30 minutes of cooking, remove the foil tent and
turn the oven up to 400 degrees F.

The turkey CANNOT be stuffed using this method. Cook your stuffing
separately and serve on the side.

TIME AND TEMPERATURE CHART

You can choose from two oven temperatures, 250 or 325 degrees F. Both
produce a good product. The best temperature depends on the size of the
turkey and the time you want to eat. For example, to serve a 22-pound
turkey at 1:00 p.m. the bird would need to go in the oven around 3:30 a.m.
if using 325 degrees, or 7:30 p.m. the night before, if using 250 degrees.

Bird Size | Minutes per Pound
Pounds | 250 degree oven | 325 degree oven
10 | 57 | 39
12 | 56 | 37
14 | 54 | 34
15 | 52 | 32
18 | 54 | 30
20 | 49 | 27
22 | 47 | 25
24 | 45 | 23

For safety, use a meat thermometer to assure the bird reaches 170
degrees in the thickest part of the breast and 180 degrees in the
thigh.

In article >,
says...
> I tried posting this to r.f.r, but I guess it wasn't recipe-ish enough.
>
> I saved a web page from the Utah State University's Extension Food Safety
> office that Pastorio posted a few months ago about cooking frozen turkeys
> straight from the freezer. I tried it last night, and it works
> beautifully, although my 12 pound turkey was done almost an hour early
> (maybe because I cooked it in an electric roaster instead of an oven.) I
> can't find the web page anymore, so here are the instructions converted to
> plain text:
>
I don't doubt that it works, but I guess my question is why would you
want to cook a frozen turkey? If you cook it frozen, you can't brine it,
and you certainly can't remove the bag of organs inside. Or am I missing
something here?
--
Donna
A pessimist believes all women are bad. An optimist hopes they are.

Donna Rose wrote:
> In article >,
> says...
>
>>I tried posting this to r.f.r, but I guess it wasn't recipe-ish enough.
>>
>>I saved a web page from the Utah State University's Extension Food Safety
>>office that Pastorio posted a few months ago about cooking frozen turkeys
>>straight from the freezer. I tried it last night, and it works
>>beautifully, although my 12 pound turkey was done almost an hour early
>>(maybe because I cooked it in an electric roaster instead of an oven.) I
>>can't find the web page anymore, so here are the instructions converted to
>>plain text:
>>
>
> I don't doubt that it works, but I guess my question is why would you
> want to cook a frozen turkey? If you cook it frozen, you can't brine it,
> and you certainly can't remove the bag of organs inside. Or am I missing
> something here?

Why would I want to brine it? Frozen turkeys are injected with salt water
before you buy them. I removed the goodie bag and the neck about halfway
through the cooking process.

You would want to cook it frozen if you were curious if it would work :-)
or forgot to defrost it, or just didn't take it out of the freezer in time,
or you are paranoid about the turkey spoiling as it thaws, or you find
out 24 hours ahead of time that you have to feed a bunch of people, or...

Best regards,
Bob

In article >,
Bob > wrote:

> I tried posting this to r.f.r, but I guess it wasn't recipe-ish enough.
>
<snip frozen recipe>

Well, Bob, I saw you're frozen recipe this morning on r.f.r. so I guess
it just took a while for you to pass their security check. ;^)

Regards,
Dave W.

--
In the Ozarks. Dot edu will do for email.

Dave W. wrote:

> In article >,
> Bob > wrote:
>
>
>>I tried posting this to r.f.r, but I guess it wasn't recipe-ish enough.
>>
>
> <snip frozen recipe>
>
> Well, Bob, I saw you're frozen recipe this morning on r.f.r. so I guess
> it just took a while for you to pass their security check. ;^)
>
> Regards,
> Dave W.
>

The moderator sent me an e-mail -- she thought she had posted it (even
though it wasn't the form they are accustomed to), but it never made it
off of her server. This message to r.f.c., which I accidently copied to
r.f.r, prompted her to check again because she remembered the first
message a week ago.

Best regards,
Bob