Outdoor Cooking | Cooking Utensils

The best cooking turkey tips

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Most people seem to get some kind of panic attack when they even think about cooking a turkey. And because most turkeys get cooked on festive occasions like Christmas, Thanksgiving and other big family events the question is are they panicking because of the bird or because of the family. Fact is we just do not cook turkeys often enough to know the best turkey tips. And when we do now we most of the time have forgotten the next time we cook a turkey. Here are three some good practical turkey tips to use and to save for next time.

First of the cooking turkey tips: Size

The best tip for cooking a turkey is in picking the size of the bird. Remember bigger is not necessarily better, turkey is incredibly heavy meat that sits in the stomach like a ton of bricks. One wise person once described eternity as “Two people and a turkey”. One or two pounds per person is more than enough if you don’t have a freezer.

You also need to be sure the turkey fits in your oven. This might seem painfully obvious, but it is amazing how many people (usually men) each holiday season ignore this most sensible of tips for cooking a turkey. Not only does the turkey have to fit inside of the oven you currently have, but it needs to fit inside of the roasting pan as well.

Second of the cooking turkey tips: Buy early

Most of the turkeys are usually sold frozen. If you can somehow get yours fresh, then feel free to skip this turkey tips. The rest of you – pay attention. Turkey meat takes longer to defrost than most other frozen meats. Often, this means it will take about three days for a 12 pound turkey to defrost. Planning on this is another great tip for cooking a turkey.

The safest way to defrost a turkey is to have it defrost on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. Get it about a week in advance and stick it in the bottom of your refrigerator until the day you need to cook it. Don’t be surprised if it’s not completely thawed.

Third and last of the turkey tips: Take it slow

After you have taken the above turkey tips to hart and started to plan and prepare early the actual cooking of the turkey does not need as much turkey tips. Most of the turkeys you can buy have the instruction on the package and if it isn’t, a recipe is quickly found online. The most basic cooking turkey tips to remember are: