Here is your official reminder: If you are cooking a Thanksgiving Turkey, be sure to pull it out and put it in the refrigerator to thaw TODAY. You need to plan on 24 hours of thawing (in the fridge) per 4-5 lbs of turkey. Count on at least 24 hours to thaw for a smaller turkey, but probably more like 48 hours for a larger size. (In fact, you might need to put it into a water bath tomorrow night if it is still frozen solid. For tips on water baths, read my Tips on Your Thanksgiving Turkey post.)
*Quick Thaw Method*
Cold Water Bath – This is a great option if you find you ran out of time and forgot to put it in the refrigerator. Simply take the packaged turkey and put it into a sink or large pot full of cold water. It will defrost in about 1/4 of the time as the refrigerator. Be sure to change out the water every few hours or so to make sure the water stays cold. It should defrost in one day.
TIP: If you are going to brine your turkey, it will thaw completely in the brine. So no worries!
I have lots of great information in these Thanksgiving Posts and Recipes to help you out this week:
- How to Buy a Turkey
- How to Save on Holiday Entertaining
- Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Recipes
- Thanksgiving Recipes: Sweet Potato and Hashbrown Casseroles
- After Thanksgiving Turkey Soup
- Turkey Tetrazinni
Is this helpful to you? Please be sure to “like” these posts and share them with your friends!
Do you remember the year you cooked a turkey for the first time? Please share your stories below! There are many first-timers this year who can learn from your mistakes as they (hopefully) laugh at their own!
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Thanks for the reminder! I think our turkey is somewhere around 14lbs, so I’ll take it out tomorrow.:-)
The first year I cooked a turkey…while cutting the turkey and hearing everyone comment on how good it was…something strange started to appear from inside of the turkey…yes, it was the plastic bag of giblets and such that I knew nothing about…somehow that plastic survived hours in the oven and didn’t melt…more importantly, didn’t ruin the rest of the turkey! So remember, reach in there and pull out the plastic bag of yucky and save yourself the embarrassment…luckily it was all family and we had a good laugh! 😉
I did the same thing… leaving all the “extras” inside. I took out the neck but didn’t find the rest, so I thought they just didn’t put them in. I later found them “stuck” WAY up inside the bird… My In-laws were there and I was trying to impress my Mother-in-law.. OH, I impressed her, alright… I was so embarrassed . T he next year I looked!