Talking turkey: Quick tips for preparing holiday bird

Kevin Takei, the chef de cuisine at St. Matthew’s House, offers answers to those question we who plan turkey dinners need:

TO RINSE OR NOT TO RINSE?

Many of us learned from our parents that you always rinse the turkey before you cook it, but the FDA actually warns against it. Here’s some wisdom from Takei: “It is best not to rinse your turkey. If salmo­nella is present, rinsing it is completely ineffec­tive. The only ways to kill salmonella are chem­icals and heat. The best way is to heat it to 165° Fahrenheit, which will kill nearly all microbes. The other reason not to rinse is cross-contamina­tion. Water splashes and spreads harmful bacteria with every droplet.”

So, go straight from package to pan with your turkey.

FRESH OR FROZEN?

At this point, fresh is go­ing to be best. A frozen tur­key will take, depending on size, about three days to safely defrost in the re­frigerator. If you haven’t bought your turkey yet, buy fresh.

TOUGH TURKEY

If your Uncle Joe start­ed talking politics and be­fore you knew it, you left your turkey in two hours too long what can you do? According to Takei, not much.

“There is no way to use overcooked turkey for the dinner that day, but you could use it for other things,” Takei said, sug­gesting that maybe saving it for a turkey salad, cas­serole or crepe may work. “The trick is to add more moisture — fat is the best and most flavor­ful way) — like mayon­naise, cream, yogurt, sour cream or cream cheese.” Our suggestion, how­ever, would be to just avoid politics next time.

TO STUFF OR NOT

Finally, in Takei’s eyes, there is no greater Thanksgiving food-sin than overcooked turkey. He blames this mostly on people cooking their birds stuffed.

“Everyone stuffs their turkey. Bad idea. I know the stuffing comes out great, but by the time the internal temperature of the stuffing reaches a safe temperature, the breast is always over cooked and usually the legs are, too.” Want Takei to bring his cooking chops to your house? While he’s all booked up for Thanks­giving, the St. Matthew’s House Catering Depart­ment would be more than happy to help with your holiday party. You can call to book at 239-298-5028.