Cooking an extra-large homegrown turkey

Cooking an extra-large homegrown turkey

 

The following are a series of four video showing how to cook a large turkey using aromatics.

 

The turkey in this video is in excess of 40 pounds. Cooking a turkey of this size takes a long time and it is better to cook based on temperature rather than on the amount of time. It is also possible to shorten the cooking time by using a cooking bag, if you can find one large enough for this size bird.If you cannot find a cooking bag large enough, it may be necessary to cut off the legs in order to fit it in the bag. It is also possible to cut the bird in half or debone the bird and cook it in pieces. The end result will be the same when you go to serve the bird on the table.

 

 

 

Never cook stuffing inside the bird. It is unsafe to cook your stuffing inside the bird because it will never reach high enough temperature to kill the bacteria that causes food poisoning.

 

 

 

 

It should be noted that most commercial turkeys do not get to this size . The average turkey in the grocery store is between 10 and 25 pounds

 

 

Always use save cooking practices and never consume undercooked meat.

 Temperature in the thickest part of the meat should be at least 165°

 The following link is to the USDA website where you can find recommended cooking temperatures and other safe food handling recommendations .

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/news/NR_052411_01/index.asp

or

http://www.foodsafety.gov/

This site has an easy to read chart for safely cooking meat.