Is this half a turkey done for?

November 24, 2017 7:18 PM

I bought a 24lb turkey with plans to spatchcock it, same way I did last year. I must have blocked last years turkey drama from my memory because that size turkey is hard to cut and manage.

I also didn't take into consideration my smaller, more delicate oven. For some reason this oven seems to run hotter and smoke quicker. The spatchcocked turkey was not going to fit comfortably in the pans I had so I decided to cut the spatchcocked turkey in half and just cook them side by side in separate aluminum pans to eliminate dripping and splattering. My oven started smoking within a few minutes. I had to remove once half of the turkey and just cook one half.

Well now I have the other half and i'm scared of the potential turkey germs. I had the big bird out for at least an hour to come to room temp. Maybe 2 hours. I had it in the oven for a few minutes at 450 degrees. I put it back in the fridge.

Is it safe to cook and eat considering how long it was out of the fridge and the fact that it was in the oven for a few minutes? Also what is wrong with my oven? I'm used to putting my oven through it and this one is not keeping up.

SN: I put a reminder in my calendar for next year to never buy such a large turkey again.

posted by mokeydraws to Food & Drink (3 answers total)

My oven started smoking within a few minutes.

Can you run a cleaning cycle, or clean the oven manually yourself?

I would also recommend an oven thermometer so you can test whether it’s heating properly. They only cost a few bucks and will let you know if your temperature setting is accurate. Our oven consistently runs 25 degrees hotter than it's set to, juuuust enough to throw off my expectations for recipe times (but certainly not enough to make things a smoky mess).

The best-reviewed model in Cook’s Illustrated a few years back was this CDN DOT2 ProAccurate model.
posted by bcwinters at 5:43 AM on November 25, 2017

Maybe call the Butterball turkey hot line? Info here.

I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would weigh in. Personally, I would not eat it. But that’s partly because I’d be so anxious about eating it that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.
posted by FencingGal at 7:15 AM on November 25, 2017

Response by poster: Update: I cooked the turkey! I made a stew and we ate that twice. It was not delicious. Then we made a turkey curry salad and ate that for a couple of days. It was pretty tasty! Then I took the bones and made broth. The broth/stock came out nice and jiggly and I've been drinking it. I froze the majority of it. So all in all not bad. I'm still getting smaller turkey next year and plan to have limited intake of poultry for the next month or so. We'll see how that goes.
posted by mokeydraws at 7:53 AM on December 2, 2017