Kitchen

[Toppers3]

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@Wacissakid wrote:

Well, stupid me may have ruined the turkey.  My wife asked me to put the semi-frozen turkey in the sink and fill it with water.  I assumed she meant hot water.  Wrong.  She meant cold water.  It was in there aboout two hours when she came home and discovered it.  She's afraid it is now ruined.

Is it ruined or is it safe?  Can anyone give an opinion on this?  Can we still cook it tomorrow or should we go buy another turkey.  In case it matters, it was a 15 pound turkey.

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You only want to do a water thaw if you intend to cook it right after thawing it.

Otherwise, you leave it in your fridge until you're ready to roast it and you thaw it then in cool/cold water if it's still frozen. 

Once it's thawed out in the cool water, you roast it right away. 

This is what I have always done if the large turkey breast or turkey that I've been going to roast is still a bit frozen.

Like others have already mentioned, I would call the Butterball hotline and ask them what to do. 

[Wacissakid]

Thank you all for your quick responses, but I guess they weren't really needed because my wife threw it out and then went out and bought a fresh one, along with a couple bottles of wine ( I guess for commiseration!).  C'est la vie!

[ValuSkr]

Thank you for sharing your experience, @Wacissakid.  I learned something new!

[skittles2]

@Wacissakid

It's ok, you can still find turkey.

I would never chance that, I'm a RN, have seen too much...

the partially thawed areas, which  you said were before putting into hot water, are not safe from the hot water, - the partially thawed areas were beginning to cook from the hot water, and being in the water for for that time is well beyond a fully cooked safe time period, so uncooked partially thawed sitting around is multiplying the ecoli that is already present in all animal protein and plants from the soil.

It may taste ok, because you don't taste ecoli,  but you don't want to be sick or cause anyone else, especially children or eldery to be hospitalized.

Go buy another, get  a ( or a few) whole fresh breasts if no fresh whole trukeys are available, even spilt breasts, just buy as many as you need, they cook quickly. 

Good luck

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11/22

Adding-

Tuesday I purchased spilt breasts from Wegmans, I finished my shopping, was there for 1 1/2 hours AFTER I put the turkey in my cart.  I really had no idea I was at Wegmans that long until I perused my receipt upon returning home.

  I knew at once the turkey was now a bacteria-laden problem.  I had to discard the breasts, return to Wegmans and buy 2 more spilt breasts. I didn't want to lose the money...

BUT... I for sure didn't want to kill someone either.

Wegmans had plenty in stock of honey brined splits, or vacuumed sealed, both will only take about an hour to cook.

It will work out

Happy Thanksgiving

[skittles2]

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@Wacissakid wrote:

Thank you all for your quick responses, but I guess they weren't really needed because my wife threw it out and then went out and bought a fresh one, along with a couple bottles of wine ( I guess for commiseration!).  C'est la vie!

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Just saw your post, After my experience Tuesday.. I forgot the wine...thanks for the reminder!

This thing happens frequently, you've just joined the club.....there's also a club for cooks who forgot/ or had no idea- that there's a bag of parts inside the cavity....and cook turkey with it inside....

[Fressa]

I won't use it! 

[depglass]

Putting a rock hard fozen turkey into a sinkful of hot water would have reduced the temperature quickly and you would have been fine.  If you kept the hot water running for hours, that's a different story.  Alton Brown of Food Network once showed an experiment thawing something in hot water and the same thing in cold water.  The item in cold water thawed first.