How To Thaw A Turkey At Home

How to thaw a turkey at home? – Well this topic may interest everyone because thawing or defrosting is an important aspect of  turkey preparation. Mostly the turkey is sold in ready to cook packs.  These “ready to cook" turkey packs are easy to handle and they save you from the tedious butchering procedures associated with turkey preparation.  The food preservation standards demand that turkey should be sold as chilled, if not frozen product. This simply relegates the importance of thawing a turkey.

With this blog we want to answer the basic question - how to thaw a turkey at home, but before that it is important to understand some underlying facts about the turkey.

We wish to begin with a statement that thawing a turkey is an important aspect of the turkey preparation. Turkeys are sold with the labels “refrigerated” and “hard chilled”. This indicates that temperature of these birds range between 0 degrees Fahrenheit and 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Fresh turkeys are not chilled below 26 degrees, but these turkeys are not considered frozen by the standards of US Government; still they are cold.  It is pretty easy to thaw a turkey which is labeled fresh, than the one, which is labeled frozen.

If you wish to thaw a turkey at home then you need to have a refrigerator. But thawing a turkey using a refrigerator may not be an easy task because it takes lot of time and space. The large turkeys may take up long time for defrosting.  

Once you have made up your mind to thaw a turkey then start by placing the bird in refrigerator along with its original wrapper. While placing the turkey in the refrigerator, take care that it doesn’t toucheother food items kept in fridge.  It is always best to thaw a turkey in refrigerator because you can store the defrosted turkey for a day or more.

But if you are against thawing a turkey in refrigerator then you can go for cold water method. For this, place it in a tub full of water. For best results change the water in every 30 minutes or an hour.

Following the general rule of defrosting we can understand that it takes 5 hours to defrost ½ kg of turkey in refrigerator and half hour to defrost it in a tub of cold water.  This time chart will help you to choose the best method to thaw a turkey.

Although the refrigerator method of defrosting is considered best to thaw a turkey, it takes too much time and space.  Some people complain that thawing a turkey in refrigerator leaves them dissatisfied because some part of it still remains defrosted. Under such circumstances you can do so using the cold water technique.

The main benefit of thawing a turkey is that it becomes easier to roast it.

Image Courtesy: butterball.com