Tom Littleton wrote:
"Ken Fortenberry" wrote:
Like McGee, I don't listen to that 160 F
nonsense. When the deepest part of the breast gets to 145
on the old thermal meter, that bird is done.

and, in the unfortunate circumstance that the bird has been carrying
salmonella species, you'll be done for a while, yourself. There is a reason
for that 160 degree mark, beyond simple 'doneness'.

Yeah, I know and never, ever eat raw eggs. Phooey, I say.
I like Caesar salad done right, I like carbonara done right,
I like the eggs on my Eggs Benedict done right and I like my
turkey done right. Nobody here has ever got sick from one of
my birds yet. And besides, the bird continues to cook while
it's sitting in its foil tent on the cutting board.

I've tried several different ways since we started getting
the free range, never frozen birds about 10 years ago, brine,
no brine, high heat fast, low heat slow, but flipping the
bird is the method I've finally settled on. I don't know how
it would work on the typical frozen Butterball but it works
out well on the birds we get.

doubtful of free-range status, but we get fresh, never frozen birds locally.
I do, with larger birds, start with higher heat, breast side down, but flip
it upright after about 1 hour and keep it breast up from there out. Properly
basted from that point on, I've had no complaints about the taste and
texture of the breast meat.
Still, I have always been a fan of the leg meat on turkeys,
so, perhaps am not that critical of the finer details of the breast meat.

I don't know what free-range means exactly but I've seen the farm
where these birds are kept. We used to have to drive to the farm
itself to pick them up before they opened a brick & mortar store
in a small town just up the Interstate. The turkeys roam over about
160 acres (one section) of rural Champaign County but they are fenced
in. The most important thing for us is no antibiotics, so technically
free-range or not, they're fresh and never frozen.

--
Ken Fortenberry