than the turkey or chicken as the bird roasts, its raw
juices can drip down into the stuffing, contaminating
it. So, in order to be completely safe, your stuffing
must come up to at least the same 145° to 150°F
you’re gonna cook your bird to. Unfortunately,
because the stuffing is in the very center of the bird,
by the time it is cooked through, your bird is
overcooked.
There is, however, a solution, though it’s a
slightly tricky one: cook the bird from the outside
and the inside. What you’ve got to do is stuff the bird
with hot stuffing just before roasting. That’s right:
bring your stuffing all the way up to at least 180°F
(to compensate for the heat it will lose while you’re
working with it) and, while it’s still hot, jam it into
the bird’s cavity. The easiest way to do this is to
form a cheesecloth pouch inside the turkey, stuff that
pouch, tie it off, remove it, and microwave it on a
plate, then put it back in the turkey before roasting.
Not only does the method give you stuffing that’s
perfectly safe to eat (so long as it never dips below
145°F while it is roasting, and it shouldn’t), but it’ll
also help your turkey cook more evenly, insulating
its breasts from the inside so that they cook a little
more slowly and end up coming to temperature at
the same time that the legs do. Of course, in my
family, we still need an entire tray of stuffing on the
side, because there can never be enough.
nandana
(Nandana)
#1