Merry Christmas (and turkey stuffing)

[Jamie123]

Merry Christmas to all!

I was just stuffing the "turkey" (actually a chicken) and my father came in and said he'd read in the paper "don't stuff your turkey" because of "contamination". Have you ever heard such rubbish? People have been stuffing their Christmas turkeys for years and years and I've never heard of any "post-Christmas turkey stuffing disease epidemic".  I've stuffed our turkey every year for years and no one in my house has ever died from it.

 I'd actually just finished the stuffing when my dad came in with the news, but much as I love him, I'm not going to unstuff the turkey just because some silly twonk who writes in the newspaper wants to make himself sound clever by saying "don't stuff your turkey or you'll die of malaria".

If we do die of malaria I shall stand corrected.

P.S. I have now unstuffed the chicken. My Dad was fretting.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Jamie123

[zil2]

Merry Christmas, @Jamie123!

No, I've never heard of such a thing, but folks of the modern world can't seem to find enough things to be afraid of, so they have to make them up!  (Apparently it's been too long since we had real things to be afraid of.)  I imagine a handful of people over the decades have failed to sufficiently cook their bird and its stuffing, and have thereby gotten food poisoning.  The ridiculous reporter heard someone's family tale and decided to turn it into a Stuffing Contaminosis Epidemic - probably because her boyfriend broke up with her two days before Christmas.

31 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

I've stuffed our turkey every year for years and no one in my house has ever died from it.

Ahem, gobble, gobble, gobb-eck!  Of course, s/he died from something other than the stuffing, and not in your house, so yes, I guess the statement is still true.

May you and your family survive Christmas and enjoy your stuffing, even if it does come out of a chicken.

33 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

If we do die of malaria I shall stand corrected.

Please, please tell me you didn't use mosquitoes to stuff your churkey!

35 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

P.S. I have now unstuffed the chicken. My Dad was fretting.

Before or after cooking it?  If before, your Dad is fortunate to have a son who loves him.  If after, hooray for reason!

[SilentOne]

I feel like I've always known about the dangers of turkey-stuffing. Huh.

Quote

Why Stuffing Your Thanksgiving Turkey Can Make You Sick

"There is a possibility that the stuffing in the center of a turkey, which has come in contact with the raw cavity of the bird, as well as bacteria, will not reach 165 degrees and the bacteria within won't die, even though the meat is completely cooked," says Sally Stevens, RDN. "Raw poultry harbors bacteria, specifically a nasty type known as Salmonella. We cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees because all bacteria die within 15 seconds at that temperature."

President Bartlet on The West Wing also doubted when he first heard of the risk.

[zil2]

Meanwhile, everyone whose family has been eating stuffing cooked inside a turkey for longer than you've been alive, without getting food poisoning from it, please raise your hands.

"can" != "will"

Cook the thing right and you've got nothing to worry about.   (We're seriously in need of another world war to set our worry priorities straight. )

[zil2]

56 minutes ago, SilentOne said:

I feel like I've always known about the dangers of turkey-stuffing. Huh.

I think we'd do well to call it the dangers of under-cooking food.  Everyone ought to already know that.

[Ironhold]

Before the pandemic and lockdown, Texas-based grocery store chain H-E-B was trying to position beef brisket as an alternative to turkey and ham at seasonal meals. 

I doubt anyone could successfully cram stuffing into a brisket. 

[The Folk Prophet]

7 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

Merry Christmas to all!

I was just stuffing the "turkey" (actually a chicken) and my father came in and said he'd read in the paper "don't stuff your turkey" because of "contamination". Have you ever heard such rubbish? People have been stuffing their Christmas turkeys for years and years and I've never heard of any "post-Christmas turkey stuffing disease epidemic".  I've stuffed our turkey every year for years and no one in my house has ever died from it.

 I'd actually just finished the stuffing when my dad came in with the news, but much as I love him, I'm not going to unstuff the turkey just because some silly twonk who writes in the newspaper wants to make himself sound clever by saying "don't stuff your turkey or you'll die of malaria".

If we do die of malaria I shall stand corrected.

P.S. I have now unstuffed the chicken. My Dad was fretting.

The point isn't danger. If you cook the stuffing to done then you cook it to done. The problem is that cooking stuffing inside a large turkey to done pretty much guarantees that the turkey itself will be overcooked and overly dry. 

With a smaller bird like a chicken it's less of an issue. 

[askandanswer]

9 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

I've stuffed our turkey every year for years and no one in my house has ever died from it.

The same one each year?

[rcthompson88]

8 hours ago, SilentOne said:

I feel like I've always known about the dangers of turkey-stuffing. Huh.

President Bartlet on The West Wing also doubted when he first heard of the risk.

As President Bartlet learned, you are safe with stuffing as long as you cook it through. The problem is that by the time you cook your stuffing through the meat will be dry and overcooked.

[pam]

Yes I've been hearing of the dangers for several years now.

 

[pam]

9 hours ago, zil2 said:

Meanwhile, everyone whose family has been eating stuffing cooked inside a turkey for longer than you've been alive, without getting food poisoning from it, please raise your hands.

"can" != "will"

Cook the thing right and you've got nothing to worry about.   (We're seriously in need of another world war to set our worry priorities straight. )

We quit doing it years and years ago because of the warnings regarding stuffing turkeys.

[mikbone]

I cooked our bird till the stuffing was 140 deg F.  Then took it out and let it rest for 30 min before removal and carving.  Turned out great as always.  No one got sick.

The recommendation to cook the bird to 165 deg is a bit overkill.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carryover_cooking

I have a BS degree in Food Science and Nutrition from BYU.  It was the easiest path to medical school while focusing on athletics.

People need to understand contamination, pasteurization and carryover cooking to balance out the USDA’s recommendations vs flavor.

To prevent a single person from getting sick, assuming the greater population are idiots and contaminate their food.  The center (hypothetically the coldest part) of the bird must reach 165 deg F for 1 second to have a 100% kill rate.

Edited December 26, 2023 by mikbone

[NeuroTypical]

We'd be remiss if we didn't think about Canada here on December 26th.

 

[Jamie123]

On 12/25/2023 at 2:28 PM, zil2 said:

Before or after cooking it?  If before, your Dad is fortunate to have a son who loves him.  If after, hooray for reason!

It was before I put it in the oven - it was a very successful turkey. The main problem was I didn't put the roast veggies in soon enough so they were a bit hard, but other than that I really quite impressed myself! 😋 No food poisoning or anything!

[Jamie123]

On 12/25/2023 at 9:36 PM, The Folk Prophet said:

overcooked and overly dry. 

That's why the Good Lord invented gravy!

Edited December 28, 2023 by Jamie123

[zil2]

5 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

It was before I put it in the oven - it was a very successful turkey.

Look at you, turning chicken into turkey!  Miracles happening in the UK.  Must be all the faith gained from studying Ether 12.

6 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

The main problem was I didn't put the roast veggies in soon enough so they were a bit hard, but other than that I really quite impressed myself! 😋 No food poisoning or anything!

[The Folk Prophet]

I have an alternate take. Probably highly controversial.

Stuffing cooked inside the turkey is gross.

Stovetop is the best!

I'm not saying that just to be contrary. I legitimately prefer Stovetop. Every time I go to a family gettogether where they've done some fancy schmancy stuffing I don't like it as well. Stovetop is, however, good, and every time we do our cheap out-of-the-box approach to stuffing/dressing, I enjoy it and crave more. It's one of my favorite parts of turkey dinners.

Either way, what comes out of a turkey is slimey, disgusting slop.

[zil2]

39 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

Stovetop is, however, good, and every time we do our cheap out-of-the-box approach to stuffing/dressing, I enjoy it and crave more.

That would be the MSG and high fructose corn syrup talking.    (PS: You can stuff Stovetop into the bird.  The slimy slop comes from folks who don't know how to cook a stuffed bird.)

 

And I should now note that I don't especially like stuffing, but when I have it, prefer Stovetop¹ cooked until it's quite dry on the stove and wouldn't cook a turkey, let alone stuff one except to save myself from starving.  But I hate deception and falsely presented truths.  There's no danger is stuffing a turkey.²  Try it out:

• buy a (dead) turkey
• stuff something - anything (that's not still alive, please) - inside it
• toss the whole kit and kaboodle in the trash can
• wash your hands and forearms well
• report back afterwards whether you're still alive

There is danger is under-cooking food - any food that needs to be cooked.  It isn't complicated to cook a stuffed bird sufficient to cook the stuffing and kill off any bacteria that may be present - you just have to learn how.

 

¹chicken flavor over turkey flavor

²above and beyond the danger of handling the turkey at all during prep (assuming the turkey is dead - if it's still alive, there are probably other dangers in trying to stuff it...)

[mordorbund]

Probably should have read this thread before serving my charcuterie.

[LDSGator]

9 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

Probably should have read this thread before serving my charcuterie.

A conversation between @mirkwood and I when I tried to cook last night .

[Ironhold]

15 hours ago, LDSGator said:

A conversation between @mirkwood and I when I tried to cook last night .

In all seriousness, last year there was the infamous "That Pink Sauce" which some internet influencer was making and selling via mail-order. 

Due to both considerable problems with the labeling and numerous reports of people getting sick, the Food and Drug Administration began an investigation of the influencer and how they were making the product. 

Cue the person making a video in which she protested "Why is the FDA after me? I'm not making medicine!". 

[LDSGator]

32 minutes ago, Ironhold said:

In all seriousness, last year there was the infamous "That Pink Sauce" which some internet influencer was making and selling via mail-order. 

Due to both considerable problems with the labeling and numerous reports of people getting sick, the Food and Drug Administration began an investigation of the influencer and how they were making the product. 

Cue the person making a video in which she protested "Why is the FDA after me? I'm not making medicine!". 

I missed that story. Yikes. I’m the worlds pickiest eater, and thank God for it. 

For the record, that wasn’t a real text exchange between @mirkwood and I. 

Edited January 4 by LDSGator

[Ironhold]

10 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

I missed that story. Yikes. I’m the worlds pickiest eater, and thank God for it. 

For the record, that wasn’t a real text message between @mirkwood and I. 

The selling point was that it was made using some form of dragonfruit, a real but obscure fruit. 

However, MatPat on "The Food Theorists" over at YouTube tried to break down what the actual ingredients list was, especially since the bottles she was using to ship it in used yellow lids instead of pink lids. His best hypothesis was that she was using mayonnaise as the main ingredient and that the squeeze bottles were in fact the bottles that had previously held the mayonnaise since there are brands of mayonnaise that use bottles like what were going out. This would also explain the incidence rate of people who were getting sick, as she was sending a mayonnaise-based product through the postal system.