Is it seriously life threatening to thaw a turkey at room temp?

[StaceyinLA]

And by room temp, I mean maybe 65-70 degrees in the house. The turkey still feels really cold to the touch, and has been fully wrapped, but it WAS out for a full 24 hours.

 

I stuck it in the fridge tonight and will either cook or toss as soon as I wake up, depending on what the hive says.

[snickerplum]

My major was family and consumer sciences education. We were taught food left in the "danger zone" (between 40 and 140) for longer than 2 hours should not be consumed... I don't know if food safety rules have changed or not, but that's what I go by.

[Cera]

I would eat it. I regularly thaw chicken on the kitchen counter and it has always been fine. I make sure it is thoroughly cooked.

[Carol in Cal.]

I think that the issue is differential thawing and warming.

If the outside of it still feels very cold, I would probably use it.

If the inside was cold but the outside was 55ish, I wouldn't.

Keep in mind, though, that the outside will cook to a hotter temperature than the middle, so my laxness is due to the idea that that would tend to kill any germs that might have proliferated there.

 

When I want to defrost something quickly outside of a fridge, I do it by soaking it in cool water in the sink.  That way you have conduction rather than convection as the heat transfer mechanism, and it is much more efficient.

[StaceyinLA]

Thanks. I usually do thaw in water, but I never cook turkey and just really didn't consider it an issue.

[StaceyinLA]

Thanks. I usually do thaw in water, but I never cook turkey and just really didn't consider it an issue. My gut says it'll be okay to cook, and I do that sort of thing with chicken a LOT, but idk. I'll probably just do it and make sure I start off at a high temp to sear the outside well, and cook it very thoroughly.

[fraidycat]

It's the only way we ever thaw meat of any kind, including turkey. Counter or kitchen sink. I'm even still alive to tell the tale. :) I do have a tendency to "over"cook poultry, though. It's done when everything is falling off the bones, IMO - just to be safe.

[rjand6more]

No question I would cook and consume it.

[chocolatechip]

IMO, no; it's perfectly fine.

[Kari C in SC]

My mom is 74 and we have always done it this way!

[kitten18]

My major was family and consumer sciences education. We were taught food left in the "danger zone" (between 40 and 140) for longer than 2 hours should not be consumed... I don't know if food safety rules have changed or not, but that's what I go by.

I agree. My food science classes made me very conservative about food safety.

I would throw it away.

[Susan in TN]

I've done that before - left a frozen turkey on the pantry floor overnight. It was still cold the next afternoon so we cooked and ate it. In a "roasting" cookbook I once read, it was recommended that you set the turkey on the counter, covered, for several hours to bring it to room temperature before roasting. I think the main issue is to make sure it is completely cooked. Should be just fine.

[umsami]

No.  Honestly, I don't believe it is.

 

(I"m sure I'm going to food safety hell for that statement, though.)

[MiMi 4under3]

I think it's perfectly fine.

[Miss Peregrine]

I defrost mine in the counter every year.

[SparklyUnicorn]

That's how I defrost most of my meat.  The turkey would not even defrost if I didn't leave it out at least part of the time. 

[Hikin' Mama]

I do it every year at Thanksgiving and I'm still here to tell the story. :) That bird would take at LEAST a week and a half to completely thaw in my fridge, and I need the sink space, so I don't want it there. I do use a meat thermometer to make sure it gets to the proper internal temp. when I cook it.

[Joker]

I would eat it, but I grew up taking frozen meat out of the freezer before school and tossing it in the sink or on the counter for my mom to make dinner that night. We also had big family lunches on Sundays and the food stayed on the table until we ate it again for dinner (5-6 hours later - sometimes longer if a holiday). I don't remember a single person getting sick.

 

ETA: The lunch staying on the table until dinner actually still happens when we're all together for the holidays and we're still not getting sick.

[rocassie]

This is how we thaw meat so yes I would cook it and eat it.

[G5052]

Obviously one of "those" issues.

 

I would throw it out.  I have a family member with significant medical issues; not worth the risk.

[Spryte]

My mother and stepmother would cook it and serve it.  And it would probably be fine, and none the wiser.

 

I would toss it.  We have compromised immune issues in the house, and I've personally had 5, yes 5, different strains of salmonella.  Did you know salmonella can go chronic and cause horrible joint pain?  And be difficult to eradicate?  It's not just a night of stomach cramps and the runs, necessarily.  Yep.  So there ya go.  I'm another one on the conservative side where thawing meat is concerned.

[StaceyinLA]

Well, I cooked it and we all ate it. We are no worse for the wear. I did cook it a bit longer and the internal temp was pretty high (it's cool - there was gravy for the drier white meat).

 

In the future, I'll probably do things differently, but I'm glad I didn't have to waste a $24 turkey.

[Tsuga]

There is a 99.9999% chance that it's not life threatening, or close to that. There's like a .0001% chance or less that it is life threatening. I am probably off by a factor of ten either way.

 

Most birds do not have enough salmonella or other bacteria in them to grow to a dangerous amount at the temperature that most houses are kept at. Those can be thawed at room temperature.

 

But a very, very small number do have enough bacteria to multiply rapidly. And those bacteria will not be cooked out fully!

 

http://www.livestrong.com/article/481823-can-you-cook-chicken-that-was-thawed-to-room-temp/

 

If cooking removed 100% of bacteria, then we wouldn't need the USDA to inspect food. We could just cook it all fully.

 

And then there is the issue of how difficult it is to really fully cook a bird all the way through.

 

Most birds will not become life threatening when thawed on the counter. The problem is that you don't know which ones are the safe ones.

[Deb2000]

If I thawed my turkey in the fridge it would take about a month to thaw out completely. I have always thawed it on the counter the night before and so did my Mom. We have never had food poisoning. I cook my turkey thoroughly until the meat is coming off the bone.

[Jean in Newcastle]

8 year old zombie thread