So the turkey never got fully cooked...

[Anonymous]

I don't remember how hot it got - I just remember it was 5 degrees under whatever our instructions said. The breast, wings, and drumsticks basically looked cooked, but when it was carved pretty deep down, it started to look a little pink to me, so we stopped carving until after dinner. Maybe we should have just put it back in the oven then. Instead, we cut everything up and put it away in the fridge, and I thought maybe we could keep cooking it today.

[Anonymous]

I bet it's actually fine if you just cook it up or nuke it really well. Coming from someone who has seen someone else (NOT ME!!!) eat off turkey left-overs for 3.5 weeks (yes a disgusting 3.5 weeks), the microwave can work wonders. Only 5 degrees under is nothing and if you had waited an hour to carve it, the carry-over cooking probably would have brought it to the appropriate temp all the way through.

[Anonymous]

No probs, cook it well today and eat.

I would boil the leftovers cut up into chunks in broth and vegetables to make soup. That way you know the meat is cooked through.

[Anonymous]

I think you are fine.


Butterball says 180 degrees but Mark Bittman says 165. So if you were at 175 you should be fine. Also, even white meat isn't snow-white.

I wouldn't recook anything but I don't think you will get sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't remember how hot it got - I just remember it was 5 degrees under whatever our instructions said. The breast, wings, and drumsticks basically looked cooked, but when it was carved pretty deep down, it started to look a little pink to me, so we stopped carving until after dinner. Maybe we should have just put it back in the oven then. Instead, we cut everything up and put it away in the fridge, and I thought maybe we could keep cooking it today.

Yes -- for future reference, just put it back in another ten minutes or so -- it'll cook very quickly once it is that hot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you left an undercooked turkey out on a table the typical 2 hours as we do at my house, there's a good chance that the bad bacteria that didn't get killed, would multiply rapidly throughout the remains of the turkey. You then put it back in the fridge overnight, but until the turkey got down to 40 degrees, the bad bacteria would continue to multiply. At ome point the turkey would get cold enough that the bacteria would stop growing, but they are still there.

In the morning, if you cut up the turkey and cook the heck out of it, again, you'd kill a lot of the bacteria -- but since you left it out for those 2 hours there's a good chance there's a LOT more bad bacteria than usual in that turkey at this point, and you can't count on cooking to kill all of it. Cooking kills MOST of the bacteria, but there will always be some that doesn't get killed (close to the bone, etc.)

More bacteria = more room for error. Also bacteria don't increasea in a nice steady progression -- 2, 4,6,8 etc. they increase exponentially....2,4,16, 32,64.... you've seen how large those numbers get quickly, right?

When you are talking about a fully cooked turkey, left out on the counter for 2 hours, and then put back in the fridge, the bacteria hasn't gotten a chance to get so dangerously high. But if you are starting with an undercooked turkey to begin with -- the numbers will get very high. Even if you kill most of them there will still be enough to make people dangerously sick.

I'm a big risk taker and not a worry wart, but in this case I'd just toss the turkey. Send someone out to the grocery store, buy a turkey breast, and just cook that up in an hour and slice it for leftovers and such. Less than $10 total for sure, and you'll have peace of mind.

Just for the record, this is not what is dangerous about not cooking it thoroughly until the next day. the poison from some bacteria is their by-product (waste) which has a chance to build up any time the bacteria thrive. You can then kill off all the bacteria itself and still get sick from their waste that remains in the food. Sorry this is such a garbled explanation....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you are fine.


Butterball says 180 degrees but Mark Bittman says 165. So if you were at 175 you should be fine. Also, even white meat isn't snow-white.

I wouldn't recook anything but I don't think you will get sick.

Are you sure Mark Bittman wasn't talking about the white meat? The temperature of the breast should reach 165/the thigh should read 185. Either way, it sounds tome that the turkey was pretty fully cooked overall. I would just reheat and cook through and it should be fine.

[Anonymous]

This is the OP - The post-script to this story is that no one got sick from eating the turkey on Thanksgiving night, and we re-cooked the rest for at least an hour the next day, and no one got sick from that either. I didn't eat any of it - I'm a vegetarian - but very glad it all worked out for the best, and it is going down in the family lore as The Year We Had the Turkey For Dessert.

[Anonymous]

Alton brown says 161 for the breast

[Anonymous]

NP here - I always cook a breast of turkey to 160 degrees. It is always cooked through and very moist.