What to Do If Your Turkey Is Still Frozen
Here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, and your turkey is still frozen. It doesn’t matter if several food websites are screaming turkey thaw times for days – if not weeks – now. There are always a few stragglers waiting until Wednesday, or worse, until Thursday morning.
Defrosting a fully frozen turkey on Thanksgiving isn’t impossible (although you won’t be eating dinner very late), but let’s not leave that on until then. Today is Wednesday and you still have time to remove the ice from the turkey without losing your heart.
Water is your friend
Filling a sink with cold water and replacing it every half hour is the standard defrosting method. This usually takes at least half an hour per pound. You can quickly start the process with a quick 10-minute bath of hot water and then switch to cold water to prevent the meat from falling into the “danger zone” and encouraging bacterial growth.
If your turkey is mostly thawed but you planned to pickle it, you can put it in liquid brine in the refrigerator. The brine will be the same temperature as the air in the refrigerator, but the water conducts heat better than the air, so the brine will help thaw the bird as it aromas.
Your sous vide circulator is your best friend
I cook at least four turkeys every November developing recipes and sometimes I don’t have the full three to four days it takes to defrost a 12-pound poultry, and I don’t have time to change the water every half hour. At these moments I turn to my immersion circulator.
Sous-vide circulating pumps cannot cool the water, but they can keep the cool water flowing and tell you the exact water temperature, eliminating the need to change the water every half hour. This saves water (which is expensive) and time.
The cold tap water that comes out of the middle tap is about 45 ℉, so try to keep it there. Fill a large bucket with cold tap water, set the circulating pump temperature to 45 ℉, and add ice if necessary to bring the temperature down to that temperature. Turn on the circulation pump and let the water flow around the bird. The frozen turkey will keep the water from rising in temperature – even if the water is five degrees above the upper limit of the danger zone threshold, the meat itself will stay within the safe range for some time, and it definitely won out. Stay out of the danger zone for two hours.
If by the end of the thaw you start to feel a little nervous, you can add some more ice and lower the circulator temperature to 39 ℉. (I also poured water at about 60 ℉ and then lowered it, adding ice when the turkey starts to soften.) Using a circulating pump in this way can shorten the thawing time by a few hours and given that tomorrow is Turkey Day, every hour is precious.