Turkey Smoking & Reheating Test Run with Q-View **Updated Sliced Pics***

bmudd14474 said:

Craig,
when the USDA recommends you to cut it up into slices before reheating they are implying NOT to reheat the whole bird. You have to remember that thru the cooking process the bird is in the danger zone for a while and when your reheating it is back in it so if you you spend more time in the danger zone reheating because you doing a whole bird in low temps then you are increasing the chance of causing issues.
The reason they want it sliced is that you increase the surface mass and it cooks way faster thus getting you thru the danger zone very fast.

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fpnmf said:

Thanks Brian...

 I have never worried about reheating already cooked meats to a certain temp at a certain temp..

Never once been ill from it or know anyone that has.

I think I will start a poll about it after the holiday.

Gobble gobble!!!

       Craig

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rbranstner said:

I don't  understand this hopefully someone can explain it. If originally you cook a bird and it goes from 40-140 in the 4 hours its considered safe. Now I put it in the fridge and I  want  to reheat it again weather its whole or sliced. If it goes past the  40-140 in four hours and you take it to over 165 why wouldn't it be safe?

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Chef JimmyJ said:

Ross,  This absolutely true!... But it is not always that simple...There are still Spore Forming bacteria that are not dangerous themselves but give off Dangerous Toxins as they rapidly multiply in the danger zone...Since we pass through this Temp range Twice during Cooling and Reheating we need to do what ever we can to limit liability

The problem with Whole Turkeys is... They are difficult to get from 165*F to 39*F in a Safe amount of Time using a Standard home Refrigerator....Not to mention that, Putting that much Hot Mass in the Refer can raise the temp inside the Refer above 40* putting ALL the other food at Risk Too.  If at any point there is a misstep during Cooling or Reheating whole birds, we can have a problem...The USDA recommendation of Slicing the meat increases surface area so it cools faster AND conversely the greater surface area combined with the 325*F Temp heats up faster...  The combination...Limits the Risks...JJ 

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Bearcarver said:

There ya go!

I'm not a big "Bird" person, but we always slice up the whole bird before eating, just like we always slice up the whole Ham before putting it in the fridge.

Heck, now that we have a vacuum sealer, all but a couple of sammies worth of meat is in the freezer before too long after the meal.

Reasons to cut it up:

#1---It cools faster.

#2---It takes up a lot less room in fridge.

#3---You don't have to get the big carving knife out every time you want to make a leftover meat sammich.

#4---You can't get a whole bird in a vacuum seal bag!!!!!

I have never seen anyone actually put the whole Turkey or the whole Ham in the fridge. But that's just me.

The only place I ever saw a "Dad" stand up at his end of the table and carve the turkey onto individual plates was on TV.

So 16 people just sit there with their dish waiting for old Dad to put their slice on their plate??? Ridiculous.

We carve it ALL up in the kitchen, before everybody sits down, and distribute it on two or three serving plates (depending on the number of seats), with white & dark meat on all plates.

So I never even thought about cooling & reheating a whole Turkey, because it doesn't make sense to me.

USDA or no USDA, I don't see a reason to keep it whole.

Just my 2 Piasters,

Bear

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rbranstner said:

Bear,

I am with you I always carve up the whole bird before we sit down and eat for all the reasons you mentioned. But in this case we are leaving the bird whole to reheat because we are smoking it ahead of time and then reheating the whole bird on Thanksgiving day. Sounds like it meets USDA specifications as long as the bird is properly handled/cooled and you reheat the bird at 325 degrees and it follows the danger zone rule and the IT temp goes past 165. The nice thing about where I live is when I take that bird out of the smoker and I put it in the garage the thing is pretty much frozen in under an  hour so I am not worried about the bird staying in the danger zone long enough to build up any bacteria. So when the big day comes along I just pop it into the oven or roaster and reheat. But I can see (especially in warmer climates) if you don't have freezer/fridge space and you aren't able to get the IT temps down on the bird and it sits in that danger zone for to long how you could run into issues.

P.S. I think we should just do away with this whole turkey on Thanksgiving day and just switch over to Prime Rib. haha The stores could run great $.64 cent sale and then we could stock up for the year. I know Bear is on board with this idea. haha

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alblancher said:

I am going to chime in here because I appreciate the tone of the discussion and the amount of information being shared among forum members.

I tend to post and try to adhere to USDA guidelines but I completely understand both sides of the discussion.  I have a 75 yr old Father in Law with heart problems and diabetes, a couple of other family members the same age with health problems.  I often cook for this high risk group so producing the safest food possible is important to me. Like most regulations food safety codes are designed to protect the general population regardless of their health and are not tailored to each individual.   30 years ago I couldn't care less about the proper way to handle food.  I generally cooked only for myself, had an iron stomach and was bigger and badder then just about any little bacteria I would run across.  Besides, I was normally broke so I couldn't waste food.  Today with age and all the "great" things that come with it, I try to be extra careful.

Posters and moderators that remind us of food safety guidelines are not the food police.  They are just trying to make sure that newbies, in particular, reading the thread are aware of where they can make someone they care for very sick.  I believe the unwritten rule on the forum is that unless a post is egregiously unsafe a friendly reminder about the potential problem is the normal response.  Blatantly Unsafe posts are removed.

Great discussion guys,  this is one reason I participate on this site,  Always learning.

Thanks

Al

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