Preparing holiday meals and enjoying leftovers

Patricia Carroll, RN,BC, CEN, RRT, MS

Let me be clear at the start – the "healthy way" in this column doesn’t mean counting fat grams and eating lots of fiber. While those are good things, I’m referring to staying healthy and avoiding foodborne illness – I don’t want you to get sick from eating food in which nasty bacteria have set up housekeeping.

For Many, Holidays Mean Turkey

Turkey is a great food for holidays. It’s inexpensive, low in fat and tasty. It’s also easy to make and can feed lots of guests. I will never forget the first year I pulled my first roasted turkey out of the oven. It went from looking, well, naked, to a magazine-cover golden brown as if by magic. No one would confuse me with Julia Child, but I love cooking my little turkey on Thanksgiving.

If you’re cooking a fresh turkey, it’s best to pick it up the day before you plan to cook it. Otherwise, go with the frozen variety. You should keep the bird frozen in your freezer at 0 degrees F. To defrost, you’ll have to plan a few days ahead. Put the frozen turkey on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator on a tray or cookie sheet with sides to catch the drippings. You don’t want those potentially contaminated juices coming into contact with other foods. Allow one day of refrigerated thawing for every 5 pounds of turkey weight. That means a 25 pound turkey should go in the fridge the Saturday before Thanksgiving – or 5 days before your holiday meal.

If you’re like me the first year I did this, and you haven't thought about defrosting the turkey until the day before you want to cook it, oops! The safe shortcut is to fill either a huge pot or your sink with cold water and submerge the wrapped turkey. Change the water every 30 minutes to keep it cold. Figure about 30 minutes per pound. Never, ever leave the frozen bird at room temperature to thaw.

After the turkey is thawed, cut off the wrapping, rinse the turkey in the sink, then place it on a clean plate or platter. Clean the items that came in contact with the defrosting turkey (or put them in the dishwasher) and disinfect the sink with a bleach solution of 5 milliliters of chlorine bleach to a liter of water, or about 1 small capful of bleach to a quart of water.

Wash your hands with hot, soapy water for at least 20 seconds, being sure to rub all the surfaces of your hands to remove any bacteria. For detailed tips on the best way to wash your hands, click here.

Take Your Temperature

Holiday meals and leftovers that taste good and won’t make you sick are really all about temperature.

• Keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot
• Don’t let the food get too warm while defrosting
• Make sure food gets hot enough in the oven, and...
• Package and cool the leftovers quickly after the meal.

Bacteria live and multiply best when it’s dark, around room temperature, and moist. Your mission is to keep those germs warmer or cooler than they like so they won’t multiply and make you or your loved ones sick. Since you can’t put your hand on the turkey’s forehead to see if it’s the right temperature, use these guidelines:

• Your freezer should be at 0 degrees F; refrigerator at 40 degrees F or a little below (buy a special thermometer to check – it’s that important to be sure your food is stored at the right temperature)
• Food should not be at regular room temperature for more than two hours – if the room temperature is 90 degrees F or above, limit that time to one hour.
• When cooking, use a thermometer to check the temperature of the food – according to the FDA: beef, lamb and veal should be at least 145 degrees F; pork and ground beef 160 degrees; whole poultry and thighs 180 degrees. Buy an oven-safe thermometer and place it in the food (away from any bones) before popping it into the oven. According to the folks at Butterball, the stuffing temperature (if you cook it in the turkey) should be 160 degrees.

Lovely Leftovers

One of the hardest parts about a holiday feast is getting to the leftovers and getting them packaged and stored properly soon enough after the meal. Just when you want to relax, you have one more critical task. Within two hours of taking that golden turkey out of the oven, it should be cut up and back in the refrigerator or freezer. Remember, food should be either hot from the oven or in cold storage – that in-between room temperature can turn a lovely meal into the food version of Typhoid Mary! Two hours can fly by if you think about carving, serving, eating the meal, having dessert and sitting around talking afterward. Two hours can fly by.

For the best leftovers, particularly after a turkey dinner:

• Remove the stuffing immediately (if you cooked it in the turkey)
• Carve the turkey completely
• Put leftovers in shallow containers – again, so the food will cool quickly
• Store turkey, stuffing and gravy separately
• Eat turkey within 3 to 4 days and stuffing and gravy within a day or two
• If you freeze leftovers, wrap stuffing and turkey separately; use stuffing within one month and turkey within two months

Then, sit back, relax and enjoy the rest of your day!

For a list of recipes for your main meal and for leftovers, visit Butterball

Written: November 2002

Reviewed: May 2004