how long is a cooked turkey safe to eat?

[Syrinx]

I'm thinking of using my Thanksgiving turkey carcass as base for soup tomorrow. Is it safe or should I throw it away? There's still quite a bit of meat on it, and the bones should make a nice stock.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. I tossed mine today

Use your nose. If it smells good use it. I wouldn't consider it pst tomorrow though. 5 days is a long time for poultry.

[Syrinx]

6. thanks, by the way

You gave me some tips on cooking the bird, and it turned out quite nicely. I was concerned at first because the skin looked a little dark, but it was actually quite juicy and delicious! :yum:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

13. Congratulations

Now for thesoup, no matter what you make, start with only the stock. Lots of water, an onion, a couple cloves of garlic, a couple stalks of celery (even if you don't like it use it..it is for FLAVOR) and some parsely. If you REALLY want a rich stock then go to the store and get a package of chicken wings and put them in too! The fat from the chicken wings helps to make a rich yellow stock.

Then after that has first boiled then simmered for a good two hours or so, strain all those vegetables out and toss them and you can make any of a variety of soups or even Turkey and dumplings!

[Syrinx]

17. I even love snacking on raw celery!

But I messed up today and bought cilantro, thinking it was flat-leaf parsley. (Color me in a daze.) Wonder what that would taste like in turkey stock? I'm not experienced with coriander.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

19. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are really into it

Cilantro is great in thai, mexican or some chinese foods but it is REAL pungent. YOu could get some tortillas and make turkey taco's with some chopped onions though.

[Syrinx]

20. thanks for the ideas!

You give great cooking ideas. I wonder where jchild is. s/he used to be my helper. :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. She's off writing about a million book reviews

It's my pleasure....once you get into it, pretty soon you can fashion a fabulous meal out of anything there is available. Living in SO Cal, I am fortunate ..my garden is full of wonderful spices and vegetables all year long..so if I have the meat and a couple other items in the cabinet...all I have to do is go to the garden, grab some spice and I have any meal I want.

Keeps me out of the fast food joints on a more than occasional basis

[Syrinx]

23. it's warm here more than not, so I could grow a decent garden...

But the deer are bad. They're beautiful creatures, but last time I tried to do a garden, they even ate my jalepeno plants! I didn't think they would get those.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

24. Yeah ya gotta use cages and chicken wire

had that problem on my property up north when I had it. But the trade off is...YOU GET TO WATCH DEER!

Which section of bama are you?

[Syrinx]

25. Western part

Tuscaloosa. Home of the Crimson Tide... nothing to celebrate this year, but I watched the video of the '93 Sugar Bowl last night... our last NC.

:nopity:

:)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

26. My all time favorite coach!

[Syrinx]

29. Do you mean Coach Bryant?

Or Coach Gene Stallings from '93?

I'm guessing you meant Bear, but it was kind of ambiguous. :P

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

30. Sorry I meant Bear

Figured I didn't HAVE to say it. I always admired the guy..heck...talk about finishing what you started, he finished his contract and died two months later...there's aguy that completes things :D

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. BTW...I think we just hijacked your thread

:evilgrin:

[Syrinx]

32. it's not hijacked if the author is a co-conspirator!

:silly:

[Syrinx]

33. yeah I don't know if he knew he was real sick, or...

If retiring killed him. Look at Joe Paterno, he's about 80, ain't he? And still going strong. Some people at Penn State want to get rid of him, saying he's too old. But, they said, nobody has the guts to fire Paterno! I think he should stay until he wants to leave. He's the last of the old-time coaches in the mold of Bryant, Paterno, Parsheggihan (sp?), Woody Hayes, etc.

[Limbought]

9. About a week if refrigerated,

but don't order any at Chi-Chi's.

[girl gone mad]

2. should be safe..

it should last a couple of weeks in the fridge and a couple of months in the freezeer.

[mobuto]

3. Has it been refrigerated?

If the answer is yes, its very much safe. If the answer is no, then the answer can still be yes depending on how you make the stock.

[Syrinx]

4. yes

Except for actual Thanksgiving-dinner time, that is. :)

[leftofthedial]

5. for about two hours

then you'd be too full for it to be safe to swallow any more.

[Syrinx]

8. nah, I'd be asleep

If I could only figure out how to detryptophanize a turkey.

[grasswire]

7. Was the stuffing cleaned out?

I would throw away any stuffing. And then you might try the trick of pre-roasting the bones in order to give it great flavor. Take any chunks of meat off and roast the bones for an hour in a hot oven. Then put everything in a kettle with water, onion, celery tops, parsley, salt, and simmer for a couple of hours. You'll have some great stock for soup or white bean chili or both!

[Syrinx]

11. no stuffing

Weird southern thing, I made "dressing" separate. I was thinking about roasting the bones -- I thought I recalled hearing something about that before. How hot should the oven be, about 325?

[grasswire]

18. here's a recipe

http://www.melindalee.com/recipearchive.html?action=124&item_id=69

MAKES ABOUT 6 QUARTS


1 turkey carcass
2-3 medium-size onions - roughly cut into several large pieces
3-4 fat carrots - roughly cut into several large pieces
2 large stalks, celery - roughly cut into several large pieces
2-3 tablespoons, vegetable oil - or as needed
3-5 large cloves, garlic - bruised (smashed gently under the side of a chef’s knife)
2 bay leaves - gently crushed
1 teaspoon, dried thyme - or 3-4 stems, fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon, whole peppercorns
3-4 stems, fresh parsley



Place the turkey carcass in a shallow roasting pan. Include any meat clinging to the bones, and any other turkey bones you may have, including wings. Break off and discard any bones that appear so tiny that they might blacken in the browning process. Scatter the pieces of one onion around the bones. Place the pan with bones in a 350 degree oven, and roast for about 1 hour, turning the bones occasionally for even browning. The bones are roasted sufficiently when they are a rich brown color.

While bones are roasting, sauté the remaining cut-up onion, along with the carrots and celery pieces, in a large skillet or pot, using just enough oil to keep them from sticking, until lightly browned. Add bruised garlic during last 5 minutes of cooking. Set aside.

When bones are browned sufficiently, remove the roasting pan from the oven, and transfer all of its contents to a large stock pot. (Discard any blackened pieces.) Place the empty roasting pan over two burners, and add a cup or two of hot water. Scrape up all of the browned bits in the pan, and add to the mixture to the stock pot.

Now, add to the stockpot: the sautéed vegetables, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns and parsley. Pour over 8 quarts of cold water - or more, if needed, to cover everything in the stock pot by 3-4 inches. Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, 3-4 hours, to extract all the flavor from the ingredients. During simmering, stir occasionally, and skim off sediment as it rises to the surface, using a large shallow spoon.

Strain finished stock through a chinois (“china cap” conical strainer) or other strainer into a clean pot or bowl. Discard the solids. If furthur reduction is desired, boil the stock to reduce. When reduction is completed, add salt to taste. Cool and refrigerate or freeze. Stock will keep in refrigerator for three days.

[Syrinx]

22. thanks for this

I'm going to try it tomorrow.

[baby_bear]

10. Depends upon how it has been handled

If you didn't leave it out at room temperature for extended periods when using it for leftover purposes, should be no problem. I agree with the nose test, but I doubt very much it would flunk that now. Assuming it does not, cook up the carcass for several hours with lots of veggies to make a great stock and subsequently a great soup. Boiling it for this long will kill any bacteria, although it won't kill yucky tastes/odors if in fact you "abused your bird" after it was cooked.

Next time you might want to take the meat off the carcass and cook or freeze it a bit earlier, but I really don't think you are too late.

enjoy

s_m

[sleipnir]

12. Bush's turkey got cooked years ago, and he's still going strong...

So, eat away brave soul!

[ZenLefty]

14. Mine went bad today

:puke:

It was fine yesterday, though. I may be wrong, but when you buy organic food, it doesn't last as long because there aren't really any preservatives in it. I don't know if they inject the butterballs with preservatives or not, but our organic turkey was not fit for human consumption a lot sooner than I expected.

[Syrinx]

15. I just went to the kitchen and did the smell test

And we passed. Now, what godawful chemicals are in there, I don't really know. :(

[ZenLefty]

16. Your nose knows best

As for the chemicals, they rarely cause cancer if eaten in small quantities. ;-)

[SOteric]

27. If it's been properly stored, at or below 45 degrees F., -

then it's probably fine. Unless there are any off odors, go ahead and make soup. Be sure any left over meats you toss into the soup are cooked to a solid 165 degrees before consuming.

:hi:

[Syrinx]

34. thanks!

for the esoteric advice. :)

telling you the truth, I'm sick of turkey, but I don't want to waste.

[corarose]

28. you can use the carcass just don't use the meat

Smell it that will let you know whether you can eat it or not. If it stinks I would say don't eat it.