Buzz
Family feuds at Thanksgiving aren't just about politics around the table. If you've ever found yourself debating with grandma about whether the turkey is fully cooked, you're not alone. To resolve these culinary conflicts, we reached out to food safety expert Ben Chapman.
Is it safe to wash the juices off my raw turkey?
The answer is simple: no. While your raw turkey may appear dirty with germs, rinsing it off does nothing but spread them around your kitchen. Tiny droplets of contaminated water can travel up to three feet, potentially contaminating other surfaces, says Chapman.
This advice applies even if your turkey is covered in a strange slime. That slimy layer is actually a biofilm made up of bacteria, and washing it off won't get rid of it. Fortunately, those germs are harmless because, as you know, you're going to cook the turkey.
If your turkey has blood or feathers on it, Chapman suggests using either a paper towel (which should be discarded afterward) or a kitchen towel (which should go straight into the wash). This method helps clean the turkey without contaminating your kitchen with bacteria.
How can you determine when your turkey is fully cooked?
With a thermometer, of course. The color of the meat or juices won't give you an accurate indication of doneness, as this guide explains. Juices can be pink or clear depending on how stressed the bird was during slaughter, which affects the pH of the meat. The bone color varies based on the bird's age at slaughter, and pink meat can result from roasting conditions or the bird's age. It’s entirely possible to see pink juices, meat, or bones even when the turkey is properly cooked, or clear juices when it’s still undercooked.
So now that you have your thermometer, what temperature should you aim for? The old advice was to cook the turkey to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but that recommendation was partly based on texture preferences. Over time, guidelines were updated to recommend a minimum safe temperature of 165 degrees, no matter what texture you're aiming for. You can cook the turkey higher, but that won’t improve its safety.
There is a way to bend this rule. The magic number of 165 degrees is the temperature that immediately kills Salmonella and other bacteria, but you can also eliminate the same bacteria by keeping the meat at a lower temperature for a longer period. For instance, you can cook your turkey to 150 degrees, as long as it stays at 150 (or higher) for five minutes. A bluetooth thermometer like the iGrill can help you monitor this. This high-tech thermometer stays in the turkey and sends data to your smartphone. Cross-reference its readings with these time-temperature charts for poultry to ensure your turkey is safe.
Do I need to wash the vegetables for the salad? What about those I'll be cooking?
Washing raw vegetables, as Chapman points out, is a risk reduction measure, not a foolproof safety guarantee. Washing a head of lettuce can remove up to 90% or even 99% of harmful bacteria, but the remaining 1% can still cause illness. When outbreaks of foodborne illness are traced back to fruits and vegetables (which are actually the number one source of these illnesses), the bacteria levels are often high enough that washing wouldn't have made a significant difference.
Cooking vegetables reliably kills bacteria, so you don't need to wash those you'll cook. If they’re dirty, a good scrub might be necessary, but if they look clean, you're fine to cook them as is. You can wash them if you'd like, but if you're short on time, don't stress about it.
If I cut raw meat on a cutting board, wash it with soap and water, can I safely use the board again?
Almost, according to Chapman. There's just one more step. After cleaning the cutting board, it needs to be allowed to dry.
For regular use, this isn’t an issue: Cut your food, wash the board, and place it in the drying rack (or use the dishwasher), and it’ll be good to go the next time you cook. However, on Thanksgiving, Chapman says he uses multiple cutting boards, since there may not be enough time for a single board to fully dry before being reused.
In such cases, he suggests keeping one set of boards for raw meat and vegetables that will be cooked, and another separate board for prepared foods that are already cooked and ready for the table.
It's been more than two hours. Should I be worried that the leftovers have spoiled?
Not necessarily, but it’s a good guideline to follow. The recommendation for home cooks like us is to get food from the oven to the fridge within two hours.
This happens because of a microbe known as Clostridium perfringens, which may not be completely killed during cooking. While live C. perfringens doesn't survive the cooking process, it produces heat-resistant spores—think of them as tiny eggs that can later hatch into bacteria. If left on room-temperature turkey for several hours, these spores hatch, the bacteria multiply, and they can produce a heat-resistant toxin that may make you sick. The bacteria takeover usually happens within about four hours of being left out.
Technically, you could leave leftovers at room temperature for four hours, Chapman says, but the two-hour rule was made to provide a safety buffer, in case you're not closely monitoring the clock. If you aim for two hours, and stretch it to three, you should still be safe.
Do I need to let the leftovers cool before storing them in the fridge?
No, that’s an outdated guideline, Chapman explains. Older refrigerators could struggle if you added too much hot food at once, but modern fridges can handle it just fine. The best practice now is to cool food down as quickly as possible: once you know you’re done eating something, put it in the fridge.
Chapman shares that when he carves his turkey, he immediately places the meat that will be saved for leftovers into Ziploc bags, even before serving the meal. Dividing it into smaller portions helps it cool more quickly. After the meal, he does the same with any remaining meat.
Make sure your refrigerator is set to the right temperature, Chapman warns. Use a thermometer to check; it should be below 41 degrees Fahrenheit, ideally around 32 degrees. The colder your fridge, the longer your food will remain safe.
The biggest risk with refrigerated leftovers is Listeria, a bacterium that can grow even at refrigerator temperatures. Leftovers are typically safe for three to four days, so if you're craving turkey sandwiches on Monday, feel free to reheat them to kill off Listeria. Reheating will eliminate this pathogen, but it won’t affect C. perfringens, meaning reheating won’t save food left out for too long on Thursday.
