How to cook a frozen turkey

Uh-oh...forget to take the Turkey out to thaw?  That can be fixed - here's how!

How to cook a frozen turkey

It's the Thanksgiving nightmare scenario. You go to the refrigerator Thursday morning and realize your 15-pound turkey is still a frozen block. But food-safety experts have a solution, one that will not only will get dinner on the table by 3 p.m., but that's also a lot safer than trying to soak Mr. Tom in a sink of hot water (and potentially splash salmonella juice all over your kitchen).

It involves a hot oven, an icy bird and six hours to hang out with your relatives.

• Take one frozen turkey, 12 to 13 pounds.

• Place a low wire rack on a cookie sheet with low sides.

• Remove the plastic cover from the turkey.

• Put the turkey on the rack.

• Put it in a 325-degree oven.

• Wait 4½ to five hours.

• Eat.

While the technique turns out not to be new, it's gaining traction because of a Web publication outlining how to do it by Peter Snyder of the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management, which does safety training for food companies.

Snyder recommends using a cookie sheet or another baking sheet with a low rim, not a high-sided roasting pan. "You want the hot oven air to evenly circulate all around the turkey," he says.

He also recommends putting the turkey on a rack on the pan so that the hot air can circulate underneath, as well. If you don't have a roasting rack, pull the metal rack out of the microwave and use that, he suggests.

Read more at:  http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011111122009