Turkey crown still frozen!!!

[SherbettingSherbert]

Aaaargh, please tell em I can still save Christmas dinner 😭

Thankfully there’s no real rush for when to eat other than it being today. If we have it at 5pm so be it. But I’m not sure how to do this safely.

So deal is, we have 2x 640g Turkey crowns in those baking trays from Tesco’s. They’ve been frozen and because they’re not huge and you have to cook on the day they defrost I got them out yesterday. Been 24hrs defrosting in the fridge. I really thought it was plenty of time. They’re not fully frozen solid but it’s clear when you poke them they’re still frozen a good layer in.

They’re only supposed to take 1h 10mins to cook when in a normal state. So what would you do?!

They’re in trays that’ve been open so I can’t submerge in water for risk of cross contamination. Do I lower the temp and cook for 2x maybe 3x the time instead?!

Are we going to have ham slices along with our veg instead of Turkey?! Help!!

(Thank you 😅)

Gave a look on the packaging,u might be able to.cook them from.frozen.

Microwave on defrost

Do you have a defrost setting on your microwave? (granted microwave might not be big enough)

I would lower the temperature, loosely cover in foil and cook for longer. Do you have a meat thermometer? If not, you'll have to cut them to check when you think they are done.

As per PP, check the packet instructions. My crown is to be cooked from frozen rather than defrosted anyway.

if you can’t defrost in cold water I’d just leave them out of the fridge somewhere not too warm. I’ve never understood defrost for 24hr in the fridge, it doesn’t defrost !

Thank you for your replies! Unfortunately it says not suitable for cooking from frozen.
they’re not too big though so I did consider the microwave defrosting option as they would fit (individually). Just weighing that up against cooking at lower temp. Good call on covering with foil.

No meat thermometer unfortunately but not a problem to cut up to check. Assume I’m just looking for it to be piping hot and fully white in the middle? (I know this sounds very basic but it’s only my second time doing the Christmas dinner and last time the crown wasn’t frozen! 🫣)

Stick them in the bath,cold water,eat late. Had this one year,big turkey,all DH family coming.

I posted this on another thread, turn your oven up to hottest setting and when it's hot, put your crowns in at the hot setting for an hour. Then turn it down to 170⁰/gas 3 or 4 for at least half an hour per kg. Do not open the oven. After this time, stick a skewer or sharp pointy knife in and if the juices come out red or pink, baste it, re cover with foil and leave it for 45 minutes. Keep poking until the juices are brown/clear.

I wouldn't defrost in microwave. Bits cook while others stay frozen and raw. Cook for longer at a lower temperature. Use a skewer or meat thermometer. Walk up temp at end to do skin...

Microwave them on defrost if they can fit in. Not in the foil tray tho.

They're not very big at 640 grams, only about 1-1/2 lbs in old money, if they were fully defrosted I reckon they'd be done in under an hour and a half. I'd stick them in cool water and cook them for about 2 hours, startimg from about 2-1/2 hours before you want to eat.

I would never defrost in the fridge as nothing ever defrosts. Always defrost on the worktop in the cool kitchen

Use defrost setting on micro?

Put in a plastic bag then put in water.

Get them out of the fridge now

Lower temp, longer than planned and I would roast it enclosed. A roaster with a lid or tented well with foil. Uncover the last 30-45 minutes at a higher temp to brown.

Don’t cook whilst slightly frozen even on a lower temp, that’s a recipe for disaster and food poisoning

have a nice lunch with something else and then have Christmas dinner later on- we typically have ours at 5pm anyways, usually 6 by the time we are on main course. If by 3pm they’re no closer you could consider defrosting in the microwave on the right setting

fingers crossed 🤞🏼

Genuine question... why can some turkey/chicken be cooked from frozen and others can't?

I'm obviously missing something massively basic here but I can't think what!

The turkey crown I have has instructions for cooking from frozen or fresh 🤷‍♀️

Honestly, great question I’d love to know the answer to! Would save me a huge worry of giving my family food poisoning on Christmas Day 🥴

Well I ended up opting for defrosting on microwave and cooking on slightly lower temp for 2 hrs (but checking every 15 mins after 1 hr)
they’re not massive and after defrosting (microwave has made for purpose setting with weight input) they looked and felt a lot better.

cooking over the time as I’m assuming as long as the middle is piping hot and not pink we should be pretty safe. Happy to overcook it as would rather that than food poisoning. But am also assuming that as long as the middle reaches a very high fully cooked temp the chances of food poisoning would be very low.

In my 30 years of cooking a roast i have never defrosted a lump of meat in the fridge.

I'm sorry OP! I hope it turned out good. It reminded me of the Royle Family Xmas special though 😂 Dave had it in the bath while he had a shave, next to the fire, hairdryer on it etc 😂