Bloody frozen turkey

[Cudz]

I bought a frozen turkey crown (serves 8-10 people) from Iceland and put it in the fridge on Tuesday night to begin defrosting and it's still pretty solid this morning. I want to cook it early tomorrow morning (6am ish) so what can I do to get it totally defrosted before 6am tomorrow? I'm out for most of today so don't have the option to use cold water and keep changing it. Can they be cooked from part frozen? What if I leave it out in the kitchen all day with no heating on? The packaging on the box says defrost for 48 hours in the fridge so I can't understand why it isn't defrosted! Help!

I’m now panicking. I’ve never had a frozen turkey before but bought one early this year in case of bird flu shortages. Have I left it too late to get it out of the freezer? Turkey crown serves 6-8.

No even bought mine yet. Need a big boy as well.
I'm buying this morning then opening it up. Sticking it on the baking rack and it will sit onto of the fridge freezer away from the dog.
If it has to be cooked partially frozen so be it.
Having visions of that part in Adrian mole where his mum is defrosting the Turkey in the bath 😂

I've popped it on the side for an hour before we go out - the kitchen doesn't have a radiator and I've turned the heating off in the rest of the house anyway so it definately isn't warm in there. These are the defrosting instructions from the packet - it also looks like it can be cooked from frozen? Seems dodgy to me.

I always defrost things on the kitchen counter. Never poisoned myself and cooking from frozen (IMHO) is more likely to be dodgy.

I didn't get our 6.6kg turkey out of the freezer till last night thinking it could defrost at room temperature. The packaging says 3 days defrosting in the fridge! Argh. I filled a bucket of cold water and am giving the bird a cold bath with a combination of defrosting in the fridge overnight. 🤞

I'd leave it on the counter when your out today then put it in fridge when you get back.

Ours is defrosting in the garage.

I’d just fill the sink or a clean bucket and chuck it in (wrapped).

It will defrost much, much faster in water.

I'd brine a turkey anyway, so defrost it in the brining liquor uncovered and not bother changing the water. Two jobs at once.

I’d just fill the sink or a clean bucket and chuck it in (wrapped)

Is this recommended over room temperature thawing?

Channel Pauline Mole?

Nothing on those instructions says to me it can be cooked from frozen.

Unless your house is super warm, defrost it at room temp today.

It’s faster than room temperature thawing.

And the OP is looking for what works.

It’s only a small 2.2kg turkey crown, it shouldn’t take that long to defrost. Also is that size is supposed to feed 8-10 people.

No - leave it out on the counter, or it will definitely not be defrosted for tomorrow.

When I was a clueless student (and pre-Google) we decided to cook Christmas dinner in our house. I thought it would tell me how many it fed on the wrapping. (Like they do now, but it definitely didn't). I could only buy frozen and didn't know they were so tightly bound in the packaging. I bought what I thought would feed 4.

I will never forget when we cut open the packaging and this thing just unfurled like an octopus all of the counter top. It was bloody enormous.

We also hadn't factored in defrosting time, so put it in the kitchen sink covered in HOT water and set up a rota based on who would be in the house to change the water once an hour.

We had to cut it up to fit it in the oven, invited three more over and still had leftovers.

Pretty sure in a sink of hot water isn't the way to go, but we survived.

Good luck OP.

@Cudz oh sorry just read your update and that's what you did.
I don't think there's much danger of it defrosting too much and getting warm. I'd say you may need to leave it out overnight as well.

Why stuff defrosts faster in water than air.

Also I think your fridge is maybe too high, I go by if my milk is really too cold, then I turn down my fridge, otherwise everything starts freezing.

Take it out of the fridge and put in the sink

Ps I have always defrosted at room temperature

From a food safety point of view, faster thawing is probably best. Thaw it quickly then store in the fridge til you’re going to cook it.

@NoSquirrels look to the far left. It says cook from frozen and the instructions for that

Right-hand box gives instructions from frozen. In my experience doing that takes much longer than it says so would still prefer to defrost.
As others have said, I would leave out in a cool room.

I never defrost anything in the fridge. Instructions always say to, but I always leave it on the worktop.