does my turkey need to warm up over night?

[OhYouMerryMerryKitten]

leave in fridge over night or out? its quite a big un.

only ask cos one year somehow our dying oven only cooked the top half of the turkey. bit paranoid since.

If it's frozen - I would leave it out all night.

Is it frozen?

If you move the shelf down then it should cook the turkey properly, heat rises so anything at the top of the cooker will cook properly. You can always chop it up after 'cooking' and microwave it. Leaving it out shouldn't make any difference to how it's cooked.

tis in fridge. not frozen!

What about if it is outside? Ours is on the balcony. Just checked it and it is not frozen, but very cold. I planned to bring it in tomorow 2 hours before cooking - do you think that's ok? It's 8 kg.

would have helped if I'd said that in first place.

You see, it is an important question Ilana agrees with me.

I'd take it out a few hours before it goes in the oven to let it come up to room temperature.

ihave some muddled idea thatif it is cheapoid then will have been wet plucked and so had a good old swim in warm water = treat with care.

poshy dry plucked = do whatever you fancy.

yes put it in the airing cupboard

do you have a spare coat you could put on it?

Mine is on the trampoline, he has been on the razz all afternoon.

To be honest, when you cook it it makes very little difference if it's from the fridge or not. If the cooker's shite then there's nothing you can do about it. It may take a little longer to cook if it's been in the fridge/cold environment as it will take a little more cooking to get it up to room temp but it wouldn't be much. Perhapse take it out of the fridge first thing in the morning. I suppose it also depends on the size of the monster aswell, a big one will take longer to get to room temp then a small one.

Take it to bed with you. Will be an interesting experience if the kids do an early morning raid

Haaaa

its a posh dry one.
Actually logically fluffy, you are right of course. Going from 4C to what ever its supposed to be isn't much different from going from 18C to what ever it should be.
silly me. shall never fret about this one again!

wmmc - I could use it to sooth my sinuses!

Joking aside - if your turkey is 8kg you'll need to cook it for more than 2 hours.

Guidance from here works out at just over 4 hours. Hope it turns out OK.

No no! I was talking about taking my 8 kg from the balcony to inside the flat to come to room temp 2 hours before cooking. Not only cooking for 2 hours! It needs (as you said) almost 4 hours cooking time plus an hour resting time. It is a posh bird too.

handy guidance. ours is 6.5 (big for us) delia says about 4 hours, telegraph gave ridiculous time of I think abot 2.5-3 hours.
Am going with delia. she isnt exciting but she is reliable.

I am going with Jamie Oliver. 25 min per kg plus the initial 30 minutes. This is for a good free range posh bird. He did say that supermarket birds need 40 minutes per kg.

oh blimey. how can our 6.5kg turkey take the same time as your 8kg turkey?

I wish there was a turkey rule.

oooo, you know, tis simple maths. I reckon by next year I could come up with a definitive formula, quite comfy with thermodynamics.

all I need to know is the thermal capacity of turkey flesh and the conductivity of meat and bones.

Crikey, I am confused now. My turkey isn't completely defrosted (got a rubbish frozen one cos Sainsbos cocked up my delivery ), it's nearly there, should I leave it in the fridgeover night to finish defrosting or is it ok at room temp out on the sideboard?

room temp if its still got frozen bits I think.

Thanks ohyoumerry, I can forget about the turkey now and concentrate on the wine stockings...

lol - oh bugger. the stocking. You know, it is so much esier just to keep drinking.