Question about cooking a turkey

[LadyyRedd]

I was pretty sick all week, so I did not go with the family to Thanksgiving dinner. Therefore, not much turkey for me (I did get a plate brought by later in the evening). Grocery store had them on mega sale today, so I bought one and cooked it this evening.

I've never cooked one, so I think I did my best and if it doesn't come out that great, it was only $6!

Question - the turkey is done, but the liquid/juice that ended up inside the turkey was pinkish (like from the blood, I guess). Any harm in that? I just dumped it out.

Kimya

 

[DeterminedOne]

Do you have a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature?

 

[CEDmom]

Chances are the dark meat isn't cooked completely. It's not harmful, assuming it reached the minimum temp, but isn't that appetizing. You can just put the legs & thighs into a pan and back in the oven for a while to finish cooking. Glad you're feeling better.

 

[LadyyRedd]

Unfortunately I can't find my thermometer. It was supposed to have one of those pop up ones that come on the bird, but it wasn't there when I opened it.

The breast is definitely done. Even a bit dry. I guess I'm not 100% sure of the rest of it. I guess I could cut off the breast meat and put it back in.

Kimya

 

[RadioNate]

Unfortunately I can't find my thermometer. It was supposed to have one of those pop up ones that come on the bird, but it wasn't there when I opened it.

The breast is definitely done. Even a bit dry. I guess I'm not 100% sure of the rest of it. I guess I could cut off the breast meat and put it back in.

Kimya

That is what I'd do....

I've had that happen before, breast done when the dark meat wasn't. Once it took several hours past the stated cooking time for the dark meat to get done. It was very strange!

 

[LadyyRedd]

That's what I've done, but it'd better not take HOURS to finish, I need to go to bed soon!

I'm still a little wary of telling when it's completely done. I was expecting it to have that little pop up timer thingie in it since I didn't know where my thermometer is. If i'd known, I wouldn't have cooked it until tomorrow when I could get a thermometer!

Kimya