This year, for the first time in decades, the U.S. government says it’s safe to serve moist turkey. In April, a committee of food safety specialists working for the Department of Agriculture agreed that cooking poultry to a final temperature of 165 degrees was enough to ensure it was free from salmonella or other harmful bacteria.
This reverses a long-standing recommendation that turkey be cooked to a minimum of 180 degrees, a temperature all but guaranteed to produce a bird with dry white meat.
The latest recommendation also comes into line with the temperatures that cookbook authors and chefs have been touting for years. Indeed, some professionals even recommend removing turkeys from the oven at temperatures as low as 150 degrees, allowing retained heat to provide a 10- to 15-degree “push” to the final temperature.
Now that the 180-degree recommendation has been overturned, no one can remember where it came from in the first place.
“I’ve looked all over, and I really have no idea,” says Diane Van, manager of the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline. “I think it happened sometime back in the 1980s, but I don’t know what it was based on.”
Ostensibly, minimum temperatures are established to reduce the risk from salmonella and other food-borne illnesses. But USDA studies show that salmonella in turkey is all but eliminated if the bird spends less than 30 seconds at an internal temperature of 160 degrees. At 165 degrees, its studies show, “the required lethalities are achieved instantly.”
The USDA temperature recommendation applies to stuffing too. But because the bread heats more slowly than protein, in order for the center of the stuffing to reach 165 degrees, you’d have to cook the breast to at least 180. Because of this, many chefs and cookbook authors no longer stuff their holiday turkeys.
Instead, they cook their stuffings on the side. If you moisten the bread stuffing with turkey broth before you bake it, and stir in some of the turkey pan juices after carving, it’s hard to tell the difference.
The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, 1-888-674-6854, is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. MST. On Thanksgiving Day, it will be open 6 a.m. to noon. You can e-mail the hotline at mphotline.fsis@usda.gov or visit fsis.usda.gov.
