Amish Country
Well-known member
Historically there have been cases of salmonella from infected undercooked poultry. This danger may increase during the holidays when food preparers both home and commercial are distracted and under time constrains. During the holidays larger than normal birds tend to be cooked requiring longer cooking times. Today a growing trend has arisen where a large turkey is stuffed with a number of progressively smaller birds and stuffing. It started in the US with the Turducken (a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken) several years ago. Like other poultry these need to be properly prepared and thoroughly cooked. I am not suggesting the roasts pose a health hazard per say.
I would encourage those cooking to be especially vigilant during the holidays. Proper kitchen sanitation, oven temperature, observation of cooking times, verifying meat has been cooked to a safe internal temperature and safe food handling have been shown to help decrease the probability of food related health problems.
Tips: We use a meat thermometer to check on the internal temperature of cooking meat. These thermometers can fail with normal use and I would suggest replacing them every few years or as needed. In the case of some of these roasts mentioned in the links below my current oven meat thermometer would not be long enough to reach the innermost part of the birds. There is another type of kitchen termometer that checks the temperature of cooked meats after it is out of the oven and has been cut. I am also considering buying a small oven temperature gage. It sits on the rack inside the oven while in use and verifies the temperature or not so that proper adjustments to oven temperature can be made.
This is a link to a recent article on multi bird roasts.
http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/better-than-the-turducken
This is a how to video on what is being discussed above. I want to make clear that I am not encouraging anyone to actually do this. This video link is included to clarify the process of how one of these multi bird roasts has been put together for discussion purposes. Be warned. Birds are processed and deboned in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPwXsw_vzNU
I would encourage those cooking to be especially vigilant during the holidays. Proper kitchen sanitation, oven temperature, observation of cooking times, verifying meat has been cooked to a safe internal temperature and safe food handling have been shown to help decrease the probability of food related health problems.
Tips: We use a meat thermometer to check on the internal temperature of cooking meat. These thermometers can fail with normal use and I would suggest replacing them every few years or as needed. In the case of some of these roasts mentioned in the links below my current oven meat thermometer would not be long enough to reach the innermost part of the birds. There is another type of kitchen termometer that checks the temperature of cooked meats after it is out of the oven and has been cut. I am also considering buying a small oven temperature gage. It sits on the rack inside the oven while in use and verifies the temperature or not so that proper adjustments to oven temperature can be made.
This is a link to a recent article on multi bird roasts.
http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/better-than-the-turducken
This is a how to video on what is being discussed above. I want to make clear that I am not encouraging anyone to actually do this. This video link is included to clarify the process of how one of these multi bird roasts has been put together for discussion purposes. Be warned. Birds are processed and deboned in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPwXsw_vzNU