Re: Probe thermometer Questions

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 15:49:05 -0400, in a clarity of expression
resembling Cicero, Aileen Sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>Hey Colin !!
>I am going to check one out next week.
>Several years sounds good to me :)
>I am stressing out about the Christmas turkey and brining etc. so a 
>temp. probe should reduce my stress level on the cooking day.
>Thanks for the advice, really appreciate, Aileen

RE your stress: an anecdote from parenthood, which you may see as a
useful parallel... Our child was formula fed, and IIRC (this was ten
years ago) we were supposed to mix the powder formula with 5 ounces of
water. One day I noticed that our liquid measuring cups were not
consistent: if I measured 5 oz. in one, and poured the water in the
other, it didn't match. All of a sudden I got VERY concerned about the
small variation in water, and went to all sorts of trouble to try and
find a lab quality graduated cylinder. The yellow pages, networking,
hitting pharmacies to ask them where they got theirs... No one gave me
the correct answer: relax. Our daughter was a happy healthy baby, no
reason to get stressed over this.

Now, your turkey: in all honesty, I think that roasting a turkey well
is one of the lowest risk propositions in all of cooking. It is very
easy to do it well, and you don't need a lot of fancy equipment.
Brining is easy, too, and if you don't have a stock pot big enough for
you bird that will fit in the fridge, there's a good chance one of
your neighbors does and will lend it to you.

Once you take the simple step to brine the turkey, it's almost like
you're halfway there. I WOULD buy a good oven thermometer though, to
make sure your oven dial doesn't need to be lowered/raised in order to
get it to the proper temp.

And here's one more thing I would recommend: subscribe to cooks
illustrated's web site: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/  You can try
it for a month for $4, or a year for $25. I am an experienced cook,
and was pleased to see that they even had a recipe for roasting a
large bird like the one we had (18 lbs).

Really, relax on this, it's a showy meal, but it's not difficult. It's
not like a souffle where there is an element of chance to provide the
stress. Relax! You can do this!

Frank Lynch
The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at:
http://www.samueljohnson.com/