Nov. 23, 2007 - Terribly Tainted Turkey
Terribly Tainted Turkey
Our beautiful roasted turkey ended up double-bagged and trashed yesterday. I bought it frozen at Wal-Mart on Monday, brought it home and put it in the refrigerator to thaw. Yesterday morning when I took the plastic wrap off our 16 pound Tom, washed him and herbed him up, I had no indication that he was a tainted turkey. After almost five hours of roasting and drooling anticipation of our family and guests I took the beautiful browned bird out and all looked well. But when I lifted the turkey out of the roasting pan and poured the drippings out to make gravy I immediately was overcome by a horrible smell. A disgusting dead animal smell. The drippings smelled like I had been cooking road-kill. Depressing as it was, I had John dispose of the bird immediately.
Why did this happen? I don't know. Was the turkey handled wrong in the processing plant? Did the refrigerated truck transporting the bird have problems? Did the bird thaw and refreeze somewhere along the way? Did I do poor job of cleaning out the bird during preparation? Was my refrigerator not cold enough during the three-day defrost? Is this an isolated incident of tainted turkey, or was my bird part of a massive Thanksgiving food-poisioning episode? I may never know.
Until now though, I didn't realize how much I really love the turkey. Of course we had all the fixin's, but there are no turkey and cranberry sandwich leftovers today. Pitiful. Who wants a plate of leftovers without turkey?
So, I'm off to the store this morning to purchase a turkey breast to defrost and cook today. I can't wait for my first slice of turkey.....
