turkey breast cooking advise

Well it turned out quite nice. I went 400 for about 45 min and dropped it down to 335,splitting the difference between 350 and 325. I put it in at 4:30 and checked temp at 7:00 and it was at 148.Kind of like a rookie nurse trying to find a vein, it took me a couple times to find the coldest spot with the temp probe. It didnt take long to get up Lynchs suggested "pull out" time of 158.I While resting, it went to up 163. The bird remained really juicy and went well with mushroom mashed potatoes and some veggies. Made a great gravy from the drippings also.
That breast had an incredible amount of meat on it. We will see how well it freezes. I guess Im looking at turkey burritos or something similar in my future. Thanks all for the advise.

Glad it worked!

For whatever it's worth, I think Robin has it totally backwards. An "industrial" bird (breed = 'broad-breasted white' from a major provider like Butterball or Jennie-O) yields a totally frozen breast in under four hours from time of kill, leaving no time whatsoever for bacterial growth, while a heritage breed (or one from a local provider) can sit anywhere from 6 hours to three weeks prior to freezing. Admittedly, it you know the grower personally you can check that, but if you got it as a gift there's no way to tell.

Personally, I don't use the degrees noted (although 165 for white meat is the recommended temp) unless we have infants or elderly eating with us What I do is simply puncture the breast and if all juices (from deep down) run clear rather than red it is done and juicy; to marsha's point, this will happen around the temp she recommended.

[Robin Garr]

An "industrial" bird (breed = 'broad-breasted white' from a major provider like Butterball or Jennie-O) yields a totally frozen breast in under four hours from time of kill, leaving no time whatsoever for bacterial growth

Sure, they move product through fast, Andrew. But isn't there a lot of anecdotal information about salmonella in industrial poultry, e. coli and other delightful things that seem to relate directly to the need for speed and the short-term profit motive?

Its my belief that a bird raised and slaughtered on a smaller scale generally leaves a "cleaner" bird. The factory evisceration process often spills fecal matter back into the bird. Also the chill tanks at a commercial poultry operation,where the birds are first cooled off prior to further processing and then ultimately freezing, are really nasty pools. The amount of fecal matter in the chilling water is combated by the addition of chlorine. I have heard it estimated that up to fifteen percent of the weight of commercial poultry is this chlorine poo soup. I also know quite a few people who slaughter birds on a small scale,including us, and nobody I know would ever think of not freezing the bird immediately after slaughter.
Either way I agree with you regarding your (and Marshas) "pull out method" of 158. It worked well for me.

Robin, you mention "anectodal information"

John, you mention "I have heard it estimated"

All I can tell you is that back in the past (early '80's) I ran Butterball for two years, with 16 plants and full P&L control. The birds then were tested continually for fecal matter and e-coli, the birds were totally packed in cryovac and sealed PRIOR to entering any chill bath (to avoid any possibility of cross-contamination), a percentage of chilled birds were removed from the pack and retested for any bacteria, pin holes, whatever, and we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on testing. Our philosophy was that it absolutely didn't matter how much we spent on that - we just could not afford for ANY finding of illness, bacteria, whatever on one of our turkeys, as even one instance could destroy our brand.

(the chilled birds are frozen in enormous blast freezers - they leave the chill pack just above freezing, and are frozen in the blast freezer within an hour or so)

There are many other turkey operations around, and I'm not familiar with any of them, but I can tell you that to this day I will not trust any fresh turkey, and (based on testing we did of our own and competitive birds) I will only purchase Butterball or Jennie-O.

I cannot comment on those raising on smaller scale leaving a 'cleaner' bird; I know we did an enormous business selling birds that came into the slaughtering plant sick or injured, so someone is buying those birds and reselling them (or otherwise using them, whether for pets, people, or fertilizer), but I've been in the largest Butterball plants (albeit many years ago), and also have seen some small operators who were wonderful and others whose birds scared me to death! (FYI, dead birds were destroyed . . . sick or injured birds - if salvageable - were killed, the damaged parts cut out and destroyed, and the remainder sold to outside purveyors.)

John, I TOTALLY agree with you that anybody in the business freezes the bird(s) immediately after slaughter, and most would never eat a supposedly "fresh" turkey. I can't tell you how many producers I've seen that keep "fresh" birds 13 weeks or so on ice (totally legal), or - after the season is over - then freeze any leftover birds for future sale. (Actually, I successfully fought against supplying Butterball fresh turkeys for years, someithing that was done only after I left the company)

Thanks Andrew. Why did you have to put a likable face on the Turkey Processing industry? I was content thinking there was just some nameless jerk out there torturing birds in his giant corner office,while lording over a medieval bird killing factory.

Thanks Andrew. Why did you have to put a likable face on the Turkey Processing industry? I was content thinking there was just some nameless jerk out there torturing birds in his giant corner office,while lording over a medieval bird killing factory.

I concur. Andrew, I found your post very enlightening. Thanks!

[Robin Garr]

Thanks Andrew. Why did you have to put a likable face on the Turkey Processing industry? I was content thinking there was just some nameless jerk out there torturing birds in his giant corner office,while lording over a medieval bird killing factory.

I agree, and I don't want to pick on Andrew.

However ... I'm also compelled to note that he worked for corporate America in 1980, and the scene has changed dramatically since then, thanks to the deregulation of the '80s and the corporate go-go years of the '90s. GE made quality appliances through the early '80s. Now they make crap, and you can come over and try to cook on our stove if you don't believe it. The Courier-Journal was still one of the nation's top 10 newspapers in 1980. We didn't have commonplace salmonella and e. coli recalls in the food industry in 1980. With all respect, I believe every word Andrew says about how it was then. And I didn't worry about eating industrial food back then, either.

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However ... I'm also compelled to note that he worked for corporate America in 1980, and the scene has changed dramatically since then, thanks to the deregulation of the '80s and the corporate go-go years of the '90s.

Robin, I agree - that's why I qualified everything I said. The only positive is that the Butterball brand was purchased by Cargill, who made/makes Jennie-O, so I have hope that they are maintaining controls.

And, please don't forget that the "go-go" years also had an impact on small operators; they likely weren't monitored as much prior to that, and certainly weren't as much after!

[Robin Garr]

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However ... I'm also compelled to note that he worked for corporate America in 1980, and the scene has changed dramatically since then, thanks to the deregulation of the '80s and the corporate go-go years of the '90s.

Robin, I agree - that's why I qualified everything I said. The only positive is that the Butterball brand was purchased by Cargill, who made/makes Jennie-O, so I have hope that they are maintaining controls.

And, please don't forget that the "go-go" years also had an impact on small operators; they likely weren't monitored as much prior to that, and certainly weren't as much after!

Andrew, I hear you with respect, and I also recognize that you speak from your background in the '80s working for Butterball as much as I speak from my background as a writer/organizer with a national non-profit working (among other things) in small-farm and farmworker advocacy in the '90s. I think this may be something like a Chinese fella trying to speak to a Greek without a language in common.

We could probably solve all these problems over a beer at an offline some time, though.