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Guide to Better Turkey – How to Store Turkey

Few meals have achieved the iconic status of the annual Thanksgiving feast. Even among normally non-cooking households an extra effort is made to ensure the turkey makes it to the table as the center-piece. Thanksgiving is then not only time to enjoy the triple pleasure of food, family, and friends, but also the time for chefs to practice their logistics.

Indeed, it is not everyday one must make room for a turkey in the house. The question becomes then not only how to prepare and cook the turkey, but how to store turkey as well. Cooking is, like any fine art, one part science and another part craft. Keeping that in mind, the basis for the following guidelines are then one part flavor and another part health.

Now, unless you’ve invited many people to share the fruits of your art, you will need to plan on storing your turkey twice –before and after the feast. It is important then to distinguish between how to store turkey raw and how to store turkey cooked. In the spirit of chronology we begin our walkthrough just after you’ve come home with the bird.

How you store the raw turkey will depend on the following factors: whether you bought the thing frozen or chilled, and whether or not the giblets are still attached. If you have bought a bird with giblets, you will need to take them off and store them in a separate container. Giblets should be used within 24 hours. Rewrap the turkey in heavy-duty aluminum foil and place it in the coldest part of your fridge. It is extremely important that turkey juices do not leak onto other foods, lest they be contaminated with salmonella. It is recommended that you either over-wrap the turkey or set it on a platter. Turkeys without giblets may be placed directly in the fridge with the original wrapping intact.

If for some reason you will not prepare the turkey within one or two days it will need to be cut into smaller pieces. Most home freezers are not cold enough to freeze an entire turkey fast enough. They cannot, therefore, rid the risk of salmonella. Before freezing, rinse the turkey cuts with cold water, dry them, and wrap them in freezer paper or foil. If you bought your turkey already frozen and do not need to begin thawing, you may place the whole thing, wrapper intact, directly in the freezer.

When storing raw turkey, keep the following temperatures and timelines in mind. The turkey will keep 1 to 2 days at a refrigerated storage of 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit. At a freezer storage of 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below a whole turkey will keep an entire year. Turkey parts, on the other hand, will keep only three months long.
The timeline for storing cooked turkey is more rigid than the raw, and in order to avoid food poisoning, it is recommended that you follow the following rules. It is best that leftover turkey be stored in the fridge or freezer within 2 hours. To be even more precise, you want the leftover turkey to reach a temperature of 40 degrees or less in that time. Before storing, however, remove any stuffing and carve all the meat from the bone. Store the turkey, stuffing, and gravy in separate shallow containers. Stuffing and gravy should be used within one or two days; turkey in three to four. Again, at a temperature of 35-40 degrees your turkey leftovers will last 3 to 4 days, but you can make that 3 to 4 months at temperatures of 0 and below. If you do freeze the leftovers, use freezer paper or heavy-duty aluminum foil to avoid freezer burn.

With a modicum of planning, none of the above should prove difficult for a household cook or aspiring chef. So think ahead now to making space in your freezer and fridge. Not only will observing these guidelines improve your chances of delivering a delicious meal, but will also significantly reduce the risk of one of those legendary holiday hospital trips.