The Chilly Bird

The prospect of cooking a 13 1/2-pound bird in 2 hours was so attractive that I threw caution to the winds and tried it.

I followed instructions to the letter. I checked the internal temperature based on 7 minutes a pound and decided that it needed more cooking. After another 2 minutes per pound the readings at the thickest part of the breast and thigh ranged from 165 degrees to 155 degrees, and I removed the bird from the oven, covered it with a loose tent of foil and let it rest for a half hour.

First the good news. The breast meat was absolutely fantastic. Perfectly cooked, moist, delicious down to the breast bone. It was all downhill from there. The legs were half and half. The outer half exposed to the heat cooked to perfection. The half pressed close to the body underdone and inedible. About one-quarter of the thigh meat, that toward the top and outer portion, was excellent. It became progressively more underdone as it got closer to the inner thigh . . .

All in all, a mitigated disaster. The guests were blessedly unaware of any problems and we were able to make do with the breast meat as no one turned out to be a leg man.

--CONNIE QUICKLE

Palm Springs

Our mail is running about evenly for and against the Ultimate Turkey. Why did it work so perfectly for some people while others ended up with undercooked legs? The answer can be found in Mrs. Quickle’s letter. If the variation between the breast and thigh was only 10 degrees after 2 hours in the oven, the legs had to have been near-frozen when the bird went in. The Ultimate Turkey will only work with a completely defrosted bird. We should have taken into account that even fresh turkeys are often so chilled they have ice on the wings and legs. There are two remedies for this: removing the turkey from the refrigerator a few hours before cooking, and not trussing the legs, which allows the heat to circulate more freely.