Cooking Xmas turkey in metric
Here we go again, run up to Christmas and the food pages are full of useful hints and tips on how to roast the perfect turkey, giving people a timing of mins per 450g/lb. Not very useful when pack weights are in kg only! [article contributed by Roz Denny]
Working on this illogical logic, the ‘useful’ hint should start:
- Get out your calculator.
- Work out how many 450g there are in your pre-weighed (in kg) bird dividing by 0.450g
- Multiply by the 450g units by time in mins.
Compare this to a useful timing of mins per kg:
- Multiply the time in mins by the kg weight.
(However, if you are following an old recipe from a favourite cookbook for other birds e.g goose or duck or a joint of beef/ham/pork, simply multiply the mins pr 450g/ lb by 2.2 to get the kg weight timings).
- More information on cooking in metric is given on UKMA’s main website at http://www.ukma.org.uk/Practical/cookery/
December 21st, 2006 at 09:01
Just as it is common sense to use a kg-based rule of thumb for roasting, it makes sense to do the same for thawing a bird.
Ideally a bird should be thawed slowly in a fridge (if you have space) or a cool room. The Food Standards Agency (http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/seasonsandcelebrations/winter/saferchristmaseating/) recommends allowing 10-12 hours/kg in a fridge and 3-4 hours/kg in a cool room.
Muddling kilograms and pounds is the worst possible situation. With thawing you risk having a still-frozen bird on Christmas day and with roasting you risk food poisoning due to insufficient cooking of the meat.
Sticking to the easy kg rule makes sense.