It's time for the usual doom and gloom articles about Thanksgiving food safety. The stats are grim: every day 200,000 Americans get sick from food-related illnesses, and since Thanksgiving is one of our major food holidays, the chances for food illness are high. The guidelines are basically the common sense stuff: don't defrost the turkey at room temperature, wash everything that gets the raw turkey juice on it and the big one that I am guilty of flouting each year: don't cook the stuffing inside the bird. It's also important to cook the turkey to an internal temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit to kill all of the bacteria.
This article from WTSP says that according to the ADA/ConAgra Foods survey, nearly three out of four Americans don't know the proper temperature to which a whole turkey should be cooked and more than half don't use a meat thermometer to ensure doneness. Instead we tend to rely on meat looking "done," taste tests, and wiggling the legs to see if it is cooked (I am also guilty as charged on that leg-wiggling thing). Reading articles like this before Thanksgiving always makes me feel a bit guilty, as if I'm some vaguely homicidal manic wielding a Wusthof Trident and an improperly sterilized cutting board. I washed my hands, really, I swear.
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