Turkey Temps

We were surprised to hear that the USDA has dropped their recommended turkey temperature from 180 degrees Fahrenheit all the way down to 165 degrees. We’ve been at odds with the USDA for years, taking our turkeys only as high as 170 degrees to avoid dried-out breast meat. But I find 165 degrees to be a walk on the wild side. It’s a fine temperature for moist white meat, but the dark meat (my favorite) is a little too pink and barely cooked through. I like thigh meat to pull away easily from the bone, not to cling so tightly that I feel like I’m performing a dissection. Stuffing the turkey becomes a bit dicier as well, because when the bird reaches the safety of 165 degrees, the stuffing remains at a lower temperature. When Russ Parsons at the LA Times wrote about the USDA temperature drop, he added that the USDA now can’t remember how they came up with 180 degrees in the first place. He quotes Diane Van, a manager of the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, who thinks it happened in the 1980s and doesn’t know why. I talked to someone at the USDA back in the 1990s to ask why the government recommended such a high temperature when the risky pathogens had been long since killed at 160 degrees. In a bored, don’t-you-get-it tone of voice, I was told that 180 degrees was the temperature that produced the quality of turkey Americans were accustomed to eating. And all along I naively thought that the government was being overcautious because even the best meat thermometers can vary. I’m glad the USDA has finally wised up to what food professionals have been doing for years with turkey, but it will be interesting to find out whether they get any negative reactions from the dark-meat (or stuffing) lovers.