How to keep your turkey moist this Thanksgiving

Some meats, such as stew beef and baked chicken, do well if you cook them for a long time in a lot of liquid. Others, such as shrimp and salmon and chicken cutlets, do not. 

For that reason, my friends Brooke and Cybele often bring along a meat thermometer that we can use when we are making meats that will dry out with too much heat. 

Brooke is more than just a good cook; he is also a life coach and a nutritional coach. He uses a meat thermometer because he’s given a lot of thought to how to make foods as healthy and delicious as possible.

He explained it this way: “You wouldn’t go to Burlington, Vt., without checking how long it’s going to take with your iPhone first, so why take the chance of overcooking your meat, the most expensive part of your meal?  Technology is your friend. The finger test is unreliable, and cutting into your meat lets out all the juices.”

I bring this up now because today is Thanksgiving, and I’ve been researching turkey safety tips all week. Across the board, every single expert on health and cooking, from the U.S. government to Thomas Keller to the Butterball turkey company, everyone without exception says you need to use a meat thermometer to determine when your turkey is ready to eat.  

Most of my food sources say that you want your thermometer to read somewhere between 140 and 165 degrees before you take it out of the oven. 

Butterball is more specific and says you want 180 degrees in the thigh, 170 degrees in the breast and 165 degrees in the center of the stuffing. 

Now that we’ve established without question the need for a thermometer, the next question is: What kind of thermometer should I get?

There’s a pretty wide price variation on these things, if you look online. The one that is considered the gold standard is the ThermoWorks Thermapen, which sells for about $120. It’s a top seller at Amazon and gets five-star reviews. That’s the one that Brooke uses; it’s worth it for him because he uses it every time he cooks dinner.

It’s an instant-read thermometer, which means that you poke it into the breast and leg of the chicken (don’t hit the bone) periodically to see how things are going, temperature-wise.

You can also get oven-safe thermometers, which connect to your oven wall and have a probe that you insert into the meat. 

The advantage of the instant-read, Brooke said, is that “you get to test all areas of the meat without waiting.” 

For example, if you have a turkey in the oven you want to be able to check the breast, thigh and the stuffing; that’s easier to do with an instant-read.

I used to have a probe thermometer; I found it unwieldy and hard to manage. So in advance of Thanksgiving, I ordered an instant-read thermometer that also got good reviews on Amazon and is a top seller. It’s from a company called Lavatools and cost $25. What enticed me into spending 25 clams on a tool I will probably only use once or twice a year is that it has several nice features: It is magnetic, so I can put it on my ’fridge or stove so it’s easier to find;  and it is angled and adjustable, so I can read it more easily. 

 One problem for me with using a thermometer: In the past, to the horror of several of my acquaintances, I have used a roasting bag to cook my turkey. It makes it come out both crispy and very juicy. 

But of course, if I use a thermometer, I will have to pierce the bag, at which point the bag will become useless. So, this year, I wont be using the bag — but I will hope that using the thermometer will give me crisp skin and juicy breast meat.