Pre-stuffed meat and poultry??

[anni]

I never prestuff my turkey before roasting for safety reasons.

My question is how come they sell pre-stuffed chickens, pork chops, flank steak, etc. in the fresh prepared foods part of the grocery store? How can that be safe?

 

[bowlingshirt]

My guess is that there will be instructions to tell you too cook until you reach an internal temperature of 6000 degress so it will be safe.

 

[Maverick2272]

I would assume that as long as you cooked it properly it would be just fine. They sell them in most grocery stores around here as well, and they seem to be very popular with a lot of people.
Myself, I would rather stuff it than pay as much as $36.99/lb. just to have them do it!!
On average, having them do it seems to about double the asking price.

 

[anni]

My guess is that there will be instructions to tell you too cook until you reach an internal temperature of 6000 degress so it will be safe.

I would assume that as long as you cooked it properly it would be just fine. They sell them in most grocery stores around here as well, and they seem to be very popular with a lot of people.
Myself, I would rather stuff it than pay as much as $36.99/lb. just to have them do it!!
On average, having them do it seems to about double the asking price.

I do my own too. It's just something I've always wondered about.

 

[Maverick2272]

I kinda wonder too, and if they weren't so expensive I would be tempted to try them out one of these days just to see.

 

[anni]

I kinda wonder too, and if they weren't so expensive I would be tempted to try them out one of these days just to see.

Maybe next time I'm at Wegman's, I'll ask someone. I'll post what they tell me.

 

[mozart]

I never prestuff my turkey before roasting for safety reasons.

My question is how come they sell pre-stuffed chickens, pork chops, flank steak, etc. in the fresh prepared foods part of the grocery store? How can that be safe?

Anni,

There is nothing inherently unsafe about stuffing meats. It certainly isn't any safer to stuff your meat at home than buying it stuffed. It is all about making sure you reach the proper temperature internally in the meat AND the stuffing.

Pork and beef are not much of an issue as you are stuffing the inside of the actual muscle, which is likely to be free of pathogens.

Stuffing the intestinal cavity of poultry, however is another story, at it is highly likely to contain Salmonella organisms from the preparation process. The larger the bird, the larger the potential.

So chickens are safer to stuff than Turkeys. This is even truer today as turkeys have been bread to cook in much less time than when I was growing up. Getting up at 4 in the morning to put the turkey in now gives you a fully cooked turkey at about 7:30

Unfortunately, some birds will be fully cooked before the stuffing inside reaches 165 degrees minimum. That is where the danger comes in.

The absolute best thing a home cook can learn to do is to use an instant read thermometer and use it often to check temps of cooked foods as they come out of the oven/grill/microwave/ fry pan.

And even better choice for many dishes is a thermometer that inserts into the food and plugs into a unit outside the oven that you can set for a specific temp.

As to why do they do it. Money. You take a $.98 per pound 5 lb chicken, add $.30 worth of stuffing, and sell it for $9 or $10.

 

[Maverick2272]

How in the world do they breed them to cook faster? Lighter muscle mass or smaller size or less density?

 

[mozart]

How in the world do they breed them to cook faster? Lighter muscle mass or smaller size or less density?

Like the difference between a stewing chicken and a roaster.