Predicament: Undercooked Stuffing

iVillage: Thanksgiving Cooking Nightmares, and How to Avoid Them

"There was an incident with my mom—she made turkey and stuffed it. She cooked the turkey to 165 degrees Fahrenheit, but the stuffing didn’t make it that high—it was maybe 90 degrees. That happened, and everybody got sick."

—Claire Robinson

Click forward to find out how Claire's mom could have avoided this problem

(CREDIT: Courtesy of Food Network)

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Holiday Cooking ...

Even the best of us have bad days in the kitchen — including professional chefs like Bobby Flay and Gail Simmons. To help us all avoid some common holiday cooking mistakes, Harold McGee — author of "Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes" — responds to anecdotes from famous chefs and iVillage community members. Click ahead!

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Predicament: Und...

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Solution: Cook S...

"The safest way to cook stuffing is to cook it thoroughly in a separate pan, not in the bird. Stuffing needs to be heated quickly to a minimum temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and if it's in the bird, that means that the bird itself will be much hotter, and therefore overcooked and dry."

—Harold McGee

(CREDIT: Courtesy of Paula Deen)

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Predicament: Bad...

"On the morning of the big meal, I woke up and opened up 12 individually wrapped poussins, only to realize they had all gone bad. I had to run down to the grocery store, try to find some frozen turkeys, come back home and defrost them by running them under water in the sink."

—Bobby Flay

Click forward to find out how Bobby could have avoided this predicament

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Solution: Pick a...

"To pick a fresh bird, try to buy it at the meat counter unwrapped. Look for an unbruised, bright skin and pink interior, and avoid birds with brown or dry patches. Ask to take a whiff: it should have little or no smell. If you have to buy prewrapped, check the appearance and the use-by date, and try to find the most recently packed bird. Don't buy the bird longer than a day or two before you'll cook it, and keep it in the coldest part of your refrigerator. If you buy a frozen bird, thaw it quickly and safely by immersing it in cold water."

—Harold McGee

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Predicament: Mul...

"The morning after Thanksgiving, I was making breakfast with the leftovers. I was using the turkey and making a hash with potatoes and fried eggs, and I had a spatula with a plastic handle. I set it down in the pan and forgot about it for a minute, and the handle melted off the pan—then there was burning plastic all over the pan."

—Gail Simmons

Click forward to see how Gail could have avoided this problem

(CREDIT: Bravo TV)

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Solution: Set Ti...

To make multitasking a little easier, find ways to remind yourself to check on the several things you're doing. Set timers to go off when you need to check on doneness of meats or vegetables. Make a list of your tasks, and read over it every few minutes. Get in the habit of stopping every few minutes to look around the kitchen for potential problems or things you've momentarily forgotten."

—Harold McGee

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Predicament: Exp...

"You’ve got to be really careful doing the deep-fried turkeys. The mistake people make is they don’t know how much oil to put in there, so when they drop the turkey in fryer, the oil spills over and it catches on fire. And we’ve heard of people who put frozen turkey in there, and it more or less explodes."

—Jamie and Bobby Deen

Click forward to find out how to prevent fryer explosions

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Solution: Take P...

"To deep-fry a turkey safely, be sure to follow the precautions that come with the turkey fryer. Hot oil is flammable and can cause serious burns. Always set up the fryer outdoors, on level ground, some distance from your building. Keep a fire extinguisher nearby. Fill the pot only partway with oil, to allow for the turkey's volume and for the bubbling and foaming of the hot oil during cooking. Use kitchen towels or oven mitts to handle the pot."

—Harold McGee

"A good way to avoid this is to fill the fryer with cold water. Dip your turkey in there, and you’ll have a good idea of how much oil you need."

—Jamie and Bobby Deen

(CREDIT: Image From "Good Eats 2: The Middle Years" By Alton Brown/Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2010)

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Predicament: Tim...

"I made my entire family sick because the turkey finished earlier than expected, and it sat out for hours while I was waiting for everything else to finish cooking. Apparently it grew a small army of bacteria."

— cratebill, iVillage community member

Click forward to find out how to time your meal properly

(CREDIT: Kikkerland)

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