How To Thaw A Turkey In A Bathtub For Thanksgiving

I don't know about you, but I can remember when I was young, going into my Grandma's bathroom and seeing a giant turkey in the bathtub soaking. Okay, the bird wasn't just chilling in a bubble bath after a long day; Grandma was thawing the big bird to get it ready for the oven.

Many times, there were a couple of birds hanging out in there, because Grandma liked to have an oven-cooked bird, and Grandpa enjoyed putting the other on his smoker. They didn't go with small birds, either, so now that I think about it, they may've gone for a few days without a bath unless they decided to bathe with the birds, which would make this story really weird. Let's pretend they chose NOT to bathe, and they were taking one for the family.

With two birds, both being 22-25 pounds apiece, that's a lot of bathtub time. How much exactly? Let's average the birds at 24 pounds. Butterball's 'cold water thawing' equation is as follows.

Thaw the turkey breast-side down, with water covering the turkey.

Change the water every 30 minutes.

Expect 30 minutes of thawing for every pound of turkey.

24 pounds x 30 minutes per pound = 720 minutes / 60 minutes per hour = 12 hours.

Granny would start the thawing process the night before Thanksgiving, then cook it in the morning to ensure it's ready for mealtime.

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If you plan to use the fridge for thawing, it will take significantly longer. For a 24-pound bird, you'll need to take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the Friday before Thanksgiving.