Tips on how to thaw, prep, and cook your pastured Thanksgiving turkey.

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November 13, 2024

So, you have a beautiful PASTURE-RAISED CORN & SOY FREE TURKEY in your freezer. Now what? Here are some tips for thawing, prepping, and cooking your whole Thanksgiving turkey.

When do I need to thaw my turkey?

This is very important. There's nothing worse than getting ready to cook your turkey just to realize that it's still frozen!

When you need to thaw your turkey will depend on how big your turkey is and which thawing method you choose. Here are the details:

Slow thaw in the refrigerator. You’ll need about 24 hours per 4-5 pounds of turkey. So, for a 11-13lb bird, plan for 2-3 days in the fridge to thaw.

Quick thaw in cold water. Put the turkey in a sink of cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes, and plan for about 30 minutes per pound. So, for a 11-13lb bird, plan for a 5-7 hour thaw time.

TIP: Always keep a turkey cold when thawing. Once your turkey is thawed, it will last 1-2 days in the fridge. Timing is everything!

To brine or not to brine?

Whether or not to brine your turkey is a personal choice. If you choose to slow roast (more details on that below), the meat will be nice and tender, brine or no brine. If you choose a regular roast, then a brine will add some extra tenderness and extra juiciness and is recommended.

There are two main types of brining. Here are instructions for both:

Wet brine a turkey. For a super juicy bird.

Mix salt and water together until dissolved in a bowl or pot big enough for the turkey. The weight of the salt should be 5% of the total weight of the solution. That’s 1-¼ oz of salt per quart of water.

Infuse it with spices if you’d like. Think bay leaves, peppercorn, anise, rosemary, garlic, orange zest, chilis, brown sugar, molasses, etc. Add the ingredients of your choosing to the salt water solution, heat to a boil, and then cool.

Add the turkey to the brine. Keep it cold and let it soak for 8-18 hours. Then, remove from the brine, rinse with cold water, pat dry, and then cook.

Dry brine a turkey. For a tender bird with crispy skin. Easier than a wet brine.

Start with a thawed or partially thawed bird. Pat dry and rub generously with salt. If you want to infuse some extra flavor, consider mixing some herbs and spices with the salt.

Refrigerate uncovered (or loosely covered) for 1 hour per pound. So, for a 12 pound bird, plan for 12 hours in the fridge.

No need to rinse. The salt should dissolve while the brining magic happens.

Should I stuff my turkey?

Stuffing a turkey is optional. However, serving stuffing with your turkey is definitely recommended!

A word of warning. To cook stuffing inside the bird to the right temperature, you may end up with overcooked meat. This is why I prefer to make the stuffing separately. On the other hand, the flavor you get with stuffing cooked in a turkey is exceptional. A tough Thanksgiving choice for sure!

Instead of stuffing with stuffing, consider adding a little flavor here by stuffing your turkey with chopped onions, garlic, celery, apples, oranges, or lemons.

What should I season my turkey with? How do I prep it for cooking?

For golden brown, crispy skin, I recommend coating your turkey with fat first.

Use about ½ cup of butter, ghee, sunflower oil, or your favorite cooking fat. Rub or brush it all over the outside of the bird. Be generous!

Then, for added flavor, I recommend seasoning your bird inside and out before cooking.

If you did NOT brine the turkey, rub salt, herbs, and spices of your choosing all over the outside and interior cavity.

If you brined the turkey, no salt is needed at this point. Just rub in herbs and spices.

Traditional herbs and spices that go great with Thanksgiving turkey are parsley, thyme, rosemary, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Or, put a tropical twist on your bird with some lime zest, cumin, and coriander!

Then, you can truss the turkey. This is optional but does encourage even cooking.

Tuck the wing tips behind the bird’s shoulders. Tie the ankle together with kitchen twine of unflavored dental floss.

Will I do a regular roast or slow roast?

There are many ways to cook a turkey. Miller's recommends a low and slow cooking method. This will give the juiciest bird with the most collagen broken down into health-enhancing collagen. No matter whether you choose a slow or regular roast, the instructions are the same for cooking:

Let it rest. Always let your turkey rest at room temperature for about an hour before cooking. While it’s resting, preheat your oven to 350F.

Put it in the oven. Place turkey breast side up in a roasting rack. Loosely cover with a lid or aluminum foil.

Halfway through baking, remove the lid/foil. This will make for crispy skin.

Baste every 30-60 minutes (optional). Don’t let those pan drippings go to waste!

Slow Roasting Cooking Temp & Times: Preheat the oven to 350F. Turn down the heat to 250F when the turkey goes in the oven. Cook at 250F for 30-45 minutes per pound. So, a 12lb bird would take 6 hours to cook.

Regular Roasting Cooking Temp & Times: Preheat the oven to 350F. Cook at 350F for 13 minutes per pound. So, a 12lb bird would take 2.5-3 hours to cook.

You know your turkey is done when a thermometer reads 165F in the thickest part of the bird.

When should I put my turkey in the oven?

Timing is everything! I mean, the worst case Thanksgiving scenario is that everything is ready for dinner, but the turkey still is not cooked. Here's how to know when to put your turkey in:

Decide what time you want to eat.
Find out the weight of your bird.
Choose whether you'll do a slow or regular roast.
Calculate how much time will be needed using the "Cooking Temp & Times" guidelines above. Add an extra 30-60 minutes just to be safe.
Subtract the time needed from the time you want to eat. Then, you'll know when to put the turkey in the oven!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving turkey!

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? What are your favorite Thanksgiving tradition(s) or dish(es)?

I’d love to hear from you. Join the conversation below (no account requireed) or contact us.

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Our bone broth tested A+++ for heavy metals 🥳 NATURAL AND CLEAN

*Originally published on 3/14/25. Updated on 4/15/25. Over the past few months a bunch of people asked us if we tested our bone broth for toxic heavy metals. When we get the same question a lot, we of course look into it. My first question was --- Is there an issue with toxic metals in bone broth? As it turns out, yes, there "can" be an issue! Heavy metals are naturally present in our environment. We need the "good" heavy metals to thrive: iron, zinc, magnesium, copper, etc. But, we can 100% do without the toxic heavy metals: arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, etc. Too many toxic heavy metals can lead to a host of pretty awful issues: nervous system damage, cardiovascular issues, cancer, endocrine disruption, kidney damage, and so on. Our body is designed to excrete heavy metals through urine (and a little bit through sweat, hair, and breastmilk too)... but only so much. There's a limit. If you're overloaded, your body will store those heavy metals in your bones, blood, tissues, and organs. Similarly, if an animal is exposed to heavy metals via food, water, air, dust, or soil, those heavy metals accumulate in the body. Depending on the metal, it can accumulate in the bones, muscle, skin, brain, etc. Maybe the farm's soil or air is contaminated from a nearby factory. Maybe the pipes for the water has lead solder connecting them. Maybe the feed a farm is buying was grown on contaminated soil or processed on contaminated equipment. And, of course, a main purpose of bone broth is drawing out as much as possible from the bones. If there are heavy metals in bones, they will make their way into the broth. This is especially true when you use apple cider vinegar to draw everything out and make it thick and gelatinous and nutrient rich (like our broth). And that led me to my second question --- Should I be concerned about every bone broth? Where is the fear coming from? Well... it seems it might be a little political. There was a study done in the UK in 2013 that scared a lot of people. It's titled "The Risk of Lead Contamination in Bone Broth Diets". This study found high levels of lead in organic chicken bone broth, which is quite concerning. And, in fact, this one study is still cited in articles written today! Let's dig a little deeper. Let's go farther than the short abstract. Here are the broths tested in the study and their test results for lead: (9.5 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus skin and cartilage(7.01 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus bones(2.3 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus meat(0.89 parts per billion): Tap water alone cooked for the same amount of time as a control. But, they only used organic chicken from one farm. And, there's zero information about that farm, their practices, the feed, and the broth recipe. Did they use vinegar or wine in the broth? Was the chicken's water contaminated with lead? What was the quality of the feed and the soil? Were the chickens raised indoors or outdoors? So many unanswered questions! All we get is that it was one "organic chicken" that created a lead issue with broth. Another curious thing is that the broth with skin and cartilage contained more lead than the broth made with just bones. Bones are where lead is stored, so why wouldn't the broth made with bones only contain more lead? It's an odd result. Moreover, the abstract of the study specifically called out "bone broth diets" like GAPS and paleo. They even go so far as to write, "In view of the dangers of lead consumption to the human body, we recommend that doctors and nutritionists take the risk of lead contamination into consideration when advising patients about bone broth diets." That's quite curious. Why are they worried about these diets? Are the researchers anti healing through food? Who funded the research? Is it political? My opinion? This study is not comprehensive. It does not speak to all bone broths. But it does cover a potential issue if the water or animals are overloaded with heavy metals. And, as we know, our poor planet is becoming more and more contaminated with toxins like these toxic heavy metals 😢 What I glean from this study is that we need more research. We need to stay vigilant and test from time to time. We don't need fear to spread and people to stop drinking broth from this one study. Regardless of whether the fear was fabricated or legit, we tested our bone broth anyway. After all, it's always nice to validate that your food choices are as clean as you think. For Miller's, here were my concerns before testing: What if there's mercury in the fishmeal in our chicken feed?What if the soil that our animals live on is contaminated?What is the well water that the broth is made with is contaminated?What if the Celtic sea salt has lots of heavy metals? We actually tested twice. As it turns out, the first test results from March had a LOQ (limit of quantification) that was to high. So, we sent new products in April for testing at a lower LOQ. The results are in! Our bone broth tested A+++ for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. You can find the actual Eurofins test results right here! For easy reference, here's a chart summarizing the results: You'll notice that, for every sample, the results are "<2.0 μg/kg" and "<4.0 μg/kg". The "<" indicates the limit of quantification (LOQ), the lowest concentration that can be accurately tested using the test procedure in that sample type. So if a "<" result appears, it means that none of that metal was found in the sample above the specific reporting LOQ. Whether or not they were present below this LOQ is information that's not provided by the test. It's also important to note that a μg/kg is a part per billion (ppb). So, for 1 μg/kg, in every billion grams of that food, there would be one gram (or 0.0000001%) of that particular heavy metal. The small numbers matter when it comes to toxic heavy metals, since it doesn't take all that much for your body to become inundated and start experiencing issues or damage. These results are excellent. It means the broth definitely isn't overloaded with toxic heavy metals and are within safe levels. Our amazing customers mentioned Mike Adams to me numerous times after we released the first set of broth results. Mike Adams is an outspoken consumer health advocate, investigative journalist, activist, and science lab director. It turns out Eurofins, the lab we used, is a lab that he recommends. Moreover, our results land us in his highest rating when it comes to heavy metals! I think we're doing pretty great when it comes to providing clean, natural food. But, one result did make me pause. You might be thinking what I first thought -- "But wait, you got a reading above 4.0 μg/kg for arsenic. Isn't that bad?" Let's dive in -- What's up with arsenic? First off, it's important to note that there are organic forms of arsenic as well as inorganic forms. Our body can handle the organic kind pretty well. But, the inorganic kind is carcinogenic. Our test results show the level of all arsenic, and it doesn't divide inorganic and organic. Second, as you can see from the Health Ranger rating above, your body can tolerate way more arsenic than the other three toxic heavy metals. It can handle 6x more than cadmium, 25x more than lead, and 103x more than mercury. Third, it was a mystery to me how arsenic had a reading in the ground beef but not the beef bone broth. Thankfully, that has a pretty easy explanation. Whereas lead mainly accumulates in the bones, arsenic accumulates more in the organs and muscles. And, of course, meat is muscle. And finally, it was also quite perplexing how arsenic showed in our beef as well as our chicken. You see, our beef and chicken are grown on two separate farms (hours apart) and are processed at two separate processors (also hours apart). They're fed two completely separate diets, too! My only explanation is farmland in general or maybe even our environment in general. Organic arsenic has always been naturally present in the soil and water. It's just there in small amounts. But, levels nowadays are likely higher due to overuse of products laden with inorganic arsenic over time. Starting in the 1940s, conventional farmers would include drugs filled with inorganic arsenic in the feed for pigs and chickens and turkeys to encourage fast growth and prevent disease. Ugh. This actually led to concerns about arsenic poisoning, and that that practice was banned recently, in 2016. It makes me think that all the agri-waste has contaminated our farmland a bit, perhaps in both the soil and water. And then of course there are synthetic pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers that may contain inorganic arsenic. And their use on conventional farms might runoff everywhere else. Since our meats are grown on farms that have been naturally managed for some time, I think that's why our arsenic levels were so low, especially compared to conventional meat. Now, let's compare our results to food in general. Ours are extremely low. The data below is based on a few scientific studies: Arsenic: Rice contains anywhere from 90-450 ppb (that includes that rice cereal for babies, too). Meat and poultry in general typically contain 100-200 ppb. The max ours has is 6.8 ppb.Cadmium: Spinach contains 117-222 ppb. Rice contains 6-19 ppb. Meat and poultry in general contain about 10 ppb. Our has less than 2 ppb.Lead: Meat and poultry in general contain about 25 ppb. Our has less than 4 ppb.Mercury: The larger the fish, the more time it has to accumulate mercury. Swordfish and king mackerel can have about 1,000 ppb. Meat and poultry in general contain about 10-50 ppb. Ours has less than 2ppb. Wow! Putting that into perspective, it looks like our broth and meat are quite clean and extremely low in toxic heavy metals! Are you satisfied with our heavy metal results? Do you think we should take further action? Should we test other products? Do you worry about toxic metals (or other junk) in your food? Where have your fears stemmed from? I'd love to hear from you. You can comment below (no account required) or contact us 😊 ----- Sources The risk of lead contamination in bone broth dietsBone Broth and Lead Toxicity: Should You Be Concerned?Bone Broth and Lead Contamination: A Very Flawed Study in Medical HypothesesBone Broth, Collagen, and Toxic Metals: A Research ReviewInorganic arsenic toxicosis in a beef herd Consumer Wellness Center Labs Heavy Metal RatingsArsenic in Meat and Animal ProductsInorganic arsenic toxicosis in a beef herdArsenic in brown rice: do the benefits outweigh the risks?A Survey of the Levels of Selected Metals in U.S. Meat, Poultry, and Siluriformes Fish Samples Taken at Slaughter and Retail, 2017–2022Arsenic in your foodDietary exposure to cadmium from six common foods in the United StatesMercury Content in Commercially Available Finfish in the United States Author links open overlay panel

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I was misinformed. At some point, I read that raw milk contains lactase. As it turns out, this is not true! It is true that raw milk contains many live enzymes that are inactivated during pasteurization. But, what about lactase? I’ve heard many anecdotal stories from people who are lactose intolerant... but can handle raw milk or fermented dairy. If raw milk, yogurt, kefir, or cheese doesn’t contain lactase, then why is that?

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Tips on how to thaw, prep, and cook your pastured Thanksgiving turkey.

When do I need to thaw my turkey?

To brine or not to brine?

Should I stuff my turkey?

What should I season my turkey with? How do I prep it for cooking?

Will I do a regular roast or slow roast?

When should I put my turkey in the oven?

Enjoy your Thanksgiving turkey!

More from the blog

Our bone broth tested A+++ for heavy metals 🥳 NATURAL AND CLEAN

Raw milk or fermented dairy and lactose intolerance. Why might it help?

Celebrating the Heritage of Corn on National Popcorn Lovers Day

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