The Red Cross is looking to keep you and your families safe this Thanksgiving. Officials suggest that you follow five safety tips.
- Keep an eye on what you fry and never leave food unattended. If you need to leave the kitchen even for a short amount of time turn off the stove.
- Move items that can burn away from the stove including dishtowels, bags, paper, and curtains.
- Also keep kids and pets at least 3 feet away.
- When you are frying food make sure to turn off the burner if you see smoke or if the grease starts to boil.
- Keep a pan lid or cookie sheet nearby and use it to cover the pan if it catches on fire. Leave the pan covered until it is completely cooled.
Also, With health officials urging Americans to stay home for Thanksgiving, there's a lot of new cooks looking to make their first turkey. So experts have some advice to make it smoother and keep it healthy.
- To start they say give your bird time to defrost in the fridge. Letting it thaw on the counter could cause bacteria to grow. Not to mention It takes about a day of thawing for every 4-to-5 pounds.
- After that resist any urge to rinse your turkey because this can also spread bacteria.
- Consider buying a meat thermometer since experts say the pop-up ones that come stuck inside turkeys don't always work. A turkey should be 165-degrees at it's thickest part to be done.
Finally, Pacific gas and electric also wants to keep you safe and save you money. They say fire safety is critical on thanksgiving as it is the peak day for home cooking fires especially when frying foods.
PG&E recommends that you start cooking with a clean oven to reduce the risk of a grease fire.
Keep the oven door closed once the turkey starts cooking.
Use the stove instead of the oven because range-top cooking uses less energy and plan side dishes that can cook with the turkey to reduce the amount of time the oven is on.
