Turkey Cooking Instructions

All donations of turkeys must be fully cooked and delivered Thanksgiving morning, November 25, to:
Metro Café
603 Arizona Ave., Santa Monica
Please drop them off between 8am-11am

Anyone Can Cook a Turkey!
It's simple and easy. Just follow our recipe below, or lookup your favorite.

Turkey Roasting Instructions:

1. Buy a disposable roasting pan if you don't have one. The turkey will be frozen, and it takes about three days to thaw in the refrigerator. If you can’t get it early enough to thaw in fridge, thawing in a tub of cold water can be a back-up plan (takes about 8 hours).

2. Give yourself up to ten hours roasting time. Begin by removing the neck and giblets from the cavity of the turkey. Wash it inside and out with water. Let it drain, wipe dry with paper towel, then salt and pepper the inside cavity (additional seasoning is acceptable, but not mandatory). Put the turkey into the roasting pan. Do not cover the bird.

3. Do NOT stuff the turkey! For health and safety reasons, we cannot accept stuffed turkeys.

4. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Put the turkey in the oven. Check your turkey at about 9-10 hours later. If you are using a meat thermometer, it should read between 190-195 degrees F (or 165 degrees at innermost part of thigh or thickest part of breast). If you do not have a thermometer, you can stick a skewer or fork in the leg down to the bone. Check to see if the juices which run out are clear (no red juices). If it is not done, turn up the temperature to 350 degrees F and cook until done. Just put it in the oven Wednesday night, and bring it early Thursday.

5. When done, remove it from the oven and wrap it in foil, and a heavy garbage bag.  The plastic garbage bag will keep the juices from running all over your car. Careful it's HOT!

6. We will be carving the turkeys at Metropolis on Thursday morning. The turkey must arrive HOT! If you have a long drive, put it in a insulated box (ice chest, etc.) to keep it HOT. Keep it safe. Keep it HOT, HOT, HOT!