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When do you buy your frozen turkey?

13 years ago

I have always bought my turkey on Saturday or Sunday before Thanksgiving but sometimes it still has little ice crystals in it. I guess my question is how soon can I buy my turkey, keep it in the fridge before cooking it? I don't want it to go bad in the fridge but I would like it nice and thawed out.

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Comments (10)

caminnc
Original Author
13 years ago
Forgot to say about an 18 lb. turkey.
bulldinkie
13 years ago
Today because I had a free turkey coupon, but I wanted butterball so I got 80 cents off per pound,Im happy.
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"dcarch, would you please share more info re the J. Pippin method. Do you put the whole frozen bird into an oven set at 145? For how long do you cook the bird? I am very interested, because I cook most meat/poultry pieces in a frozen state. Have never cooked a whole chicken or turkey in the frozen state, but am most interested in doing so. Just need more information. Thanks." Jacques Pépin’s (Spellcheck keeps on changing to Pippin ) method is to cut up the turkey, similar to what’s known as spatchcock method. Basically cutting up the turkey in sections to cook, making it easier not to overcook the bird. Safety in cooking is very important. Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas many people get sick from eating improperly prepared turkey, from thawing to cooking. Many refrigerators are not cold enough to thaw a frozen turkey for a few days, and not using a thermometer is highly questionable. My method requires the use of sous vide cooking equipment, which can heat up food much faster using moving hot water at a precisely digitally controlled temperature. Temperature for cooking using sous vide electronics can be accurate to less than one degrees. This allows the turkey to be thawed and cooked much faster and cooked to known safe temperature inside and out. You cannot try to cook at a low temperature because oven hot air cannot conduct heat as fast as hot circulating water, and oven temperature can be off by as much as 40 degrees. dcarch Guaranteed perfect results for every part of the turkey
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caminnc
Original Author
13 years ago
So are you putting in the fridge or freezer? Thanks!
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
13 years ago
I was wondering the same thing earlier. The Butterball site says 4-5 days for that size, so one more day sounds perfect, certainly not long enough for it go to bad, and daggone it, it better be completely thawed this time! I'm getting ours Friday. I'll know from just looking at that chart that 21 pounds is about the limit for buying that day.
Lars
13 years ago
You can order a fresh one and then you will not have to wait for it to thaw. If you are planning to do the "dry salt" method of roasting, you will need to pick it up on Monday, November 19 to start the salting process. Personally, I am not cooking a whole turkey this year. If you wanted to dry salt a frozen turkey, you would need to start thawing it on Sunday at the latest.

Lars
donnar57
13 years ago
To answer the original question, when do I buy my frozen turkey: Whenever it's on a good sale. As long as it's frozen, I can throw it in my freezer and keep for awhile. We usually buy two or three at Thanksgiving time so that we will have a turkey for Christmas and Easter, and (if we are hosting), Thanksgiving as well.

Donn
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
13 years ago
I like that idea.
cynic
13 years ago
You can also speed the thawing by the cold water method. An 18# turkey would take about 9 hours by their chart.

Here is a link that might be useful: Turkey Thawing Hints from the National Turkey Federation
WalnutCreek Zone 7b/8a
13 years ago
I like to purchase turkey early so that I can get the small 8-10 pound ones. Usually buy two. I like the small ones, because they are younger and just more flavorful and tender to me.
cynic
13 years ago
BTW, a "fresh" turkey needs to be thawed unless you want to cook from a frozen state. All "fresh" means is that it's kept no colder than 26ÃÂ°F. A 26ÃÂ° bird still needs some thawing under most recipes, although some do cook birds from the frozen state.

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