All frozen turkeys have this. The innards come out easily after thawing. I don't care for the gravy packets so toss them. But I use the neck and other innards for stock for my homemade gravy.

On another note DGD prepped and roasted her first turkey this year. DD videoed the whole thing. She's 8. When she pulled out the neck it was quite large also and pretty straight. She thought it was a penis. Burst into giggles. Creeped out her little brother who backed slowly out of the kitchen with hands protectively over his boy parts. Interesting that she was quite fine with that but when DD explained to her that it was a neck she dropped it like a hot potato and said "It's a NECK? Oh Ick. We have to to get rid of it."

Not sure I would want to use bag of gravy . Think I would make my own with drippings. Imagine your home smells wonderful while turkey cooks. Love the smell when I cook turkey.

Our first Thanksgiving together was a Canadian Thanksgiving in US. I bought the turkey, cooked it, we carved it... Wait, there's a plastic bag of giblets, neck, etc?? No answer did you, but thanks for the memory. Now we always check!

I've never eaten the gravy. I simmer the neck with celery, onion, and thyme to make turkey stock for the gravy.

I've never had a whole turkey come with a gravy packet and it's too easy to make my own with all the drippings (and giblets if I want). But I have bought turkey breasts that come with a gravy packet because they tend to generate very little drippings and of course no giblets, etc. so very little to work with to make homemade.

If the gravy packets from the whole bird are anything like the ones that come with the breasts, they are perfectly edible. Not as good as homemade but much better than those mixes. Even a little bit of drippings will help the flavor and I usually add broth for any additional liquid required.

Trader Joe's has a seasonal boxed turkey gravy that is very good....'boxed' like with boxed soups. Kind of a nice thing to have on hand.....just in case. And with a decent shelf life.

I always throw out that gravy package.

My first time with Jenny-O brand, also. I usually get Honeysuckle but didn't see them. We were satisfied. I always discard the bag of innards, so didn't notice if it included gravy mix. But I wouldn't use it, regardless. Gravy is drippings, butter & flour for me. Every turkey as long as I can remember has that plastic hanger embedded in its rump -- always a pain to remove.

This year, I cut the leg quarters off and removed the backbone, and roasted the white meat separately from the dark. So much easier than doing a whole bird, this will be my default method from here on it!

I've purchased several JennieO's turkeys in the past and always used the gravy packet. Added it to the turkey broth made from the neck & gizzard & pan drippings. (I love eating the neck meat--great flavor.). My understanding is that it was gravy 'fixings', not gravy. Gravy always turned out great.

That said, from what I read, the gravy packet has been changed this year. I read a lot of complaints about it not being up to the quality of the packet in the past.

That plastic piece, it's actually nylon, has been in Jennie O's for years. It's called a 'hock lock'. I've never had a problem wrestling it out of the bird. I always remove because I stuff the turkey. Technically, you don't have to remove it. Can roast the bird with it in place. Makes for a nicer presentation if you care about that. We always carve the turkey ahead and serve buffet style.

This year, my son bought the turkey AND cooked it. I don't know what brand it was & he didn't say anything about a gravy packet & I didn't think to ask. I made the gravy from neck & giblet broth.

Wait, they're adding a bag of gravy that most people throw away - which is included in the weight of the turkey you're paying for by the pound? Add that up for all the turkeys they sell...sounds like a good way to put their thumb on the scales. I would forgo any turkey packaged like that, if I knew and if I had a choice AND I'd write to the company to complain.

This year, first time ever, I bought a Jennie-O roast-in-bag turkey breast. It did come with a bag of gravy base, but no parts. Actually, it turned out fine for our family of three. The problem arose when the Cornish hens I’d gotten for the 2 Zooming-at-dinner boys didn’t thaw, so I had to share our breast. No seconds or leftover for anyone. (We did, though, make the hens for dinner tonight, for us 3, and with the leftover sides was a nice dinner.)

Jennie O turkeys are sold both with and without the gravy packet. Clearly labeled on the packaged turkey.

If you can't read the label, then you won't be able to write to complain.

Or you can pay 30-40 cents more per pound & get a Butterball or Honeysuckle White. Or even more & get a fresh turkey. Or a lot, lot more & get a freshly killed organic turkey from the organic farm.

Or go shoot a wild one. Quadruple guaranteed to not have a gravy packet inside. But your dog might disagree w/ me on that point.

I dont buy turkeys with bags of "gravy" inside but I do consider them to be a bag of water at turkey prices. I dont used boxed gravy mix because it is essentially bullion cubes with thickener. Mostly salt. I do cook the giblets and neck to make good broth for my gravy and thicken with cornstarch. I could use cooked flour and butter but I like the clean taste of the turkey stock. It works. I hate those nylon things almost as bad as the metal ones. So hard on the hands to remove.

The turkey is pretty good. I decided to have a little. I also decided to give the turkey gravy in the bag a try. It is still on the stove, heating up. I added the directed amount of drippings and the neck meat. I did a quick taste test and it was okay.

I bought this one for delivery online, didn't notice the gravy in a bag, wasn't paying that much attention. I was just looking for a very small turkey and the other brand I noticed on there were bigger. I also ordered a 1 oz. bag of Skinny Pop apparently, not realizing it wasn't one of the bigger bags, even though the price was a little over a dollar and not $3 or $4 or whatever the big bags are.

I had a Jennie O for the first time this year. I was easily able to stuff the turkey leaving the plastic piece on and it was easy to remove after cooking. It wasnt the best turkey I have had but it was good. There was no gravy included unless it was in the giblet bag and I threw that away.

Satine, wasn't the same bag, there was the giblet bag made of a paper-like material and the gravy was in a separate, long, plastic bag.

Where TH is all the snark-asm (/sarcasm) coming from today? Seriously, was there any reason for: if you can't read the label, you can't complain?

A lot of us are ordering groceries online! You can't see the bird, or read the labeling.

I am grateful we are here, relatively healthy, and HAVE FOOD to eat!

That dang plastic seems to be everywhere, these days, doesn't it.

If you got "bullion" in your turkey, instead of "bouillion", patricia, I doubt that you'd be unhappy as you headied for the precious metals shop ... maybe figure it another reason for celebrating Thanksgiving in a stressful year!

ole joyful

Even if the gravy is just some flour and spices, it seems to me that processing it and packaging it has some cost to the company. I guess that if I wanted to decide for myself whether the inclusion of the packet was an attempt to just up the cost or whether it was a genuine extra meant to please the buyer, I'd compare the cost of making the gravy packet and getting it shipped and into the bird at packaging time, with the equivalent weight of turkey. I would just guess that because of time planning, shipping, packaging and physically including a 4 ounce packet (or whatever it is) would cost the company significantly more than the production costs of 4 ounces of turkey.

The packet may not be delicious enough for some to use, but that is a different question than the intent of the seller in its inclusion.

And of course there is the question of fact, and I do not know the answer offhand, as to exactly what the weight on the package of a turkey sold by the pound refers to. Does it include the gravy?

exactly what the weight on the package of a turkey sold by the pound refers to ...

to be honest, neither do I. I assume the whole package is weighed and label printed only after everything is put in ... innard pack, neck, gravy, plastic bits, and always seems to be a large chunk of ice in my birds so plenty of water, too. Thinking of how a turkey processing plant works (thank you poultry workers for doing this work so we don't have to!), I don't see how they'd track the weight of an individual carcass through the rest of the packing process. But I don't worry about it -- my turkeys are either free from the grocery based on how many "points" we've earned, or 29 cents per pound in the week before Thanksgiving.

Gravy pack inside the turkey? Ew! Every turkey I've ever bought has had the neck and giblets inside the birds cavity. It's the first thing I look for. The giblets go directly to the trash, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Gross! The neck I use to make the stuffing. I always make so much stuffing I need an extra pan to cook it separately. I put the neck on top with some drippings from the turkey and toss it in the oven an hour before the bird is done then mix that with what was inside the turkey. As for the plastic, they started doing that a few years ago and I don't know why other than to frustrate the cook....

I've never worried about the cost of the gravy packet in a Jennie O because, in years past, Jennie O's were the usual loss leader brand selling for from $0.38-$0.67 per pound. And I always used the packet anyway, with no qualms. Even if I tossed it, I was getting a bargain price. Certainly not worth my time to write a letter & complain about Jennie O putting a thumb on the scale. Heck, you could give me a free live turkey & I wouldn't want to kill it & clean it for what I would save vs what it costs to buy a ready to cook Jennie O/ X Brand bird from the meat case.

As for the plastic, they started doing that a few years ago and I don't know why other than to frustrate the cook....

I suspect the 'hock lock' is primarily for packaging reasons. To keep the end of the leg bones from possibly poking thru the plastic? and to make a more compact pkg of the birds to conserve freezer space.

I wrap the cavity stuffing in a cheesecloth bundle before inserting into the bird so I remove the hock lock to have better access. I leave a cheesecloth tail on the package so it is easy to pull out of the roasted bird. This leaves the carcass clean for when I use it to make additional broth for the freezer. Always disliked having bits of stuffing clouding up the broth before hitting upon this solution.

I've never worried about the cost of the gravy packet in a Jennie O

My curiosity is intellectual. I did brief search and still do not know exactly what the quoted weight on the tag refers to, whether it includes the gravy and packaging.

I did see references to injected fluids, which turkeys and meat often get to plump them up and make them moister, that at a certain amount, the fact that a certain percent of the sold product has fluids added must be disclosed. The plumping in fowl can amount to 15% and more so it is significant.

I did brief search and still do not know exactly what the quoted weight on the tag refers to, whether it includes the gravy and packaging.

Lucille, I do not know, either. But my assumption has always been that it was the total weight of the turkey package (giblets, gravy, brine solution injected into the turkey, packaging & the odd chunks of ice). (I don't see how it would be practical for the packager to be able to exclude that & get the correct weight of just the bird on the package tag.) One could subtract all that stuff that you can, weigh the bird & compare w/ the labeled weight & know for sure. (Limit to my kitchen scale is 11#'s, too.) I never cared enough to know since I buy a whole turkey once & at most, twice a year. Along with the price of a whole turkey being even less per # than whole chickens to start with.

I'm a lot more conscious of pricing for things I buy on a regular basis. As in, once I wasn't paying attn & mistakenly bought a package of chicken breasts at Aldi. They were the 'enhanced' ones, pumped up w/ a broth solution. When I opened the pkg the next day, the chkn was swimming in liquid. I poured off the liquid into a container, added the saturated absorbent pads & weighed the mess (tared, of course). Forget the amt's but do remember that the weight was FAR in excess of the stated '12%' (broth solution). Yes, I did the math! I was rather pissed. At myself for buying them & with Aldi because the solution far exceeded what the label said. Because marketing departments bank on people being too stupid/ too lazy to do the math. And because the product was marginally edible. You were not going to pound one of the breasts without wearing a raincoat, face shield & hood!

Now, I watch like a hawk & refuse to buy 'enhanced' beef, pork, chicken. It's a big source of excess sodium, really is cheating AFAIC & the 'enhancements' are anything but. Alters both the flavor & texture of the meat & not for the good.

So next time anyone has a frozen turkey and a scale, can they please weigh it and let us know how closely it matches the label? LOL if I can remember next time I buy one, I'll do it...!

I didn't know about the "gravy bag" inside a turkey. Interesting. ☺ Glad it was edible.

I haven't got a turkey that had the gravy mix in it. Anyone know what is in it? I'd be throwing it away if I didn't know.

And yes - that plastic bit, you can;t even cut it with a pair of scissors.

I buy the loss-leader store brand turkeys, which always have a gravy bag, and I always toss the gravy bag. My DD, who was volunteering at a community kitchen, asked if she could take it, so I said, "Go for it." I simmer the giblets and neck for broth to mix with the stuffing, then the cats get the cooled giblets. When I have time I strip the neck meat and chop it to add to gravy. I made two pans of stuffing (dressing? since I don't stuff the bird), so had to break out a box of chicken broth. I leave the plastic piece until time to clean the carcass. Pan drippings, degreased, make lots of gravy for left-overs.

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess the bird isn't weighed until after it's sealed in the plastic cover. The weight tag is obviously added after that, so how would anyone know the weight of the bird without the gravy bag, unless the standard weight for a gravy bag is automatically deducted by the scale. My money is on our being charged for the weight of the gravy bag.

My experience with the packages of fluid is DH family Thanksgivings. What ever brand they bought were injected with tons of fluid and then a bag of whatsit was put inside. They cooked the turkey in a closed roaster basically boiling it and then used the package of salty whatsit to add to the "gravy" I would watch this process and cringe. Gravy was made by dumping flour into a jar and pouring in whatsit and shaking it up, they would pour off the fluid from the turkey roaster and boil it all up as gravy. They were perfectly happy with this and the heated up canned "yams" and I ate it and smiled. Nice people. We all have our own cooking traditions. People did eat my offerings-after the first year. Only a few were brave enough to eat alien food at first.

Stuffing is so fraught. You will never get dressing as good but it is so bad for the breast. I would stuff the neck but not the cavity when I used to do fresh turkey. Just enough dressing for one meal for two or three and do the rest separately. I am of the decided opinion that injecting water does not make meat moist. It makes it watery and it will never ever roast properly. That is my opinion. I do a salt and herb pack these days, then rinse, dry, and eight hour smoke. Very moist. You dont have to smoke though.