Frozen Turkey - When and Where is the best to buy?

[Nifty-Chicken]

Well, we had a turkey in the freezer from last year and we decided to cook it up for the family (yeah yeah... a year old frozen turkey... sue me). The DW did a great job cooking and carving it up. We realized that per pound it ends up a pretty good deal.

Well, my mom always talked about the steal deals you could get buying a turkey at just the right time at just the right place. So, my questions are:

1) What's the price per pound I should be shooting for to get an average quality turkey?
2) What's the best TIME to get a steal deal on a turkey? Before, during, after Thanksgiving?
3) Where should I go? Just the average grocery store?

Any other thoughts / suggestions are totally appreciated.

 

[arlee453]

If you want cheap, easy to fix and relatively healthy meat, you can't beat turkey...even the frozen kind in the supermarket.

NOW is the time to get cheap turkeys to keep in the deep freeze - stores around here are advertising them at $1 or less per pound, or less than that if you buy a certain minimum order of food, etc.

They'll run the super specials again right before Christmas.

For day-to-day family use, 12-15 lb turkey will feed several meals for a family of 4. Anything much larger than that and you will have turkey so long that you never will want to eat it again

Any grocery store will do - the 'name' brands are more expensive - like Butterball, Jennie O, etc, but I don't think they are really a superior bird, just that they inject more juice in there and include that famous popup timer.

I've had great results with my turkeys, using a Reynolds Roasting bag, a stick of butter and a can of broth. It won't be picture perfectly brown like if you cook the traditional way, but with the bags you don't have to baste, and the meat is VERY moist. I put a stick of butter in the cavity of the bird and a can of chicken broth in the bottom of the bag. Then just pop in the oven for the appropriate time and dinner is served.

I love to cook turkey - people complain about it, but doing it that way it's the easiest thing in the world. The most difficult thing is washing the turkey before putting it in the bag.

 

[nccountrygirl]

Food Lion has them here for .49 a lb. you can't beat that with a stick.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Susan,

That's great info, thanks so much!

The first time I cooked one I tried to be the good son my mom would be proud of and use every single bit of meat, then boil the bones to make broth / gelatin. So much time and work I never wanted to do it again...

Then I realized, "Dummy... you don't HAVE to do all that extra stuff!" I can get my money's worth by simply doing 50% of the work and getting 80% of the goods from the Turkey.

Well, the DW just called from "Luckys" and they have 16 lb birds for $0.59 per pound... do you think I'll be able to beat that price at other times / places?

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Quote:
That may be true, but I'm sure gonna try!!!

 

[nccatnip]

I got mine at Food Lion also- 49 cents a pound. Do you think a 14lb turkey is too big for 1 person and 6 dogs?

 

[MissPrissy]

The last week of October a grocery store here had whole frozen turkey for .29 cents a pound. They used the sales pitch "buy early and save". I wondered if they were clearing out the freezer stocks of this years previous turkeys to make room for the new turkeys.

Also we wondered about the origin of the live birds. Within 2 miles of our house is a HUGE turkey farm. About 5 miles away is a second farm. We wondered if the birds had been processed locally and offered to local stores. I just don't know for sure.

We raised our own turkeys this year. It was a great experience and we'll do it again. Keep their coop clean, their water clean, plenty of food and they'll do just fine for you. However, ours wouldn't cash in at .29 cents per pound. They did consume 100 lbs of turkey ration and gallons upon gallons of water. The feed was around $20 total. We already had living space so we didn't have to build them a separate coop. We did not raise them in the same as the chickens. I think we figured it at about .67 per lbs as our own cost to raise them.

 

[DuckLady]

Safeway (up here at least) has 23 cent deal going on. That is for 17 lb and over size of Manor House.
39 cents for 10 to 15 pound Manor House.
I have been buying one a day.

Rob, your deals are here.
http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/...ts2online.com/storeReview.jsp?drpStoreID=1746

As long the turkey was wrapped and frozen properly, it is fine to use one that old.

 

[Standard Hen]

The cheapest around here that I could find this year was 59 cents a pound. I plan on getting another one or two for the freezer for winter cooking. I find very little waste between the meal itself, leftovers, soup etc.
Now we have a few fresh turkey farms in the area and I believe those birds were going from $3.00 a pound and up. I always do quite well with the frozen for the price, like nccountrygirl said, you can't beat that with a stick for what you get out of it.

 

[hinkjc]

I went to the store last night to pick up some odds and ends that I needed and they didn't have a single turkey in stock. Lots of hams tho. Thank goodness we don't eat store turkey or I would of been bummin'.

Jody