Why isn't more turkey eaten year-round? Informal survey.

[Dar]

I cant speak for all generations...but i will say for my friends who are in the same age bracket as I am (25 - 40) a lot (not all) of them dont know how to cook a turkey "from scratch"

Friend #1.. only buys the stuffed breast thats pre cooked because she has no clue how to cook a "real" turkey
Friend #2.. She called me on thanksgiving morning (I am Canadian so this was back in October) but she had no idea about the neck and the gizzards being stuffed back inside the bird she called me all freaked out..what the heck is this?
Friend #3 her family is simply not big enough she was raised by a single mom, she has one child now and her DH no other family

and MP makes a good point... a lot of the weight is bone so why would you want to lug this big gahonna out on a typical sunday morning for dinner sunday night? and then spend hours cleaning up after once turkey induced coma has set in...

for me... DH HATES turkey so we dont have it very often

 

[PeeperKeeper]

Years ago....We only had turkey available in the markets around this time of year. It was always a large arduous work of love to get it cooked. I think it is eaten more through out the year now then you are aware of. Turkey lunchmeat, turkey bacon, ground turkey, turkey ham and what about all those sub sandwiches!
I even have the Thursday Cracker Barrel special, "Turkey with Dressing" , at least 3 to 4 times a year.
I think having the availability of turkey breasts has also made it easier to have turkey through out the year. Easy to handle, not so much leftovers and I believe JennieO"s is still in business!

 

[brandywine]

This time of year, whole turkeys are absurdly cheap as the grocery stores use them as a loss leader.

Rest of the year, they are more expensive than chicken.

This creates a consumer perception that the chicken is a better value the rest of the year.

And if you are eating only industrial birds, where the predominant taste is whatever sauce you pour on it, this is pretty accurate. (We call store chicken "feathered tofu" here.)

It is certainly cheaper to raise cornish cross meat chickens -- in terms of absolute time, space required, and feed conversion ration -- than broad-breasted white turkeys.

I put two extra commercial frozen turkeys in my freezer this year. At 59 cents a pound, how could I not? I'll thaw and section them, using the breast for tetrazini, the wings for grilling, and cut up most of the rest for the dogs, as I feed a raw diet.

The same day, turkey backs were 89 cents at the same store. How crazy is that?

 

[thndrdancr]

I know for us, the only reason we dont have turkey more often is the time it takes to THAW, which means planning to cook it 3 to 4 days ahead of time.

If it thawed in half a day, we would most likely have lots more of it, I love it and so does dh.

 

[lauralou]

For me, the reason is price. As another poster said, turkeys are absurdly cheap around the holidays. I buy 2 at each holiday. I only cook one, so we have the extras to eat at other times.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I think the cooking/prep time is a big factor, I don't normally cook things that take a few hours unless they go in the crockpot. I don't think our electric bill could handle having turkey once a month

 

[doubled]

i was having this discussion with my GF yesterday and one of our conclusions is that alot of turkey isn't cooked right. now don't get me wrong, i'm not saying all of america is bad cooks, i just think MOST people don't know how to cool a turkey very well. it may taste good enough but it is usually it is too dry. not the "i can't eat this because it's the consistency of cardboard" kind of dry but the "mmm this is good, please pass the gravy" kind of dry that you are willing to eat and "enjoy"(put up with) because it is the holiday and that is what you are supposed to do...

 

[cassie]

We eat turkey several times a year. Or at least we used to. Since we started raising the Cornish X chickens and getting them up to large roaster size we haven't bought a turkey. I would buy the largest turkey I could find, even for just the two of us because it isn't any more work to cook a big one than a little one, and I know LOTS of ways to fix the leftovers.

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
I know turkey backs are what is left when they sell the breast separately. If it's like chicken, the breast is considered the most in demand, then the thighs/drumsticks, then the wings. So, if you sell chickens for breast meat what do you do with the rest of the chicken? YOu sell the backs for nothing.

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm sorry, I cannot put a number on it... I'll eat ground turkey in a heartbeat, however, I'm not fond of any other type of turkey. It's simply too dry. My problem is that turkey used to be so cheap, and now it's so expensive. I'd sooner just by the ground beef, since it's the same price. There's no particular reason behind it really, probably just me being spiteful, lol.