Are frozen turkeys any good for Christmas Lunch?

buyitall

Hi all,
There will be 11 of us for Christmas lunch this year :eek:. I thought I might try to keep costs down by buying any frozen items I need while Tesco are doing their clubcard double up promotion on all frozen foods. While I was looking at the frozen food dept, I suddenly remembered about frozen turkeys! I have never considered a frozen turkey before, we normally get a fresh one from the butchers, but they have become really expensive in recent years. Basically, I could get a frozen turkey for half price from tesco using clubcard vouchers.
Anyway, I was wondering if the frozen ones are very different from fresh turkeys, this is the selection they have in tesco:
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/search/default.aspx?searchBox=Turkey&newSort=true&search.x=30&search.y=14&search=Search&N=4294697996
Thanks for any advice xx ps it does have to be turkey (not any other meat), and I do want the meal to be really nice!::)

hilstep2000

Frozen turkeys are fine. You just have to remember to get them out in time! Thery take a long time to defrost, so at least two, even three days before, get it out (if it's a big one) and cook it thoroughly as you would a fresh one.

red_devil

why not go to y0ur localbutcher and you can get advice and help from there. Tescos arent butchers.

buyitall

red_devil wrote: »

why not go to y0ur localbutcher and you can get advice and help from there. Tescos arent butchers.

That is what I normally do. I was just wondering if buying a frozen turkey is a big compromise on quality.

babyshoes

I've never noticed a difference between fresh and frozen, at least not in the middle of the road price range! That said, none of us really like roast turkey, so we may give it a skip this year. I already got a ham to cook which is now in the freezer...

lostinrates

I would personally rather get a frozen free range turkey than a butchered housed one. I have had frozen turkey a couple of times and it's been perfectly ok. It might not be as great as a free range organic beast of the fresh variety, but most of my meat is frozen in batches anyway because I buy in bulk...so even a premium fresh turkey might get a stint in th freezer till we were ready for it.

maman

buyitall wrote: »

That is what I normally do. I was just wondering if buying a frozen turkey is a big compromise on quality.

I've never bought other than a frozen turkey and our Christmas dinner's always delicious. I think by the time you've stuffed it, put bacon rashers over the breast/legs and served with all the trimmings it'll be difficult to tell the difference.

buyitall

Thanks for all the comments. For those who have bought them before - would you recommend basted or unbasted? TIA x

karren

frozen is fine, i usually get mine in oct and freeze but havent had chance this year,

DawnW

I have bought fresh and frozen (both basted and unbasted) birds over the years, and as someone else mentioned, when you add bacon, stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce etc you can't really tell the difference, unless you compare directly to a free range organic bird.

If it will make your Christmas a bit cheaper, go for it - I can't imagine that anyone will even know (or care) if you don't tell them! They will be so overwhelmed with gratitude that you have cooked it so they didn't have to :rotfl:

Just make sure it is properly defrosted before you cook it, and dry it off well with a paper towel to get nice crispy skin

Linda32

I've had a frozen turkey for just about as long as I can remember, which is the very best part of 30 years and I will continue for the next 30 years having a frozen turkey. I'm 41 now so will hopefully manage that! (I took an interest in the Christmas dinner from an early age)

Never have held with having a turkey breast either it must be the full bird. It wouldn't seem right if there wasn't a turkey defrosting on xmas eve.

Its the best meal of the year and tastes very different to any other roast of the winter IMO