Organic free range turkey

[gort]

Thoughts on an organic free range turkey over cheaper standard bird from a supermarket?

Blurb says how much nicer it is but is mucho expensivo!
Want a whole turkey over beef, duck, goose etc.

We don't go overboard at Xmas and we are quite reserved on spending compared to what other people tend to spend during this period so am considering parting with the dosh for such a bird to try.
A quick check and it looks like it'll be £100+ depending on size.

 

[tom_nieto]

Christmas is about the only time of year that we splash out on exceptional quality meat. We really should eat less meat and buy better quality from the butchers, but have limited time to shop for it (and limited freezer space).

It’s definitely worth it for poultry imo, especially for a special occasion.

Might be stating the obvious, but using a meat thermometer has helped massively with roasting meats.

 

[Jim99]

Yeah my experience is that a good thermometer will make more difference than the quality of the meat - you could buy the most amazing turkey but if you dry it out it'll taste awful.

If you've got the equipment, technique down, and cash to do it, yeah I'd happily go for a good one.

 

[ColdAsIce]

I wouldn’t waste the money on turkey, over the supermarket offering. If you were choosing beef I would pay the extra for quality.

I did goose one year, cost a load extra and it tasted no different to duck in all honesty. Except even more messier to cook due to the amount of excess fat which I kept for multiple batches of roasties.

 

[Rroff]

Personally always found Turkey bland whether fancy expensive one or standard and generally not worth the money going fancy - but my brother got one from some "award winning" place locally last year which was definitely a cut above standard but still to my tastes quite bland.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Turkey is just fitness chicken.

If you're a fat middle aged woman trying to do slimming world then fine.

 

[tom_nieto]

It also depends how many people you want to feed with a single bird. Turkey is good for feeding 6+.

I like turkey *shrugs*

 

[pre]

I know people don't like "gamey" meats - which is fair - but turkey is the side dish of xmas whenever I have it no matter the quality of animal.

 

[Jonny69]

I’ll counter some of the opinions with yes, free range / organic / locally reared does taste better. It is also tougher and needs cooking a bit lower and longer, because the bird has been running around and it has muscles that have actually been used. Only a good thing IMO.

I’ve had best results with the smallest bird I can find. The issue with cooking turkey is the sheer cross-section of meat and getting it to cook evenly and not drying it out. By choosing a small bird you go some way towards avoiding this as it’s closer to cooking a large chicken.