Frozen turkey v fresh turkey

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

I always buy a turkey crown for Xmas day. I usually pay about £60 for a fresh one about a week before Christmas, freeze it and then defrost it ready for Xmas day. It occurred to me today to look at the prices of frozen turkeys. The same size is £35! So what is the difference between my fresh turkey that I then freeze or a pre frozen one?
I always pre freeze as I hate having a huge turkey taking up room in my fridge the few days before christmas

[Isildur]

I don't think there is any difference between a bog standard supermarket frozen vs. fresh turkey.

Mine is sitting in the freezer right now!

I'm a mediocre cook, so I can't bring myself to pay £80+ for something that will be cooked to oblivion anyway .

[WilsonFrickett]

Wow, that's Are both turkeys from the same place (ie both supermarket, as opposed to one being free-range slow-grown)? I would never have thought it would be that much of a difference!

[schmalex]

I expect it's just cheaper to produce frozen ones because they can be slaughtered at any time of year. Whereas there's more waste with fresh ones as they all have to be ready at the same time?
I'd also guess that frozen ones are more at the bog standard end of the range while fresh ones are the posh organic / free range / etc.
Not sure about taste/texture. I would have thought fresh would have a better texture but I haven't tried frozen.
I'm doing a goose this year anyway...

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

We usually buy fresh but this year intend to BBQ our turkey so I bought a frozen one to do a practice run on. It was the best tasting and most succulent turkey ever. So I'm just gong to buy a frozen one now and save myself a fortune.

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

We bought a tesco finest bronze by the way.

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

Yes both turkeys from waitrose

[WilsonFrickett]

Tell me more about the BBQing Angels? We may have guests and not having to oven the turkey would be a big help...

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

BBQ turkey. We use a weber kettle charcoal BBQ with a temperature gauge and a chimney starter. Because it's a kettle you can cook in all weathers.

When turkey defrosted rub all over with sea salt and put in fridge uncovered for 12 hours.

Cook the turkey, breast down in a foil tray containing, carrots , onions, celery, chicken stock and sage and rosemary for an hour on indirect heat. At this point add some more hot coals that you have prepared in the chimney starter. Then carry on cooking for about an hour and a half breast up also indirect.

We used a meat thermometer to double check it was done.

It had a lovely crispy skin which I struggle to get with an oven cooked turkey.

The stock made a tasty gravy with a dash of Jack Daniels added!

The instructions said to use hickory chips but I didn't want smoked turkey so we left them out. It also said to just add cold coals when you turn the turkey over but we found the temperature dropped too much so will add the hot coals next time.

The detailed method and temperatures are in the weber cook book but I'm sure a google search will give you loads of recipes.

It was so easy and really was the best tasting turkey I've ever eaten.

I haven't cooked a chicken in my oven since we bought the weber BBQ. Beer can chicken is another favourite and it's a good way to practice keeping the BBQ at a constant temperature before you attempt a turkey.

[WilsonFrickett]

Thanks Angels, we have a gas bbq so even temp shouldn't be too hard. Will have another google.

[cece]

Last year I bought a rolled turkey (deboned) from the butchers. 1.5 kilos was enough for two meals for 6 of us. Cost me £17 odd and was less than 2 hours in the oven (from what I remember. It was really moist too. So I'm getting another one of those ordered for this year too.

[buttonsforbreakfast]

Since the Christmas we ordered an organic turkey from the local butchers which cost almost £100 (they estimated it would be £60 but then charged us £90 something on xmas eve, thieving gits...) I now buy frozen from Lidl - I'm pretty sure they are free range - and I've not noticed a difference in taste or texture, just price

[Shodawnofthedead]

We swapped from an organic, free range, bits-of-feathers-still-in £80 turkey to a £35 Sainsbury's free range frozen one.

IMO, the Sainsbury's one was far better.

[WilsonFrickett]

To be honest, there's only three of of us so for the last two years I've got a chicken. But I'm hoping there will be more people this year so I can do a turky

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

Brill I'm going to go ahead and get a free range frozen one and spend the spare £20 on booze!

[midori1999]

We always buy a fresh turkey for half price on Christmas Eve.