Frozen turkey crown - unacceptable?

[Birdbuggerup]

I’m a vegetarian, hosting Christmas for the first time.

I ate meat until I was 20 so I’m not precious about it and told the wider family who are coming to us that I’d happily do turkey and pigs in blankets.

I bought a frozen turkey crown, pre stuffed with bacon on it etc, believing (maybe stupidly) that this would be fairly easy. When I mentioned this at work everyone was horrified at the prospect of frozen turkey and acted like I was serving spam. Is a frozen turkey crown that bad? I thought it was quite expensive (£45 to serve 4-6) but apparently that’s pretty cheap?

I don’t want to ruin my family’s Christmas by serving something atrocious. I know they’d all say it’s fine but if I should pick up a fresh one please let me know whilst I still have time!

thanks in advance - I feel pretty bloody daft!

That’s an expensive piece of meat and should be very delicious at that price. Your colleagues are talking bollocks, don’t listen to them.

what you’ve bought is fine.
That being said, bloody expensive for what it is!!

A frozen turkey is a turkey, frozen.
I don't get what the problem is unless you plan to serve it raw 😉

Sounds absolutely fine not sure what the turkey snobs are complaining about

It will be fine. I have a frozen one from our butcher that I bought back in November, it was £25 I think and should serve 6.

I wonder if they’re thinking of the Bernard Matthews type frozen Turkey breast roasts you can get?

That's fine honestly I've gone to both ends of the turkey spectrum (normal supermarket frozen to organic hand reared within 2 miles of my house) and everything in between and quite frankly I'm sure whatever was on the plate everyone would say it was lovely just because they didn't have to cook it

DH is a great turkey cooker. I’m a veggie so happily leave it to him. I do the fancy bits like stuffing, bacon rolls (not pigs in blankets) brandy butter etc.
Over the years we have had all sorts of turkeys, some insanely expensive and for a few years we did the complicated Nigella soaking in spicy brine method. But for the last two years it’s been a Turkey Crown. He gets it from Iceland and it comes wrapped in bacon. He cooks it on Christmas Eve and heats it on Christmas Day. I don’t eat it anyway and I expect a lot of people will be shocked but the family rave about Dad’s turkey. So enjoy your turkey crown. Our mob will love theirs.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all, your workmates are just being dicks.

ROFL I have also faffed about on nigellas say so

We're having the same. It's lovely, and much easier to carve.

Really bootiful

I would freeze my turkey anyway so that I could buy it in advance

Your colleagues are being ridiculous. Add a few hours onto the defrost time, it'll be fine.

Your colleagues are being ridiculous. We have a frozen stuffed crown every year and it's delicious. I think you are being very thoughtful to serve this to your family and expect it will be scrummy. But as other posters have said make sure it is fully defrosted and follow the instructions including the resting time. You might also want to get one of the meat eaters to check it's done

I ended up with both fresh and frozen last year due to missing cut off dates with online shopping lol

I cooked the frozen one sometime in summer and it was lovely, DH and I both said how much nicer it was than the one we had at Christmas. Guess what we've got this year 😁

Like others have said, I've tried it all from cheaper, frozen supermarket versions to fresh, free range expensive versions and there has been no difference. What makes the biggest difference is how it's prepared. I do dry brining and any turkey comes out delicious with that method.

Exactly this. DH and I both dislike turkey so one year I spent an absolute fortune on an organic free range Bronze turkey to finally see if it could be nice.

It wasn't.

it will be fine! just make sure to take it out the day before and defrost in the fridge. if you want to hedge your bets, I would also buy a side of salmon and roast it whole as a second main

Thank goodness!!

massively appreciate all the responses! That’s saved me a panic! Hope you all have a lovely time!!

What’s a Turkey crown?

Your colleagues are nobs
have had frozen turkey crowns for years
thaw thoroughly and cook longer than suggested they are fine

I’ve cooked my Xmas meat and November and froze it. It’s much easier, just don’t forget about it.
I love frozen products.

I always defrost somewhere cool
in the fridge takes way longer

Well you are a better person than me because we are vegetarian and have said if you want meat, cook/bring it yourself!

Our free range, bought from a farm shop turkey is currently chilling in the freezer. He will come out on Saturday to cook on Boxing Day.