Christmas turkey

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Just after some advice/reassurance. For the last few years we’ve hosted on Christmas Day and I’ve always ordered my Christmas turkey and food from Sainsbury’s, to be collected on Christmas Eve. Turkey seems to be so expensive though and I’m wondering if it’s worth risking buying a frozen Turkey around Christmas Eve time, rather than ordering it. Is it a risk worth taking? Are there likely to be turkeys still available?? Or should I stick to what I normally do??

Last year there was said to be a shortage of turkeys due to bird flu, so I bought a frozen 3 bird roast to be safe. I didn’t need to bother, there were plenty.

I've done one frozen turkey and it took bloody ages to defrost. In November when Lidl have cook from frozen turkey breast I get 2 of those. No one ever complained bo seeing the bird on the table

A turkey can easily take 48 hours to defrost, so no, I wouldn’t.

A friend of mine used to buy massively reduced fresh turkeys on Christmas Eve, put them in the freezer and later cook them for her 3 huge Newfoundland dogs! Risky if you wanted one for Christmas dinner though.

Assuming you have freezer space, if I were you I’d buy a frozen one in advance and allow plenty of time for defrosting.

Nothing wrong with frozen but it takes much longer to defrost than you’d ever imagine. And it needs to be kept in the fridge. You have to make sure it’s well contained, in its wrapper, or otherwise so that you don’t have it dripping onto other things in the fridge or as you take it out.

But if you have the space in your fridge, you could buy one 2-3 days ahead.

We've had frozen in the past and we've defrosted them in our garage aka storage shed. They do take ages and they can't be cooked unless there's no ice crystals in the cavity.

Taste wise there's no real difference.

We've had frozen turkey for years, after spending a small fortune on a fresh one from a local 'famous' butcher, which was fine but definitely not extraordinary nor worth the extra money. It tells you on the pack how long you need to defrost for, usually a couple of days. We put ours on a tray in the garage, cool enough to be safe. We bring it indoors overnight if it the temperature is going to drop to sub zero. With so many other flavours on the plate, I very much doubt you would notice the difference. I put an apple and onion in the cavity, and streaky bacon over the top. Adds flavour and moisture