Turkeys

[StepIntoXmas]

Where do you all order or buy your Christmas turkey from?

For years we've went M&S and yes it is delicious but so expensive and we are trying to really watch the pennies this year.

Thought local would be better but a normal sized crown was going to be expensive too!

Looking at Morrissons, Tesco and Asda next.

Any insight or experiences please?

If you want to preorder go with somewhere that guarantees your pre ordered christmas items (sainsburys definitely do)

Morrisons has changed this year. Their christmas food to order is now picked on the day of delivery like a home delivery order. If it isn't in store when your pick is done you won't get it

Very interesting about Morrissons! Thanks @Justhereforthechristmasthreads

Anyone else? What do you do for Christmas dinner?

I never pre order, always get mine in tesco off of the shelf. Never had an issue getting one and never had an issue with them.

Interesting about Morrisons- I can see the daily mail headlines already about morrisons ruining Christmas.

We have had Tesco frozen turkeys for years. We spent a small fortune on a turkey from a local award winning butcher one year when we had friends joining us. It was 4 times the price of a frozen turkey and it was nowhere near 4 times better. I'd go as far as saying with everything else on the plate I'd bet results from a blind taste test would be very mixed.

We have either breasts / crowns from M&S because we like them . I was looking for something on a local butchers site yesterday and they have Christmas meat hampers reduced and for £100 you get
9-10lb Whole Turkey (Feeds 6 People)
1.5-2kg Loin Pork
1.5-2kg Topside Joint
1.5-2kg Gammon Joint
2x Sausage Meat Sleeves
30x Pigs in Blankets
Which seemed quite good value .

WRT Morrisons , we used to do a Christmas order with them but 2 years running they didn’t have the correct turkey on a Christmas Eve collection .

I buy a frozen crown from M and S around now. It’s around £30 and lovely.

We change it up; we've had each of these several times:

Goose (my favourite)
Turkey
Rolled Sirloin
Guinea fowl (like an extra tasty chicken)
Pork joint - brought in from Denmark so it's been butchered and prepped correctly for 'flæskesteg'

This year we're probably going to do duck.

Oh except the guinea fowl - we've only had that once when it was just the two of us that year.

We've had our turkeys from various places over the years. The best one was reared by King Charles himself ( 😉 ) and had the hefty pricetag to match! We've also had a frozen one from Aldi which was perfectly fine. We've always found Morrisons birds to be good. Nowadays we get our meat from a farm shop so we'll order from there.

We had some fun with Christmas Dinner one year - decided to leave it all 'til very late on Christmas Eve and just go with flow; we went to our local superstore at about half ten in the evening and got ourselves a load of bargainous foods. I can't actually remember what we ended up doing though! I'm pretty sure it was turkey that year.

Yes this is exactly how I'm feeling just now. With all the trimmings etc plus gravy, the actual turkey doesn't matter as much!

I'm thinking of frozen now I just need space in my geezer 😂

My worry with this was not having anything available but again, does it matter? Get whatever is there and enjoy the dinner.

Might have another look at deals and hampers then as the prices I saw in a leaflet were for whole or turkey crowns alone.

Might look into this one! Thanks.

I bought a frozen one from Lidl and none of my 12 guests could tell any difference from the M & S ones. It’s all in the cooking.

Our local aldi had loads of stuffed turkey joints for up to 75% off on christmas eve last year. I bought a few for the freezer. We had one last week and it was really nice. I'm going to get one again this year for Christmas day. Even if not reduced, they always have loads left.

We buy a frozen goose when we have that and it's always absolutely delicious. I don't think it's necessary to have an extremely expensive fresh bird - as pp said, it's all in the prep/cooking. And if you're trying to avoid stress it's nice to have everything sorted and not have to worry about whether or not you'll get what you ordered.

We've got two ducks in the freezer, so all sorted!

A few years ago we discovered cooking the turkey in a roasting bag. Total game changer, and we haven't bought an expensive turkey since, just go for frozen Sainsburys one.

This year our ducks are from Morrison's, bought when they were on sale.

Always get our meat from the butcher. When we have turkey I get a butterflied breast joint wrapped in bacon and stuffed. It's about £40. We tend to have turkey at thanksgiving rather than Christmas (Americans in The family) I do wonder if it may be cheaper as not Christmas. You could feed at least 10 with leftovers and we are generally 🐷

In looking for the tastiest, most economical and most ethically raised "guest" for Christmas dinner this year, I have learned the following: ALDI are apparently offering the cheapest turkey this year and they have been jolly good in the past when I tried one of their free range birds... this year their whole turkies appear to start at about 4 or 5 kilos and Good Housekeeping have given them a top review for their "Roly Poly". LIDL will also offer a range but appear to have dropped the ball somewhat - I cannot tell if they will have WHOLE free range birds or crowns only, as it appears from their magazine - although last year I was very impressed both by the competitive price and a moist and tasty dinner come the 25th, again a GH recommendation. Both stores will have their fresh turkies on sale from the 19th. My absolute favourite ever turkey was a Tesco Finest Narragansett, well worth the £12.50/kilo paid, but sadly now discontinued... this year they have smaller fresh birds for sale, starting at as little as 2-4 kilos for Free Range Bronzes @ £10.50 per kilo (£9 with Clubcard)... an absolute godsend for those of us who don't want to be still eating turkey sandwiches on Hogmanay! The cheapest turkey to ever grace my plate was bought (on 2 previous occasions, but some while back when living in town) from a nearby Tesco at midday on Christmas Eve, when they halved the prices to get rid... assuming they still do this (other supermarket chains too presumably?), and if you have nerves of steel plus the time & energy, this would be your best bet to save, although you will in all probability have stiff competition come the time!!

When my local butcher hit £100 for a fresh one, I got a Tesco frozen one and haven’t looked back. With the real stuffing over the breast, it’s just as succulent as the expensive ones and no one noticed the difference. I usually get an XXL one as we feed the five thousand and it costs about a quarter of the price of fresh.

We're not having turkey this year (kids wanted lamb), but if we were, I'd be getting a frozen one now rather than waiting and getting a fresh one nearer the time. There has been an outbreak of avian flu in Norfolk and while it might not spread (and I hope it is contained) it's not a risk I would be taking.

Interestingly, the Tesco frozen birds are Red Tractor approved, same as LIDL, but are an astonishingly low £3.77 per kilo when purchasing a Large (Clubcard price of course)... I may well be tempted to stick one in the freezer as "back up"!

Had a local farm shop one a few times. They were quite spendy but very nice. The farm shop closed so last year I got an organic one from tesco £65. It was delicious so will probably get another one of them if they are still doing them.

I have a medium crown in the freezer as a back up.