Year after year I’ve bought our turkey from M&S

[MyTrivia]

But they are never amazing…nice, of course. So is it worth just buying one from Aldi? What are your opinions about this?

I don’t think any turkey is ever really ‘amazing’. It’s the sides that make it special, plenty of good roasties, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce….

In the past I’ve occasionally bought a pretty bog standard frozen one, rather than M&S, and TBh I’d be hard pushed to tell the difference. A lot of it is down to how you cook it, and turning it upside down to rest, to keep the breast from being dry, is always good.

I just don’t think Turkey is very nice tbh.

I've given up on turkey for Christmas day because I can never get it right.

Now we have a cheap rolled and stuffed turkey on Xmas eve, then lamb on Christmas day.

We used to buy ours from the butchers every year at a ridiculous price until we had a crap one off them so tried aldi and haven't looked back. Probably had the last 6 years from aldi and always very pleased with the taste/size/price

Turkey in general just isn’t that great. Try something else? We had venison last year and it was delish.

I wouldn't buy one from Aldi, did it one year to cook early christmas meal for Mil it wasn't nice.
Do you have a local farm shop? That's where I get mine from and it's always fabulous.
I also don't get why people who don't like turkey answer these questions?

I just buy a couple of small-medium Sainsbury’s crowns for around £12-14 each. We don’t eat the leg meat, and I buy separately so I can do a fresh one for the obligatory turkey rolls in the evening.

Admittedly I’ve never spent huge amounts on turkey so maybe I don’t know any better, but I’m just not sure turkey as a meat is worth paying a huge amount for (unlike beef where I think price and taste correlates better!)

I bought mine off the shelf from Tescos the past two years clubcard price around £60. Was fine but agree with above I do three stuffings, bread sauce, Jamie Oliver gravy etc so it doesn’t have to be spectacular turkey!

Go to a local farm shop or local turkey farm

My advice is ditch the turkey and have something else instead. We do beef wellington. SO much nicer than dry turkey.

My dad used to always cook a supermarket crown every Christmas and my sister hated it. Always said it was dry until we bought a Kelly bronze and took it to hers. She said it was the nicest turkey she'd ever had and wasn't dry at all.

I got it from ALDI 1st time last Xmas and thought it was very nice it was also the best bargain I'd got all yr. Usually I get it from Costco but they had none last yr.

We get ours from Aldi, but the Specially Selected ones. The last couple of years we’ve risked it and got one heavily reduced on 23/24th. Tastes the same as all the others I’ve had.

Turkey is never amazing it is the butter basting and bacon over it that makes it amazing that and gravy 😋 we get ours from Morrisons it is decent quality and tastes nice but again butter and bacon 😀

Because if OP has been consistently underwhelmed every year by a decent quality turkey then it’s very reasonable to suggest that perhaps she just doesn’t like it much!

I just stick a turkey crown in the slow cooker, jobs a good 'un

Thank you for your responses! I would LOVE to ditch the turkey and have beef wellington instead but I have autistic children who don’t like change.

Yes you're quite right, but why carry on buying it if you don't like turkey then? It's puzzling to me.

Edited to add I see it's Op's children who insist on it. In that case I would cook 2 meats, a turkey crown and something else.

We really like the turkey’s we’ve had from the butcher, but at over £100 I just don’t think it’s worth it, the crown we got from M&S last year £50 was very nice and will probably get the same this year.

i guess it must be how you cook it, less than recommended and with more butter
alternatively have you tried to order one from a reputable butcher?

Can't you have both then? If there's not room in your oven for two mains cook a turkey crown (or small turkey) on Christmas eve and reheat it?

i only have it once a year
so cannot really compare,
it can be dry if you are not careful, but it is the trimmings that make it special

Are they stuck on Turkey is Christmas ? Why don't you get them Turkey breasts and you have what you like.

Do both: small rolled turkey breast joint for the DC and wellington for whoever wants it. They’ll fit side-by-side on an oven shelf.

I was also very loyal to, and yet underwhelmed by M&S turkeys, but last year we got a big standard turkey crown from Sainsburys instead and it was excellent by comparison.