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?

Same here, I only ever buy a crown. A second meat is quite difficult as I won’t eat lamb, son doesn’t like pork or beef, other son doesn’t really like gammon.

Ah fair enough. I have heard crowns are nicer and easier to cook so they don’t dry out. Hope you find a solution for your whole family!

People saying their turkey is dry are not cooking it right! Mine is always moist. You have to get the cooking time right and then rest it for at least an hour well covered up.
I just get a smallish crown from Tesco as there aren’t loads of us. It’s not boring. It’s just a delicate tasting meat that needs other flavours and sides to bring it out. I love turkey sandwiches with mayo the next day, and we always make a turkey curry too.

We’ve bought ones from Aldi and Lidle before. They are fine.

We usually buy from Farmisons online butcher and they are very good. You can preorder now and it will be delivered on your chosen date at Christmas.

I think it's all in the cooking really.

We get ours from the butcher and it’s absolutely amazing.

Our Turkey is never dry,

We have a goose and several duck breasts. I hate turkey it smells weird.

I don't think i have tasted goose is it "gamey"?

No, it's absolutely delicious. I find venison and pigeon too gamey, and I love goose. But be warned, you will be funnelling goose fat out of the kitchen with a hosepipe.

@MyTrivia We have a big group at Christmas and some are wedded to the turkey tradition, so I've always cooked on despite not loving it until I found a new technique. If you have a good butcher near you, get them to completely bone (or debone rather) a smallish turkey. On Christmas Eve, unwrap it, dry it, put it on a cooling rack on a baking sheet and let it sit out overnight in the fridge to dry the surface. On Christmas, rub it with olive oil and or butter, liberally salt and pepper, cook in a very hot oven for roughly an hour. It will be perfect. I like to put herbs under the rack. Completely changed my feelings about turkey.

I love my fresh turkey from Aldi. We used to get one from a butcher but its got so expensive that we tried Aldi - we wont be going back. Most of the taste comes from how you cook it & resting it for long enough.

We get our Turkey from Aldi every year. Superb quality, way better than M&S and a fraction of the price.

I cook the Christmas dinner every year and have done through 25 years of marriage (not that im bitter)! We have my mom and dad and inlaws alternate years and who evers turn it is buys the turkey. My mom buys from Aldi and mil buys from the local farm at great expense. Both taste the same.

Its still a dead bird in plastic packaging which tastes of dry turkey and produces nuclear farts. If it was any good we'd eat it all year round.

I used to mull this question but a few years ago I said fuck it and cook the joints that we like rather than gamble on turkey because it’s supposedly traditional. This year I’ll be doing a couple of chickens so there’s lots of left overs.

I used to get a turkey crown from M&S every year which was ok but a bit hit and miss. We had Christmas lunch with DD and family last year and she cooked a rolled, boneless turkey breast from the local butcher. It was the best turkey I've ever eaten; so tender and moist. Much easier to carve too and no waste. I've just ordered one for this year. Hoping it's as delicious as hers.

We don't even get turkeys anymore (I am in SA), and really to be honest, I have never heard anyone complain about it 😀
We will sometimes see a turducken, but if we are going to have a roast, we will just add a chicken in with gammon/beef or whatever.

But it is also mid summer here then so it is not always an ideal lunch anyway.

I would swap out for a good decent size chicken instead, I think the meat tastes a lot better.

Have you considered a couple of pheasants? Or even a capon or a duck? Something different from the usual selection!

For too many years, I spent a small fortune on organic Norfolk bronze turkeys from our local farm shop. Then as previous posters have pointed out, I realised that the things we most enjoyed were the trimmings so I have gone in completely the opposite direction and now buy a frozen turkey crown and serve it with good quality sausages and stuffing. I can’t say I miss the expensive turkey at all.

Unless you particularly enjoy the way it is prepared by M&S (maybe you like their stuffing or something) then turkey is just a turkey. The only difference will be if it has been organically reared etc. But it is like every other raw ingredient - and apple is an apple regardless of where you bought it!

I always used to get mine from Tesco and they were fine, but for the last few years I have been to the local butcher and they are definitely much better, (but obviously more expensive too).

I think it’s worth paying the difference (and I’m lucky that I can afford to) but if you don’t much like turkey anyway it probably isn’t!

We’ve done duck but not really keen. Do capons taste different to turkey or chicken? I’ll still do turkey crown but it’s nice to have a second meat too. I think I had pheasant once maybe a bit gamey (can’t remember). We’re not vegetarian obviously but there’s a lot of dislike of different meats in the house. I’d like to get an American style ham (rather than gammon which is a bit too bacon like). Not easy getting ham joints here though.

I'd describe capon as a cross between turkey and chicken - more flavour than a chicken but not as dry as turkey. You don't see them that often though! I do like pheasant and honestly it is not as gamey these days as when I was a child and the local farmer used to bring a brace round, which had been, ahem, hanging for a while!!! Not a great deal of meat on them, although one used to be enough for my parents and me.

Turkey is delicious, but it needs to be juicy and not over cooked. A meat thermometer is essential.
i buy mine from a local farm and it’s awesome. I’ve not eaten one from the shop to compare.

however the year we moved to meat thermometer rather than timed cooking was the game changer. Now even the picky kids think our Christmas dinner is great.

i do think the sides are important, particularly pork stuffing

Capon is lovely - chicken which tastes more intensely chickeny, IYSWIM. The carcass also makes fabulous stock, whereas turkey stock is disgusting.

I think the dry / not dry thing with turkey is a bit of a red herring. Even the most succulent turkey will have a fibrous texture and I think that's what reads as 'dry' to many palates (it can also dry out horribly, obviously!).