If there's a shortage of turkeys at Christmas, what will you have instead?

[Inextremis]

I was just reading on the BBC news site that - due to qualified workers from abroad having to quarantine for 14 days on arrival - there may not be enough skilled people to process the usual number of turkeys for Christmas. If there does turn out to be a shortage - what would you have instead?

I'm not in the UK (am in Ireland), and we're planning on goose and a small turkey crown - but if we can't get those, I think pork would go best with the traditional turkey trimmings like stuffing and bread sauce. I'd love to do venison but no idea where to get it from, plus I'm not sure it lends itself to leftovers in the same way that lighter meat and poultry does.

So - would you try to stay as close to the traditional meal as possible, or do something entirely different?

I must confess that if we do another meat for Christmas dinner we always get a turkey crown as well so that we can have turkey sandwiches between Christmas and new year’s. It just wouldn’t be right without it.

We also always do a ham.

I have already ordered a turkey crown and a beef from Morrisons. They have their own farms so hoping to get them but if not I have beef and pork in freezer.

Since we are now equal numbers vegetarian, lots of nice nut roasts, stuffings and sauces, maybe some pigs in blankets for the carnivores.

Probably beef if local butcher has something good.
I'm happy, like PP, with a plateful of pigs in blankets and stuffing to be honest.

Chicken or pork. Unless we find a surprise discount on Christmas eve like a few years back.

Seeing as we likely will be just us and the children we have decided to forgo the usual Christmas lunch in favour of everyone's favourite party food and nibbly shit.

I'm not going to all that effort when the children arent huge roast fans.

Beef, because my dad always makes a honey roasted ham on Boxing Day

Tier 1 here and booked Xmas lunch at a fabulous pub. Bugger it. If it goes tits up then cheese n chocolate and Netflix at home.

we always have lasagne anyway

Beef Wellington probably. We all like it and Cook do a great one. Not that fussed about turkey anyway.

OP, I notice that no one has commented on Venison. I cooked it for Christmas a few years ago and my Mother declared it the best piece of meat she had ever eaten. As for left-overs, it is lovely cold with jacket potato and salad, in a curry or made in to a cold sliced pie with some left-over ham.

You could ask your local butcher to get some for you, he will be able to order it from the wholesale market if you give him enough notice, or you can buy it online.

It's a marketing gimmick! To get people to order/ buy the birds.
As in reality, who needs a large bird if you can't mix households?

I’ve ordered a frozen turkey crown for delivery in November - Pretty hopeful we will be having turkey!

Duck. It would make enough for three as DS1 is veggie. But I'd prefer turkey.

We are going to stick with turkey. There will be us 4 and my brother (hopefully). If I can’t get one, we will have beef. We usually get invited out Boxing Day, but not this year, so don’t know what to do. My adult sons don’t like cold meat and potatoes, but my DH and I do, so it maybe 2 different meals that day.

Four of us here. We never travel to family at Christmas, nor they to us nowadays, so it's always just the four of us. I've ordered a turkey from Ocado. Fingers crossed we actually get it. I seem to be in a minority here but I really like turkey and so do the rest of my household. I splash out on a high welfare one, cook it the Delia Smith way in a big foil tent, loads of butter and streaky butter on the outside, sausagemeat stuffing inside the bird, don't overcook it, and it comes out moist and tasty. Lots and lots of leftovers, which is one of the big attractions for me as it means minimal cooking in the days immediately after Christmas. I make turkey sandwiches and freeze them for easy lunches in January. I use the carcass to make stock and then a huge pot of soup, some of which will also end up in the freezer.

If we were on a tighter budget and couldn't afford a more expensive turkey I'd go for something else altogether, as it has to taste good and I also want to support good UK farming practices. We might have a big chicken, guinea fowl or something vegetarian. Whatever it was would have to go with all the other bits of Christmas dinner - roast potatoes, sprouts, chipolatas, gravy, cranberry sauce etc etc.

Tbf I really like turkey too! It’s just I like quite a few other things just as much or more...

I’m hungry now, and excited for Christmas dinner! 🎄🎄🎄

We had turkey crown once,wasn’t too taken with it.

We have duck or capon instead with all the trimmings.
Enough to feed us on Christmas and Boxing Day, soup on carcass on 27th and ready to move onto something else.

So many possibilities-duck,goose, chicken,fish and all different cuts of red meat.

I'm making room in the freezer to buy one soon.
If there were no turkeys available at all I think I'd do chicken and pork

@4merlyknownasSHD Thanks for the venison info :) I think I'll have a word with our (very good) local butcher, and perhaps try a joint for New Year - we usually have beef, but I think venison seems more 'special' somehow.

Only the two of us here, so we'd never bother with turkey, as even a crown is way too big. We do either roast beef, chicken or duck, depending on what we fancy. I actually like the idea of a veggie main this year, so we're considering our options.