Are Butterballs all their really cracked up to be?

[SaltyNuts]

Are they really better than other brands of Turkeys? Or just marketing hype? Going to store in a bit to get the turkey!

Thanks.

 

[pete6032]

Turkey is an inferior meat. The best thanksgiving food is tacos. The Mexicans don't fuck around when they cook.

 

[mundane]

Turkey is an inferior meat. The best thanksgiving food is tacos. The Mexicans don't fuck around when they cook.

This year's Thanksgiving host makes some mean carnitas, but unfortunately he would not break from tradition just for me. He's a fantastic cook, and I'm sure the turkey will be delicious, but I'd love a nice taco.

Edit: On topic - I did an 'immediate family only' dinner yesterday with my first turkey. If you have the time, I would suggest picking up a fresh turkey and brining it overnight, it was quite delicious.

 

[Paperdoc]

"Butterballs" and their copies are mostly marketing gimmick, and they cost more that plain turkeys, usually. In my experience, most turkeys arrive with plenty of their own fats still included and do not need extra fat to make them more juicy and moist. As it happens, in our family several people really dislike a lot of fat, so the added stuff in Butterballs is a negative. In fact, in preparing the turkey I normal cut out all the large fat pads still there and leave only the smaller deposits. I roast in one of those large covered roasting pans with a dark blue enamel baked-on surface. The finished bird is quite moist, and the juices collected in the pan have less fat in them this way. That's important because the family likes LOTS of gravy, so I siphon out the juices with a baster and make a pot of gravy, sometimes adding a bit of water so it makes more. The gravy is plenty tasty, and has less fat content than if there were more turnkey fat or butter in the bird to start.

By the way, a comment on the roasting pan. As I said, the one I use is big with a speckled dark blue baked-on enamel finish. It absorbs heat really well, thus speeding up the cooking process, but keeps the moisture in. The result, interestingly, is that I can roast at a wide range of temperatures. 325F will take a long time and cook gently. But If I'm late getting started, I'll turn it up to 400 or 425F and cut the cooking time much shorter, but it still comes out moist because it's closed in. I baste a couple of times during roasting, then take the pan lid off for 15 - 20 minutes at the end to brown the outside.

 

[Homerboy]

*they're

 

[NikolaeVarius]

They're the standard turkey.

Spatchcock it, dry brine it and don't cook on a roasting pan or stuff it. It'll taste great.

 

[Cheesemoo]

I came in thinking of these:

So I will just comment on those.

Most people may say they are just gimmicky, but they honestly they contain 0.25 ounces of butter. Most other individually packaged butter is 0.17 tops. 0.25 ounces is my perfect amount of butter for a normal sized dinner roll. Now since the balls are mostly 100% butter (good thing) they have to be set out to room temperature before serving for optimal spreading. Most of the other prepackaged butter is margarine. So I say they are worth the premium you pay for the balls.

 

[Kaido]

Are they really better than other brands of Turkeys? Or just marketing hype? Going to store in a bit to get the turkey!

Thanks.

I just bought a bunch of frozen turkeys & have been cooking them up different ways. Not really any difference between them that I can tell...

 

[Mayne]

Never go wrong with a butterball in my experience.

 

[Zorba]

Generally I am a cheap bastard, so I get the biggest cheap Turkey. Although most of the time around here I can get a Butterball for at most only $0.10 more than the generic brand and they usually have bigger turkeys. I've never noticed much flavor difference, though.

 

[MrSquished]

Heard a little bit on NPR today driving home about turkeys to eat. Seems that Heritage turkeys are the way to go. Much more flavor than the generic stuff at most grocery stores.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_turkey

The lady on the program bred the Naraganset breed, and she said they sold out within two days of going live. According to that wiki article there are 25,000 Heritage turkeys sold each year in the US compared with 200 million of the others. Obviously they are far more expensive.

 

[Imp]

I don't know, but they're the only turkey brand that I know off the top of my head and they have a hotline or something.