is butterball better?

[fxsales1959]

turkey-thon at WinnDixie.
Store brand $.49/lb
Butterball $.99/lb
I'm leaning butterball cause sometimes the store brands hose you on the giblets (and that's my gravy stock).
Not smoking, oven in the bag.

 

[chopsaw]

Can't go wrong either way . At .49 a pound I'd buy a couple and get the grinder out .
Grab a Butterball for the oven bag .

 

[mike243]

Cheap for experiments and Butterball for the main coarse.

 

[mike243]

Thinking of grabbing a cheap and trying a rotty run at it.

 

[normanaj]

My personal experience with Butterball is they're nothing special.

Used to buy at the local turkey ranch but now it's just the two of us this year.I'll pick up a store brand frozen after TG for .39/lb and some legs/thighs to have on hand.

 

[zwiller]

My personal experience with Butterball is they're nothing special.

+1. Wife and MIL gung ho Honeysuckle/Butterball/enhanced birds. VERY little difference compared to "generic".

The key to good turkey is brining. I've done it all. Dry brining is my go to. You need a few days for best results.

 

[mike243]

Big difference in the cheap 1 I cooked last year and a Butterball, reckon it all depends on where your cheap bird was growed, I am sure there are a lot better out there but about any of us can go out and pu a decent bird by BB or a cheap 1 but results maybe the same or completely different. Roll the dice it's your $$

 

[bmudd14474]

Publix has their store brand $.49/lb this week also.

 

[Colin1230]

What makes Butterball and Honeysuckle White extra special is the marketing. They are premium ya know.

 

[babydocsmoke]

+1. Wife and MIL gung ho Honeysuckle/Butterball/enhanced birds. VERY little difference compared to "generic".

The key to good turkey is brining. I've done it all. Dry brining is my go to. You need a few days for best results.

Ditto this . I'm a wet brine guy myself which is a pain in the butt....however, totally worth it. If you brined a butterball and a store brand both and then served them, it would probably be hard to tell the difference.

Alton Brown did a special on in-oven thanksgiving turkey about 20+ years ago on "GoodEats" and if you follow what he does...it works every time. Its somewhere on YouTube.

It includes using a meat probe (which is nothing special to the folks on this forum) but not super common for the regular home cook. Also he talks about starting the bird hot and going by temp. Worth looking up.

 

[Brokenhandle]

It was Alton Brown that got us to start brining turkey and we never looked back... that was before this place.

Ryan

 

[tallbm]

turkey-thon at WinnDixie.
Store brand $.49/lb
Butterball $.99/lb
I'm leaning butterball cause sometimes the store brands hose you on the giblets (and that's my gravy stock).
Not smoking, oven in the bag.

I don't know if there is any major difference. I do them all (Signature Select, Kroger brand, Honeysuckle, and Butterball).

The only difference I can remember is that the butterball seem to be bigger when I got them and I ASSUME maybe just a better bird (not some scraggly one).

I wet brine/cure my birds and smoke them and the brand hasn't seemed to matter. Also if it was packed in solution or a fresh bird hasn't mattered either. My equilibrium brine/cure seems to work the same way no matter the bird or what claims are made on the bag. I do 1.65% salt and and the proper amount of cure for bird+water and boom, all is good no matter what.

So feel free to experiment and report back. At those prices, lots of good bird to be eaten! :D

 

[choochooman442]

Butterball is injected with a seasoned solution/brine. I prefer to use my own on the store brand just need to read the label and make sure it's not "enhanced". Ingredient list has only Turkey

 

[mneeley490]

I think Butterball's popularity grew from the fact that they were years ahead of anyone else in "brining" their birds. These days, there isn't much difference between theirs and ones we can brine ourselves, other than the price.

 

[DougE]

I'm leaning butterball cause sometimes the store brands hose you on the giblets (and that's my gravy stock).

I haven't seen that with any generic store brand I've ever bought. Every one had the neck and a packet with the liver and gizzards, etc. stuffed in the cavity.

 

[pc farmer]

I haven't seen that with any generic store brand I've ever bought. Every one had the neck and a packet with the liver and gizzards, etc. stuffed in the cavity.

Same here. We ALWAYS buy store brand and all the good stuff is in the bag. I always count to make sure I got it all.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

The problem I see with the turkey sales here is that to get the sale price, you have to buy $35 worth of additional groceries to get it...

 

[DougE]

The problem I see with the turkey sales here is that to get the sale price, you have to buy $35 worth of additional groceries to get it...

With it being Thanksgiving and all, wouldn't take much to spend the 35 bucks on sides and stuff.

 

[DougE]

That or blow the $35 on pork butts for sausage.

 

[Fueling Around]

Not a clue on which turkey is better. I am amazed the prices you can get for turkey.
Wife and I are not turkey eaters so we might go for a whole chicken at 2-3 times the price.
Spatchcock so the trimmings go for stock.

Steal the giblets? Poultry liver is best for cat food. I cannot stand them
John you would so love being in a Minnesota dive bar with a jar of pickled turkey gizards in the cooler. Some even leave the jar on the bar top. I love those things. Might be the beer talking though.