Too soon to buy a fresh turkey for T-Day?


 
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JohnN

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In my glee to prepare for Thanksgiving, I picked up a turkey from Costco yesterday (smaller one, 12 lbs, to fry, along with the breast and ribs that will live in the WSM and the bird that will roast in the oven, AKA the boring one /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

The turkey was a fresh butterball turkey - and felt pretty solid (I know, govt regulations 'fresh' being between 0 and 28 deg F). My fridge is also pretty cold (usually around 30F, freezes some stuff but I like my things cold). I was going to throw it in Fat Man's Brine tonight, before pulling it out Wednesday night for a Thursday fry.

Did I goof? Does this bird need to see the freezer? I know poultry shouldn't be in a fridge for more than 3 days (or at least I think I know that), and I don't want to risk getting anyone sick, but does anyone else do this? Would the brine help stave off the bacteria at all?

TIA for any help. OT - if anyone knows of any good fried turkey links, lemme know!

Thanks,
-John
 
I already purchased mine, and my refrigerator is kept pretty cold, too. Never had a problem in years past purchasing fresh on Sat, and cooking on Thursday.

One thing to note-- you say you bought a Butterball turkey and are going to brine it. If it is indeed a Butterball, it is technically already brined. Check the label for "enhanced with up to a X% solution of..." or words to that effect.
 
Doug-

Thanks!

I'm going to have another look at it - I think when I read 'minimally processed' and assumed it wasn't injected. Could very well mean something else, I'll have to check it out when I get home.

Since I have to brine the turkey for inside, and the breast for the WSM, it might actually be in my interest if it's already juiced up

Thanks,
-John
 
Bruce Bissonnette had this same discussion over on The BBQ Forum last week re: Fresh Butterball turkeys.

Butterball makes a fresh, not frozen, non-injected whole turkey. I've found it at Albertsons and Costco here in California. They may not be available in all parts of the country.

The frozen Butterball turkeys are all injected.

Regards,
Chris
 
Chris-

Thanks for the pointer - I went over to that forum and saw the discussion.

Bruce-

Even though I have the bird in my fridge, I don't believe you :-P

Seriously - there was some vehement objection there... Is it that hard to believe that maybe Butterball didn't juice 'em up and freeze 'em all this year?
 
The Butterball brand is so closely associated with injected turkey that it's understandable that some people would assume there is no other variety sold under that name.

And it's not just this year...I've seen fresh, non-injected Butterballs at Albertsons for the past couple of years.

Regards,
Chris
 
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