Turkey shortage coming for Thanksgiving?


 
B

Brian Thomas

TVWBB Pro
Maybe. At least according to GMA this AM. Of course this is the media so they may be blowing this out of proportion like they often do.

Basically what they were saying is that since T-Giving family gatherings may be smaller than normal due to delta variant, etc, this may result in much higher demand for smaller turkeys (15 lbs or less). There may be supply chain issues (lack of truck drivers mostly) as well. This may not have much of an effect on the fresh turkey market since demand for those is less than for frozen ones.

Just something to keep an eye on I guess.
 
Still have one Jennie O' bird from last year in the freezer so planning on doing that one in the performer with the roti over Columbus Day Weekend I always do a fresh turkey with the apple brine recipe for Thanksgiving so should be able to find one a week or so before the T-giving holiday.
 
I've never understood the panicked need to have turkey for thanksgiving.(or for Christmas or Easter either). It should be all about family joining together, regardless of the particular food choice. It could be burgers and fries for all that it really matters. I must confess to a little smug ironic humor that I get from my wife's family, who is of strong Cherokee heritage, and their need to have the "perfect" thanksgiving dinner. ;)
 
Smoking a whole turkey makes no sense for just my g/f & I. At best, we'll get a [fresh] turkey breast from a local producer. Having said that, we're not fixed on any "mandatory" holiday meals. I'll make pretty much anything.
 
I always buy the biggest one I can find, somewhere in the 28lb. range. Those are always the hardest ones to find by me. There are always a lot of little ones.
 
At one point when I was growing up, my parents decided to give up on the turkey. No one really liked turkey. I still don't So they did cornish game hens. Stuffed them too.

Everyone at the table had their own hen. I think I'll smoke some hens this Thanksgiving.
 
I usually try to wait until a week before when the "fresh" birds come out and get a smaller one to smoke. Last year I think we did turkey breast roulades, but that might have been the year before.
 
Other than tradition, my favorite thing about doing a turkey are the dishes we do with leftovers. I love turkey hash, turkey tortilla soup, turkey noodle soup, turkey sandwiches, done on white bread with salt, pepper, mayo and cranberry sauce. The wife always does a load of mashed spuds and I do plenty of extra turkey gravy. Nothing like spuds & gravy for breakfast on a cold morning. especially when you avoid heavy starches in your normal diet.
Hoping I can find a couple of whole bone in breasts too. Youngest daughter avoids red meat so, when she visits for Christmas, I like to send her home with a load of turkey pastrami.
 
We have turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Everyone likes oyster stuffing so much I have to also make a large casserole of oyster dressing.
 
About the same here, except the dressing is country sausage & cornbread. I don't stuff the bird, just stick a halved orange and a halved lemon in the cavity, along with some herbs. If we could get decent fresh oysters here I'd definitely do oyster dressing. Really miss living near the coast.
 
I asked my wife to check out turkey prices when she went to Wal Mart the other day. I forgot to ask her what the prices were so I asked this AM. She said the price for frozen birds was $1.38/lb. And that included everything. Butterball, Jennie O', etc. Not surprised since they're not in real high demand right now. Hopefully prices will drop when we get closer to Thanksgiving.

I was going to do a turkey over Columbus Day Weekend, but I forgot about it, so will do one on the roti in the Performer this Sat. Got one Jennie O' bird from last year left in the freezer so need to cook that.
 
Hopefully get a big old breast this year and go with the Texas style Turkey breast, I like the idea of game hens, I might do a couple for the wife and kids to play with.
 
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