can I roast a turkey, slice it up, vacuum pack one pound packs, freeze them, and then thaw one pack a week? Is this plan safe, from a microbial view, and is it going to give me reasonably good tasting turkey? Does anyone do this?
Yes, you can roast your own turkey. And yes, with a little guidance, you can make it honey-roasted.
Slicing it up should be no problem. You can just use a knife.
Also, IME you can freeze it. No prob. I used to freeze turkey all the time.
So I think the answer is yes. The truth is I have roasted a turkey for sandwich meat, but I have never sliced it thin like that, and I have never frozen it. I just eat, eat, and eat. So my gut reaction is that you can do it, but I don’t really know.
Why all the fancy equipment? I thought you wanted to save money?
I’d just cut the turkey with a knife and use a good sealable kitchen bag or airtight container. Freeze or keep in the refrigertator and use at your discretion.
Buy either a whole smoked turkey (fully cooked) or an individual [URL=http://www.butterball.ca/english/products.html#roasts]frozen boneless turkey breast (one boneless breast turkey roast should last you a week or so). You can dismantle the smoked turkey or roast the turkey breast per instructions with a honey glaze of your own recipe. The preparation should be no more difficult than rubbing the roast with your favorite spices-- a good poultry seasoning would be ideal, along with some salt and pepper and maybe a dash of cayenne-- then drizzling, brushing, or coating the breast with honey and roasting per the package instructions… you can also baste with a bit of honey periodically throughout the roast.
Of course making it yourself gives you an opportunity to make something really tasty and gourmet-- For example, instead of just plain honey, mix the honey with equal parts orange juice and a tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary and use that as the turkey baste/rub.
Agreed with the above posts. Surely you could cook turkey breast equal or superior to whatever brand you’re currently buying (@ $9/lb.!!) with minimal effort. Freeze in Ziploc-type bags, or even very tightly wrapped Saran wrap (multiple layers) – I’m assuming you won’t be cooking 8 months worth of turkey in one day, so freezer burn should be minimal, as long as you wrap tightly.
I haven’t heard great things all round about the home versions of commercial deli slicers. But you can cut just as thin with a sharp knife. Here’s the standard cheap trick for ensuring thin slices: freeze the meat slightly before slicing (maybe 1 hr or so in a 0 deg F freezer).
How you’ll prepare the turkey is all about you: try different brines, rubs, skin on, skin off, whatever strikes your fancy.
The only equipment I’d buy is a probe thermometer, which will read the internal temperature of the turkey breast while displaying the result on a digital device sitting outside of your oven. And a nice sharp knife. You don’t have to buy a fancy name-brand knife – just make sure yours is sharp.
I also agree with what everyone has said so far. I would suggest that instead of buying a full turkey, that you should look for turkey breasts. They usually have them in the butcher section of your grocery store. They cost a bit more per pound, but you’re getting 100% meat instead of a lot of bone (unless you plan to make a lot of stock). The other advantage is that they are much, much easier to cook since they’re smaller and easier to handle. Don’t worry about getting brand name, pre-seasoned, frozen turkey breasts. The plain ones they have in the meat section will work fine.
You can then have a lot of fun using brines and marinades to get a flavour you like.
I concur that it is highly possible. Here’s what you need to do to minimize the chances of microbial evil.
Buy a frozen turkey or turkey breast with a sell by date far in the future.
Thaw it in your refrigerator (and make sure your frige runs below 40F)
Cook it thoroughly, I second the recommendation of a meat thermometer.
Slice and wrap and store quickly. Your momma will tell you that you should let your food cool on the countertop before you put it in the ice box, but your momma is wrong unless you actually put blocks of ice in your ice box.
Flatter, wider packages cool faster than squarer or rounder shapes.
Freezer paper is a good packaging material, since it insulates the food from the defrost cycles in your freezer. Foil is the next best option.
Date your packages (a nice restaraunt and a romantic movie ) and don’t keep them for more than a few months.
Spread out the packages in the frige and freezer. You can frige some to freeze later, or even better, if it is freezing outside where you are, bury them in the snow for a few hours where animals won’t find them, then freeze them in the freezer. Get them cold as fast as possible.
Thaw them in the frige, never ever ever ever on the counter, keep them cold and covered and use them within a few days of thawing. Five might be pushing it if your frige is a little warm, but it sounds like you are already doing it with deli meat.
Bottom line is that we call 40-140F the “danger zone” for a reason. This is the range in which bacteria grow. You need to cross this zone as few times as possible and as quickly as possible. Heat kills bacteria, cold does not.
I’d just like to say that I totally read the thread title as “Can I make my own Sarah Lee style honkey turkey lunch meat and freeze it?” and clicked because I just had to know if that was what kids today were calling white meat.
IMHO, you can go overboard with food safety. You can thaw and brine your turkey in one step by letting it defrost in a salt & honey solution which has the added bonus of giving you a deeper honey flavour. Then just roast using an appropriate glaze, using a meat thermometer to check for doneness, cool to room temp, slice and then freeze in weekly portions. Defrost a packet every week and enjoy.
Well said, Shalmanese. I wasn’t going to say anything, but one of my great pleasures in cooking poultry is making it a touch “underdone” (which by FDA standards is anything short of the equivalent of boiled in oil until “crispy”). I’d never serve medium-rare chicken or turkey to anyone who wasn’t capable of deciding for themselves if the risk is worth the reward, but it’s really the way to enjoy the bird, IMO.
Never had the nads to order chicken sashimi, because of the texture, but more temperate measures are just one more option to consider on the road to cultivating a personal way with the bird.
I don’t see anything remotely wrong with your method of preparing the turkey, from a food-safety perspective, BTW. As long as one doesn’t drink the brine after it’s job has been done, could there possible be a problem? I doubt it, but who knows.
) and don’t keep them for more than a few months.