# Butterball turkeys are full of chemicals! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523 "2012-12-19T13:46:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/21 "2012-12-19T17:32:34Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > I agree. I prefer the results I get from brining at home. I am not sure if it is because the turkey it self is just better or if the home bringing process is better. Me too, but in general I prefer real cooking to premade goop. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/22 "2012-12-19T19:59:47Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > I’m about as anti-woo as anyone, but poultry and pork that have things like you mentioned above in them suck. They taste salty, but not in a good way. They also have a weird texture that is a little like ham and give off lots of moisture when they cook and make it hard to brown. Your pitting is pretty weak. A lot of the preservatives in mass-available lunch meat and such aren’t inherently dangerous but I stay away from them for the sodium reason as well. Lunch meat is just insanely high sodium for example and its part of essentially how lunch meat is made. But yeah, if you’re someone who tries to keep their sodium low like myself, or is sodium sensitive that’s a very good reason to stay away from these products. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/23 "2012-12-19T20:16:47Z")
I soaked our organic turkey in a brine filled with CHEMICALS! before we cooked it. NaCl, CH3COOH, C12H22O11, among others. . . It was so ironic. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/24 "2012-12-19T20:29:17Z")
Oh, if you want to dump on Butterballs and turkey factory farming altogether, feed on the fact that the supermarket turkey of today is a very strange creature indeed! They are bred to yield prodigious amounts of breast meat, so the poor turkey is out of proportion and often has a hard time even walking. (This no doubt explains the workers’ “harsh treatment” in trying to herd the turkeys off to slaughter!) And then we can discuss the ingestion of GMO grains… ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/25 "2012-12-20T02:50:51Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > I soaked our organic turkey in a brine filled with CHEMICALS! before we cooked it. NaCl, CH3COOH, C12H22O11, among others. . . It was so ironic. Were you brining it or pickling it? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/26 "2012-12-20T03:23:09Z")
Dang, **ZipperJJ** beat me to it! Invariably, every time a co-worker wants to rant at me about chemicals in food, they are either holding: 1. a soda 2. a pack of cigarettes 3. a fast food hamburger (such is irony, MY soda is horrible but their burger isn’t) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/27 "2012-12-20T03:30:42Z")
And I’ve heard that Butterballs are just ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC!!! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/28 "2012-12-20T03:45:07Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And I’ve heard that Butterballs are just ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC!!! :eek: Exactly. And if you hold them up to your ear for too long you’ll get brain cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/29 "2012-12-20T03:57:16Z")
Wonder what the chemical makeup of candied ginger is? Alton Brown (and by extension I), use it in the brine. We brine butterballs, I guess that’s a double whammy (it makes for a stupidly over-juicy bird). ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/30 "2012-12-20T04:20:42Z")
This year I hunted my own turkey. The Safeway manager was pissed… but he got over it. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/31 "2012-12-20T13:29:15Z")
I looked into organic, free-range yadda yadda turkeys this year at Thanksgiving. The cheapest I saw was something like $79 for the bird. The Butterball I ended up buying was around $15. YAY CHEMICALS!! ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/32 "2012-12-20T15:04:49Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Were you brining it or pickling it? > > 😛 I guess that’s debatable. I just read that pickling is more about long-term preservation. . . so, I guess we were brining. Either way it was good. Way to go CHEMICALS! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/33 "2012-12-20T15:42:13Z")
> [@Weirofhermiston](#): > > Consider ignorance fought here, until now I never realised turkeys even had balls. Sure they do, and they’re a lot bigger than the ones moths have. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/34 "2012-12-20T17:36:34Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Oh, if you want to dump on Butterballs and turkey factory farming altogether, feed on the fact that the supermarket turkey of today is a very strange creature indeed! They are bred to yield prodigious amounts of breast meat, so the poor turkey is out of proportion and often has a hard time even walking. Or mating, for that matter! They also have ridiculously short lifespans; the turkeys that get “pardoned” at Thanksgiving are sent to a petting zoo, but they often don’t survive to see the next year. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523/35 "2012-12-20T17:42:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Don’t know about the “full of chemicals” case, but Butterball has been accused of, and some of their people convicted of, cruelty to animals. According to Wikipedia: > > [Butterball - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterball) Mmmmmm, that sweet delicious cruelty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butterball-turkeys-are-full-of-chemicals/644523.md?page=1)