Thanksgiving help needed

Cafe Society
1

I live with and care for my elderly, dementia-addled mother. My sister comes by now and again, helps out, brings us meat from the commissary. This week, she brought what is to be our Thanksgiving dinner: a 3lb Butterball boneless turnkey breast roast, white and dark meat, with up to a 20% solution of water and sadness.

Did she just buy me 3lbs of that cheap, ground up turkey roll from the deli? You know, the cheap stuff without any stringy, turkey-like meat at all, just those spongy Frisbee-like slices? She means well, but she’s AMAZING with her unerring ability to buy the wrong thing. She’s the kind of person you send out for Oreos and she brings back Hydroxs. She buys pork and beef cuts I’ve never heard of, and I used to work in a grocery store meat dept.

So, is this a pathetic Thanksgiving in the making? Have to know before it’s too late to buy a real, small turkey . . .and somehow keep her from finding out :slight_smile:

2

Are you dead set on having a turkey? If not, you might consider getting a duck or a couple of Cornish game hens. These cook up nicely and make lovely holiday dinners.

Of course, you won’t have much in the way of leftovers, but I find using them up before they spoil is something of a PITA anyway. Better to just buy a chicken too and make a nice pot of soup with it.

3

You might want to see THIS POST.

I haven’t cooked, or even eaten, a Cornish game hen, but I’d like to one day. Not on Thanksgiving, though. I’m not gonna muck about with duck either. Never cooked or ate one of those, either, and I hear they can be greasy, and even gamy, if not prepared correctly. Unless the Bumpus’ dogs knock over the table and ruin the turkey, I think we’ll pass on the duck.

Plus, note the “elderly” and “dementia-addled” description in the OP. I’m looking for traditional here.

4

I dig where you’re coming from. If you can’t find a small turkey that would more than adequately feed two (no minor task, I know; whenever I want to buy a turkey, I have to go through the whole bin before I find one that isn’t on the order of 18 pounds or more), I’d suggest you look for individual breasts, thighs, whatever, in the poultry section of the supermarket. You’ll get the same meat, it cooks up just fine, and you won’t have to worry about carving the bird or eating leftovers until it’s time for the Christmas turkey.

5

Or, you could do a Gordon Ramsey and turn out a nice Beef Wellington, but I don’t know how traditional that is. (I might opt for a goose myself, but dear God, they’re expensive! Expensive **and **fatty!)

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I said. . .TRA. DIT. ION. AL.

Not Beef Wellington, not standing rib roast, not whole lobster with pilgrim hats and not friggin’ Clams Casino either. TURKEY.

Sorry terentii, I appreciate your effort and zeal, but you’re getting far afield and don’t seem to be grasping the topic at hand. I’m quite confident in my ability to locate and purchase a proper turkey suitable to our needs, and have no worries in that area. It’s my sister who can’t, apparently - which brings us back to the OP, if you please. I’d like to know what atrocity she’s purchased before I go to thaw it out and find it to be deli turkey roll. I googled some, but they don’t exactly advertise it when they’re peddling disappointment. If they’ve filleted the breast and netted it together or somesuch, it’s at least meatlike and workable, with effort. I fear a ground-up, spongy abomination, though.

7

I believe these are breasts, and can be roasted into the semblance of a turkey dinner.

Oh, wait, here are some people talking about it:

8

Thanks! Yeah, I’m reading and they’re talking about removing string and rolling out the breast and hammering it. Sounds like a fillet. Found something else where they talk about roasting it, “Skin side up”, so they left the skin on it too, which means it’s probably deboned and not ground up. Good news! Not what I wanted precisely, but it’s real meat and I can work with that. Was thinking about trying it in a crock pot, but the white meat might just get tougher. Guess I’ll take a swing at roasting it. Hope I can make a proper gravy with that thing. Maybe I’ll buy a leg or wings to throw in with the roast, for the fat and flavor.

Might try some gluten-free stuffing too. Gonna be pricey with the price of gluten-free bread. I’ll make less.

9

Yeah, I think the risk will be dryness/blandness, and your idea of adding in something with more fat makes a lot of sense.

This is a slight hijack, but an honest question related to the topic, open to anyone: are the flavors of chicken/turkey distinct enough from one another that some chicken legs wouldn’t work here?

10

I’ve cooked this kind of turkey breast many times. It’s real turkey, not a processed hunk, but in order to keep all the meat in a tidy shape, they use one of those net bags on it. It should cook up just fine in the oven as a roast, or I often do this type on the grill on the rotisserie. Cook, remove the net, and then slice and serve. I usually put some sort of rub on it, and the net can be a little annoying to get off when it’s done, with little pieces of seasoning pinging off in all directions. I’ve done many Thanksgiving dinners for two and while it’s not quite the same as carving a big bird, the taste is there and it’s well worth not having to deal with the hassle of a whole turkey.

11

There are turkey breasts that contain dark meat?

12

I’m guessing OP’s sister didn’t bring home an actual turkey breast roast. I bet it was this.

Imagine a very small whole turkey, mechanically deboned, chopped coarsely, mushed together into a single loaf, and tightly bound in a string net. That’s what this is.

I mean, it’s turkey meat. It’s both white and dark meat. But it’s not a turkey.

It roasts up OK, but you have to pick the net out of it after cooking, which (annoyingly) will take some of the meat with it, so you can write off a good portion of the outer layer of meat chunks unless you’re willing to obsessively pick the meat off the strings.

Yes, I’ve had one. It cooks up and eats like turkey, more or less. But being boneless, you lose a source of flavor and moisture. OTOH, when you serve it up, it’s almost already bite-sized bits, so no more laboring over whole slabs of tasty meat with a table knife. :confused: (I’m reaching for benefits here.)

From my experience, I would consider it “supplemental turkey” at best. YMMV. It beats starvation, or “no turkey at all on our traditional Thanksgiving table.”

13

I used to go to Aldi a few days before Thanksgiving, they often had smallish Butterball frozen turkeys, sometimes 10-12 lbs., pretty cheap! I thawed it out in the refrigerator properly, rinsed, stuck in a baking bag, and it came out just fine. We ate it for a couple of days, then slice and freeze leftovers, covered in gravy - then just throw the rest out and get a pizza… You could also buy a turkey breast and a turkey leg and cook them if a whole turkey is too much. Slow roasted turkey thigh or leg with lots of salt and pepper is pretty tasty, though I don’t like turkey much… See, a few years ago I had to shop, prep, cook, serve, and clean up on Thanksgiving at my mother’s - she had dementia, too. Then repeat the same thing for my own little family the next day, because we wanted our own Thanksgiving. It got to be too, too much. I ended up taking mom and a disabled brother out to eat sometime Thanksgiving week, to a buffet. Her church and his group home also put on big spreads. So I was down to cooking one meal…now there are just three of us, with a grown daughter who might have her own plans elsewhere, and I am done with all that. It’s a big jolly happy Waltons family holiday, and it’s just us, and I loathe it now. Would just as soon get Chinese food, make lasagna, or get pizza…As for your sister’s contribution, I used to cook that turkey roast a lot years ago, it wasn’t that bad but very very salty. If you don’t want to buy a smallish turkey, or turkey parts, and you simply MUST have turkey - it’s not that bad…Holidays bring out a lot of sadness and depression and angst in people, who measure themselves against the Big Jolly Happy Families on tv commercials. I didn’t mind taking my mother and brother out to eat, but it was still depressing. I had a well-off brother living 2000 miles away, and he would call to chat, and tell me all about the grand Thanksgiving Day lobster roast he and the neighbors had on the beach! … ‘and how was mom and brother doing?’…LOL.

14

Cornish game hens are just small chickens. The name is just a marketing ploy.

15

I can’t answer the OP’s direct question, whether what s/he got was ‘solid meat’ as opposed to ‘processed and formed’. But here’s a suggestion: Get a turkey and roast that for Thanksgiving. Save the mystery bird in the freezer for another day.

I have the same problem. There’s only two of us, plus two cats. I want to buy a whole turkey so I can be sure of getting all of the fat, skin, dark meat, neck, and the traditional internal organs. The last couple of years I’ve been able to find small-ish turkeys at Trader Joe’s. The one I bought yesterday is 13 pounds. Still too small, but not 20 pounds either. I’ve decided I like TJ’s pre-brined turkey, so it won’t go to waste. As I posted (originally) last year, sooner or later, everything winds up in a tortilla. Only, we still have 16 chicken/green chile/cheese taquitos that I made from the leftovers of the chicken I roasted a couple of weeks ago. I think ‘turk-itos’ would be excessive. Maybe I’ll make turkey tetrachloride.

16

Thanks to all for the suggestions and the backstories on your own Thanksgivings.

It IS a turkey breast roast. I tried to write it up as accurately as I could, but now found a link to it. It says “turkey breast roast” and “white and dark meat.” I don’t get that either. Maybe they realized it needed some dark for flavor, or they’re moving a little dark meat with the white, as no one buys, “turkey leg roast.”

I’ll definitely get some wings or a leg to go with it and throw it in the roaster. Not sure what else I’ll get up to. Maybe take a stab at gluten-free stuffing, but I can’t have onions these days either, which hurts the cause. Not sure I can approximate my favorite stuffing with so many changes. Not a fan of seafood stuffings, raisins in stuffing, and nuts aren’t a fan of mine either. Bowel issues suck. Well, I’ll see what I can do. Gravy covers a lot of sins, and assuming I get enough fat from the roast/leg/wings, I have that reasonably covered.

I will probably contemplate buying an actual turkey up until I go get the wings/leg I want to toss in with this. If I can’t find what I want that day, or a mood takes me, I’ll get a small turkey, and save this for a lesser occasion, like a normal meal on a weekend or something.

I miss biscuits for the gravy, but not enough to make them from scratch with gluten-free flour. I haven’t had a lot of success with gluten-free baking anyway. Maybe I’ll make some cornbread. It’s not biscuits, but it’s not something we have very often, so it will be a nice treat.

salinqmind, I know what you mean about the “big family dinner” and depression. It used to be a bigger deal, but after a few small thanksgivings, you mostly get past it. It helps if you’re sick all the time too, and you don’t really have the energy for a big thanksgiving, or even to think about it much. Other things push those thoughts from your mind, and you’re just happy to get through the day.

17

Is there a label on the mystery meat saying which store it came from , if yes you could all the store and see just what you’re dealing with . I hate to say but it sound gross to me and I would go buy some a real turkey . Is your mom a fussy eater ,I was a health aide and know how hard it can be to pleases a person with dementia . I would try buy what your mom like to eat to made it a lot easier on yourself.

18

FWIW, here’s a page with pics of the finished product, cooked and sliced.

19

Yeah, it’s a Butterball:

Yeah, high chance of spongy grossness, I thought.

Johnny L.A.'s link shows a bland, dry-looking beast, though at least it’s not ground-up and spongy. That will take some effort to make moist and tasty, if it can be. Maybe save back some drippings before making the gravy, and pour it over the cut meat. Maybe a little butter melted in. . . looks like it will be tough and dry to me. Thanks for the link, Johnny.

20

I meant does the label say the name of the store it came from , the meat department can give you some advice how to cook it ,or there should be a phone # to call Butterball and find out the best way to cook the turkey. Good luck !