If I never cook another bone-in turkey

[pipoman]

I would be perfectly happy.

Last Sunday I cooked a Thanksgiving feast for 250 people. I opted for a product sold through restaurant food suppliers as 'turkey roasts'. Now these are not those nasty rolled products which we have all recoiled from after just one bite. These are whole boned turkeys which are placed back in the skin, then placed in butcher's netting. It is raw turkey which averages around 15 lbs. They cook evenly, the white meat and dark meat make temp at the same time. When it is done (around 5 hours), the netting is cut off and the breast lobes can be carved, the dark meat can be carved and once plated or panned up it is indistinguishable from a traditionally baked bone in turkey other than the white meat is moist. The cooking leaves plenty of good drippings for gravy. They are somewhat more expensive than a bone in turkey but the lack of waste and the simplicity make up for the additional cost IMO. I don't know if these are available in the grocery store, I've never seen them there, but if I ever get out of the restaurant business I will find a restaurant who is willing to order these for me.

Anyone else tried this product?

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in C&B!

[japple]

1. I've never seen whole boned turkey in any of the stores where

I shop. Is this something that is only available thru restaurant suppliers?

BTW, what else did you have on your menu? Your posts usually make me drool.

Tx, japple

[pipoman]

10. It may only be available through restaurant suppliers.

I think it would be a great product for supermarkets, then again bone in turkeys are always loss leaders this time of year at $.60 lb, so maybe people wouldn't want to pay the additional price?

We had turkey and dressing, roast beef, fried chicken, and breaded butterfly shrimp, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry relish, several salads, and homemade pies, berry cobbler, pumpkin cake, and cookies.

My mentor, an 80 year young lifetime restaurant cook, has spent some time over the last several months teaching me how to make the best dressing/stuffing on the planet...I don't know what I would do without her..

[wildflower]

2. That sounds great

I am terrible at dealing with the bones.

Whenever I try to make soup out of them I never get it right. I try to pull all the bones out, but then what about the meat on the bone? I've tried boiling the bones until the meat falls off for soup, and then pulling out the bones, but I never manage to get all the little bones out. And then there's boiling them with vegetables.

It seems the only options are soup that has some little bones in it along with the meat and vegetables, or plain broth with everything else thrown in the compost.

Maybe one of these days I will figure this out, lol.

[The empressof all]

4. I make stock with a strainer in my pot

My stock pot came with a large collander inset which is great just for this reason. I'm able to pull everything out of the broth in one "swell foop" You can also just pour your stock through a strainer at the end or even cook it with a cheese cloth lined pot. I do this once every 10 years or so when I make a fish stock.

[wildflower]

9. Do you pick out the meat and vegetables?

And put them in your soup? I just can't stand to waste anything, hence my problem I guess. I'm not sure if bones can be put in compost, but I think I've heard they can.

[pipoman]

11. I am not much of a fan of

cooking off already cooked bones for stock. I often cook chicken for broth, but start with raw chicken. I always strain my broth, skim the fat, then add the veggies and cook them. I add the pulled cooked chicken back in at the very last minutes before serving.

[grasswire]

22. my suggestion

Those turkey bones take on a lot of flavor if you put the carcass back in a roasting pan and roast them about 375 until they are browned and everything is rendered out.

Then put them in a stock pot, add some water and simmer them for a couple of hours. Not a rolling boil, but a nice simmer.

Deglaze the roasting pan and put all that good brown gunk into your pot, too.

After a couple of hours, strain the contents of the pot and let the carcass/meat/bones cool. THEN pick off the meat by hand out in the light where you can see what's bone and fat.

Return the meat to the broth with chopped vegetables and seasoning. Maybe a bit of leftover stuffing, too, for flavor.

[tigereye]

3. I think when my brother did the turducken thing last year, there were no

bones involved.

But I kind of like the bones in - isn't there some enhanced flavor aspect that's involved with the bones in? I could well be wrong... :shrug: Plus you have no bones for soup, after and no carcass to pick over! :evilgrin:

[pipoman]

12. I don't know,

I think there is definitely added flavor in broths, but just in baking...I didn't really find any difference..and as I said above I don't really find already cooked bones adds anything to my broths...maybe I'm doing it wrong?

[Tesha]

5. cooking for 250?

good grief! you don't need the bones from what? 20 turkeys? what a great find for you Pip!


the little turkey we're getting for backup - in case the one the neighbors are bringing turns out a little weird -
bones will be used for a nice broth - well strained, because those little bones are nasty

[pipoman]

13. Why would the neighbor's turkey be weird?

Did they raise it themselves? I did that a few years ago and it was definitely different than a store turkey..here he is, he was delicious but a little gamey..

[Tesha]

16. No, just inexperience on their part; they're turkey virgins and neither is from America. (NT)

You grew your own? How cool is that?

I had some duck a lifetime ago - eating them was very strange.
Plucking them was almost painful for me.

[hippywife]

6. Hey, pips!

I was just thinking of you the other day and wondering how all was going for you up there.

Sounds like it's all going well and glad to hear that you found something to make your life a little easier.

Happy Holiday to you! :hug:

[pipoman]

14. Hey my friend,

I am still enjoying work. My right hand has been off for 2 weeks so I have cooked much of the food myself. I am ready for him to get back so I can get caught up on some of my manager's work.

Have a great holiday season Hippy!

[Warpy]

7. I've managed to get one once

from an adventurous supermarket in Boston and I agree, they're wonderful. It's got to be over 25 years ago and I haven't seen them since.

The last time I got a turkey, I boned, rolled and tied the breast meat and carved off the thighs and drumsticks. That worked astonishingly well, although not as well as the entire boned bird did.

The carcass with the scraps made great soup.

On edit: I've found lots of sites out there that tell you how to debone the bird yourself or that tell you to tell your butcher (an endangered species!) to do it, but none that sell and ship a deboned bird. Crap.

[hippywife]

8. I found a few

Cajun sites like this one and another called Cajun Specialty Meats. They are all stuffed already tho:

http://www.hebertsmeats.com/boneless_stuffed_turkey.asp

[eleny]

17. Looks like Butterball sells them...

http://www.butterball.com/product/boneless-turkey-roast

But I haven't determined if they're just as pipoman describes. It sort of sounds like they are. I might call them next week when they're help line calms down and ask where to buy and how they're put together.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

23. I roasted one of these yesterday, I bought the white meat one

since that's my preference. Big Y in my area carries them.

It was moist and tasty. When it was done,I did have a problem getting the netting off the skin but I probably didn't follow the prep instructions very well.

[pipoman]

15. I wondered if I couldnt roll my own

if needed. I think I would go ask a local ma and pa restaurant to order me one...problem is that both Sysco's and Ben E. Keith's come's 2 in a case so I would have to find someone to split with or keep one frozen for later....maybe one for Christmas and one for Thanksgiving. Of coarse I would mail you one but that would add shipping to the price.

[hippywife]

18. How much are they asking

for the case? I'm wondering if our Dining Services Manager saw those. He came to me today all stressed out about seating for tomorrow since he's never worked a holiday at our place yet and our new dining room is a wee bit smaller than the old one to comply with ADA standards, so we walked through some alternatives that will work well for him.

Sometimes I really wish I was working in the kitchen there, as you are at your place, but then I would be extremely frustrated at the lack of creativity and the limit on expenditures I would have to endure.

[pipoman]

19. Sysco's

product # is 1141332 and our price is $2.493 per/lb, the case being 2 - 9 to 12 lb roasts. The Ben E. Keith roasts were all solid 15 lbs. each. These prices can vary based on location and purchasing contracts. I don't have my Ben E. Keith log-in here but the price is similar.

[hippywife]

20. Interesting.

Just needed a ballpark and that gives it to me.

Thanx, sweetie. Hope you get some rest soon. It's awful good to see you around again. :hug:

[pipoman]

21. I'll be getting rest in January

We have holiday parties booked almost every night from right after Thanksgiving through New years...Very nice to see you too..