I want turkey!

[Bijou]

Just before Christmas my husband realized that the local natural food store had an organic turkey and so he had them hold it for us until today.  We'd had turkey on Thanksgiving but at someone else's house so no leftovers.  We were having other stuff for Christmas so we decided to cook the turkey on the 26th, today.  He picked it up from the store, we rinsed it out, got it all in the oven and spent the day smelling the fabulous thing roasting.  I made some stuffing and put it in the oven.  When the turkey was done we moved it from the pan and put all the nice brown drippings in a pot to make gravy.  Meantime, I was going to snitch my favorite part of the turkey, that crisp piece of skin at the neck.  I poked around it and realized there was too much substance underneath, so I looked more closely and found the plastic bag of giblets in that cavity.  We were sick...I looked on line and it said "If the plasic has not been altered in the cooking process" you can use the turkey, but otherwise harmful chemicals may have migrated into the turkey and it should be thrown out.  Well, it looked pretty shriveled up to me, and if I have not seen the bag in its original form how would I know if it has been altered?  Anyway, we tossed the turkey, figuring that a 30 dollar turkey was too high a price to pay for health problems down the line...but, boy, we were so disappointed.  I was going to give some of it away to the kids and thank heavens we realized it was tainted before we did that!  Whew.  It's one thing to poison yourself, but someone else...yikes.

[willow08]

Awww. I'm sorry. It's interesting that health food store would sell actual meat. Around here, the health food stores would thrash you with nine-grain bread and ear candles for even mentioning it in their shops.

[IndianInlaw]

Hey, it's organic turkey, they  should have wrapped the stuff in paper, like in the old days.


That's too bad, but count your blessings you didn't have a dining room of hungry guests.

[wetblanket]

I agree - paper would be more appropriate.

[NOVA Lady]

Oh no! How disappointing and after you smelled that delicious smell all day.

Me and my SO did the same thing, we missed turkey from Thanksgiving (we did have leftovers but we love roasted turkey) so we made one on Christmas day After hearing this I am going to be extra careful next time.

i have to say I am surprised the natural turkey from the health food store came with plastic on it. We bought our organic all natural turkey (on sale for half off, yippie!) from Harris Teeter (a supermarket chain in my area) and the giblets were just loose in the cavity and instead of the plastic tie around the legs they just wrapped skin around the legs. I wouldn't think that plastic is too "Natural"

[IndianInlaw]

Add me on the "I cooked a wretched turkey" list.

I won a turkey from the local drug store chain (they are synonymous with their parent company, a grocery store chain).  I picked it up within an hour of receiving the phone call and was surprised to see it sitting on the floor of the storeroom. (That sounds funny ).

It was frozen though, thank goodness.

Since I already had a Thanksgiving turkey, I put it in the freezer until Christmas.  I took one bite and pitched it.

Thank goodness for side dishes!

[Bijou]

Awww. I'm sorry. It's interesting that health food store would sell actual meat. Around here, the health food stores would thrash you with nine-grain bread and ear candles for even mentioning it in their shops.

What an image!  Maybe it's better described as a natural food store (although they do have ear candles and whole grain bread...)  Or, maybe they're like some vegetarians who think that 'fish and poultry' are not meat...You know how some people say they are vegetarians and only eat chicken and fish? 

[Bijou]

Hey, it's organic turkey, they  should have wrapped the stuff in paper, like in the old days.


That's too bad, but count your blessings you didn't have a dining room of hungry guests.

That's what I thought...they should have used paper and there was no one but the two of us for dinner.  As it turned out, the lights went out just a few hours later and stayed off until this morning, so it would have gotten tossed anyway for lack of refrigeration.  We just tossed it sooner rather than later.

[Bijou]

I agree - paper would be more appropriate.

I cannot imagine why they used plastic.  Makes no sense at all.  If it had been paper I wouldn't have been at all concerned. 

[Bijou]

Oh no! How disappointing and after you smelled that delicious smell all day.

Me and my SO did the same thing, we missed turkey from Thanksgiving (we did have leftovers but we love roasted turkey) so we made one on Christmas day After hearing this I am going to be extra careful next time.

i have to say I am surprised the natural turkey from the health food store came with plastic on it. We bought our organic all natural turkey (on sale for half off, yippie!) from Harris Teeter (a supermarket chain in my area) and the giblets were just loose in the cavity and instead of the plastic tie around the legs they just wrapped skin around the legs. I wouldn't think that plastic is too "Natural"

Hopefully this will not happen to us again...I'm not letting that turkey past the oven door until I check the neck cavity.  We usually stuff it but didn't this time so missed that darned bag of giblets.   

[Bijou]

Add me on the "I cooked a wretched turkey" list.

I won a turkey from the local drug store chain (they are synonymous with their parent company, a grocery store chain).  I picked it up within an hour of receiving the phone call and was surprised to see it sitting on the floor of the storeroom. (That sounds funny ).

It was frozen though, thank goodness.

Since I already had a Thanksgiving turkey, I put it in the freezer until Christmas.  I took one bite and pitched it.

Thank goodness for side dishes!

I guess it's being on the floor of the store room indicated how well they handled it...that was even worse to have people for dinner and have to toss the entree! 

[MadMadge43]

So my Not MIL's favorite story is when she made the turkey and didn't take out the gibbletts. When I made it this year (first time ever hosting Thanksgiving, for the Not-in-Laws no less) I made sure to take them out.

Well I didn't realize there were TWO bags! And sure enough not MIL found the second one once it was nice and cooked. We laughed really hard, our plastic was fine so we went ahead and served it. Of course it wasn't cooked all the way through, but NFIL kept telling me how juicy it was, while I couldn't down a bite.

[Bijou]

So my Not MIL's favorite story is when she made the turkey and didn't take out the gibbletts. When I made it this year (first time ever hosting Thanksgiving, for the Not-in-Laws no less) I made sure to take them out.

Well I didn't realize there were TWO bags! And sure enough not MIL found the second one once it was nice and cooked. We laughed really hard, our plastic was fine so we went ahead and served it. Of course it wasn't cooked all the way through, but NFIL kept telling me how juicy it was, while I couldn't down a bite.

Good that you were able to salvage it and not throw it out.