If it's mid-November, there must be some sort of panic-inducing announcement about the shortage of a Thanksgiving dinner staple. In years past, pumpkin pie filling has been locus of the upset. This year, it's fresh Butterball turkeys.
Note: that's specifically fresh Butterball turkeys, and just that particular brand. There are still plenty of frozen turkeys from Butterball, as well as fresh birds from other producers available for your roasting pleasure. But the mere notion of not having enough of a T-Day dish to gobble down seems to incite freakout.
The skinny: some farmers who supply Butterball couldn't get their turkeys to plump up sufficiently, so fresh ones over 16 pounds might be in short supply.
Butterball released a statement via e-mail saying in part: "Butterball and its retail partners have ample supply of frozen whole turkeys of all sizes – small, medium or large. While there may be limited availability on some larger sizes of fresh turkeys, Butterball has shipped 100 percent of customer orders of frozen whole turkeys and products are in distribution across the country. We experienced a decline in weight gains on some of our farms causing a limited availability of large, fresh turkeys. While we are continuing to evaluate all potential causes, we are working to remedy the issue. We sincerely regret the inconvenience that some of our customers have experienced as a result of this issue."
Butterball produces around 1.3 billion pounds of turkey meat a year, and 20% of the United States' turkeys.
Breathing a little easier? Good. You've got ten days until holiday madness descends. Make 'em count.
Thanksgiving help:
Turkey tips you wish you'd known sooner
Buy right and don't waste food
Thanksgiving dinner for 8 for $70
Stocking up for the big day
Avoid these dreaded dishes
5 Reasons to buy a heritage bird
Get your prep work out of the way
Defrost that bird!
Safe time and temperature for turkey
Philippe Cousteau's perfect turkey and gravy (and an ethical dilemma)
5 Turkey don'ts
Thaw that bird!
Out of time? Spatchcock that turkey!
Stress-free brining
Deep-fried indoor turkey – for science
Did someone say there's a shortage of Ball Butter? Say it ain't so!
If there's a shortage of Butterballs... go with Jennie-O. Just sayin'.
Lies. Last time I was at Wal-Mart all I saw were Butterballs
Use a cooking bag. keeps the meat moist. Use a meat thermometer, too....don't trust those pop-up thingy!
best way to go!
( a turkey is a turkey no matter what the brand name is! It's all in the way u cook it! That is if u no how 2 !
Did you text that comment from your 10-key? No? Then type out the words you lazy freak.
Nope, I'm 17, YOU freak.
atmospere/cor
by the all time whining on here from the negative posts id wager the atmoshere is the same around you HAPPY TURKEY DAY
Turkey sucks, I'd rather have a good steak.
Agreed, Turkey is too mainstream go with Duck, Goose, Elk, Deer, Pigeon or better yet rabbit instead.
Be a rebel at the thanksgiving table, whoo!
I like turkey OK. It's cheap, and mild in flavor, so you can modify it in lots of ways.
Duck is also good, but not so easy to find. Goose is weird; it's full of fat, to the point where you can cook a 12 pound goose and wind up with 5 pounds of meat and 8 pounds of fat.
I prefer meats that obey the laws of physics.
i agree with you i have worked in both plants but the beef plants like JBS are nasty and the butterballs are extremely clean. i had to quit in the beef because the nastiness. i spend two months to be able to eat beef again.
YOU suck,
So what? Cook some chickens, cook a ham, cook a roast, your thanksgiving main dish doesn't HAVE to be turkey. And to a lesser and more pathetic extent, if you're a liberal, put on your favorite unisex hippie skirt and go vegan for thanksgiving. The day is about family, gratitude and being together. The actual meal is trivial.
pffft, the only reason I put up with my family that day is for the tasty Turkey!
Thumbs up!
Most turkeys mass produced are abused, kicked, dragged, and beaten with metal rods before they make it to your table. Factory farming of pigs, cows, and chickens produce the same horrific results. I would encourage you to look at the videos on the internet of farm animal abuse before eating another steak, burger, or chicken sandwich. Most of these animals are pumped full of hormones to grow rapidly beyond their normal weight range. When you eat their flesh, you are ingesting those chemicals as well. Think about the welfare of those animals and your health as well.
"abused, kicked, dragged, and beaten with metal rods"
So what you are saying is they are tenderizing their delicious flesh for me so I don't have to? That must be why it is so moist and tasty!!!
lol
As my Dad would say, "Shut up and eat."
You should look at the impact farming of vegetation has on the environment.
yeah they beat the ground and the plants with rods, roll it with equipment, heavy equipment i cant keep going its stupid,... lets have a steak and let them miss it
I've got news for you: the chemicals used for the vast majority of fruit and vegetable production are worse than those growth hormones... and the ones that haven't been treated with those chemicals probably house the larvae (and occasionally adults) of various bugs (which, by the way, means that you're still eating animal products, just not as tasty ones.)
Don't even waste your time. The truth of what goes on in meat production is an atrocity, but some people are simply too self centered and heartless to care. Even when you point out that the cause of increased disease in this country is due to eating meat, people are in denial. The real shame is that it doesn't have to be this way.
Aren't you just a ray of Sunshine!?
Calling him a Butterball is just being mean to Mayor Ford!
Why does it have to be turkey anyways?
As a person in agri business, I can tell you this is one of the biggest hoaxes ever played on American consumer. Butterball grew a record number of turkeys in 2013 and Turkeys grow at a very predictable rate ie large Tom Turkeys will be 38 pounds in 18 weeks and it takes approximately the same amount of time to grow a hen turkey that will dress out around 18 pounds. Quite simply, Butterball(now owned by Seaboard Farms) is trying to exit the fresh turkey business to limit their financial exposure on fresh spoiled turkeys, many which have to be slaughtered in mid October. It's the reason so few national companies sell fresh turkeys
Makes perfect sense what you post there. I was simply figuring that this 'shortage' was just a way to jack up prices even further by generating buzz "Gotta have a fresh Butterball turkey' for some extra (however tiny it may actually be) snob factor for the table.
I'd rather have frozen anyway. The process of spoilage starts a few hours after butchering. The sooner it is frozen, the less the spoilage has progressed until it is thawed and cooked right away. Turkeys carry E. coli and other nasty bugs to the same degree that chickens do too.
I actually use fresh breast cutlets...no wate that way fora smaller gathering. And don't forget to brine your birds, to bring in added flavor.
That doesn't satisfy those of us who prefer the dark meat. A better option is getting a large chicken and roasting it.
Here's the problem. He lied and he knew it. The idea all along was to get people tossed off their plans so they had to enroll in the exchanges which defrays the cost of the sick and elderly. Regardless if it will be beneficial or not, the bottom line is that subterfuge was used to sell it. This was a President that promised transparency. Unfortunately, he is just a more eloquent version of the same old Washington culture.
Thanks for telling us about all the Turkeys in Washington……..Your on the Wrong thread.
ROFL!
Someone is confusing the movie "Free Birds" with reality......
Get psychiatric help today. It's covered by the Affordable Care Act.
What the what now? Are the birds speaking to you?
The only reason to get a fresh turkey is if you want to baste it yourself or fry it. All frozen turkeys are self basting. When you want to fry a turkey you do not want that basting solution injected in the breast.
When I was in the business, most folks were confused regarding the difference in the fresh and frozen.
I don't want basting solution pre-injected in any case.
There is something Fowl about this article.
I suspect a marketing ploy? Create a shortage and people will run out to buy? However I agree with other posters, I haven't purchased a Butterball in years ever since the one I did buy was tough and tasted like soap...or something un-turkey like. Try to buy the one least messed with.
"Free Range" means the bird has a window to look out.
Best answer on this post:) Most people do not even realize the difference between "free range" which means living outside and "free range" which means never outside. Incidentally, Butterball marketing department came up with that phrase when owned by Carolina in an effort to crack the health food crowd and sell massive amounts of over produced turkeys
Free range means the turkey can wander around and pick his food out of random cow poops.
Most of the frozen turkeys are years old! If you were to get a 'fresh' turkey, that is pick it out from the farm, you would probably not like it as it's so different. Believe me I did it and won't again!
The oldest any frozen turkey would possibly be is a year old at time of sale and that would be rare. Frozen turkeys like most other frozen food products have a use by/sell by date and most if not all warehous3es have a requirement that product have 90 days left on an items sell life upon receipt. Ive known people that have kept frozen turkeys in freezer for 2-3 years, but you wouldn't buy anything that old at store
Frozen turkeys are not that old. Also, while fresh turkey is different than frozen, it is not so radically different as you suggest. We live in a turkey-producing state and always get fresh turkeys for thanksgiving, but we get frozen at other times of the year. The difference is not so substantial that your average person would want one but never the other.
I prefer Perdue turkey sowwy :P
We don't eat Butterball. And our rural supermarket apparently keeps frozen turkeys from previous years. I hope this year I get a vintage turkey younger than my table wine. LOL.
I'm not a fan of them anyhow. Too salty.
You need to learn to prepare one correctly.
Rather than send food and water to the Philippines, Sarah Palin has decided to send the many thousands of unsold copies of her daughter Bristol's book. She thinks that even if people are starving to death they will still enjoy the memoirs of a drunk, pregnant teenager.
Time to get off the computer and get a life.
PQ...Looks like a typical libtard to me....they have no life.
Loser.....
Interesting how you label that person " a loser" whom you really don't know.. who are you judging others? if that person speaks for their opinion.. let that person speak their owns as your own opinion applies others.. man you are a sore loser who thinks others are losers...
He left his opinion just like the original poster did.
His "opinion" since 2008 has been unfunny Sarah Palin jokes.
He is a l o s e r, I'm pretty moderate and voted for Obama, but this dude has an obsession that borders on future stalker of America club.
So, yeah, big time l o s e r
Seems like someone can't comprehend the subject of the discussion? Maybe too many years on the pipe?
Can we send you to the Phillipines.....then maybe we'd get funny posters once in a while
Nobody's trying to be funny. Merely pointing out the absurdities of the teabaggers.
....says the m o r o n obsessed with them and Palin
Free-Range is the only way to go. You never forget the flavor.
After 35 years in the business, I'd bet a years pay I could place a free range turkey and any other on a taste panel and you couldn't differentiated. No offense, as our company has ru literally hundreds of independent taste panels and less than 2% of people pick correctly and my guess is they guessed. I have no problem with free range and we receive a premium but free range birds carry much more disease in their gut due to eating contaminated feed etc......courtesy of bird droppings etc.
That can't be right. If there are two choices, about half the people should guess correctly based on dumb luck.
I feel so sorry for animals that are raised to have a short, miserable life.
My turkey died taking a bullet for me when the intruders broke in, so we will honor it by shoving bread crumbs up its bum and letting him rest in a sauna all day before he is the main attraction on our table.
You'd be ok with us eating him then,. right?
c
Tips: A) Don't buy Butterball; they're nasty. You're paying for the water they're injected with. B) If you need more than a 15-16 pound turkey, cook two smaller ones instead of a pterodactyl-size beast that will be touch and dry in comparison, and take longer to cook, too.
I agree 100%. Butterball tastes like old rancid butter flavoring, and the pop up timers are NEVER accurate. Roast two, slice up one and have the other for traditional carving at table.
Perhaps you need to learn how to prepare a bird.
I already know how. Part of that knowledge is: don't use Butterball.
I cook 15 lbs fresh turkeys on my rotisserie grill. Works great. If we are feeding a lot of people, I get a 2nd, smaller bird for the oven, and we slice that one, like Six suggested ... or we get a goose for the oven.
(Turkey is easy to prepare ... once you've cooked a large goose, you will laugh every time you hear someone complaining about having to cook a turkey!)
I told you its the Turkey Apocalyps!!!!!!