There were rumors flying about a lack of turkeys this year, driving up the price. I don’t know what happened in your part of the country but here in the Piedmont of North Carolina, we had great turkey sales. In fact, I got mine for 29 cents a pound.
Now, there was no shortage of turkeys here so I went ahead and picked up four – one for Thanksgiving, another for Christmas, and two to process. For instance, at this price I got a 19.56 pound turkey for $5.67. I’m not pre-cooking the extra turkeys, instead my husband cut them into pieces for various uses. Here’s a quick list:
- Breast was cut in two and frozen for slow cooking
- Legs were frozen to put in smoker another day
- Wings from one turkey frozen for smoker, others used for stock
- Thighs cut in chunks and canned in broth
- Carcass used for making stock
Here are all the pieces – I know, it’s not appetizing to look at.
This is the turkey breast – mind you I paid 29 cents a pound for it, and I have four of these for dinners.
To cut the turkey, you find the joint of the leg and cut around, and snap it loose. We did the legs first.
After, we cut the breast off, we cut the thighs. You could smoke the breast and slice into lunch meat – we did that last year and it was delicious!
We cut the wings off, which as listed could be used for stock or smoking.
The stock is one of my favorite things from holiday turkeys.
After I make the stock, I enrich it with extra garlic, turmeric, onion powder, and a bit of poultry bullion if needed. I had my daughter taste my turkey stock, and her eyes popped wide open. She then proceeded to drink a pint as a snack. Made my mom’s heart happy she sipped the homemade stock down, knowing it’s so healthy.
I look forward every year to these awesome turkey deals, so I can enjoy rich turkey stock, turkey soup, turkey and gravy and much more for all year long. Sure, I can buy turkeys anytime, but not at these prices. Even though we had rumors of turkey shortages we came out fine, which is one reason to give thanks.
There were quite the deals this year. I think we got ours for $.37/lb. I think cutting them up for your smoker sounds like a good idea. I’m not a big fan of turkey, but smoked sounds good.
My stock came out so good – best I’ve ever made! Glad you got a deal too!