How long does a frozen turkey last?

We were graciously given a frozen turkey this past January and it has remained in that state (no power outages). Would it still be ok to use or does it need to be tossed? We're not big turkey fans except on Thanksgiving but I don't want to wast a thing.

Thanks!

After that, dehydration due to prolonged exposure in a low-moisture environment found in modern freezers can affect the taste quality, but not the safety of the product.


Frozen turkeys are processed year-round, so a turkey you purchase this November for Thanksgiving may have been frozen last year, anyway.

A 'use-by' label applied by the packer is usually very conservative as they want the end-consumer to eat the product at the height of quality.

Just put it in the fridge to thaw and hopefully it'll be fine. Normally these are questions I'd ask my mother but since she's gone internet friends will need to suffice. Thanks!

I've been in the retail, wholesale or distribution of foods my entire life, in one way or another, and these same turkey questions get asked every year.

It may have even been two years. I was not expecting the best results and was amazed at how good it turned out.

So, ya never know until you try.

Back when they were a promo at 29 cents a pound I bought as many as I could fit in my freezer - which turned out to be 4 plus one to cook right away. My husband still gives me grief about it but at 5 bucks apiece for an 18 pound bird, it made sense to pick one up on the way home each day that week. We had a thanksgiving one, a christmas one, an easter one, and an "I have a week off work, I think I'll cook a turkey" one.

My last one will get cooked for this coming thanksgiving. I don't know what will happen if they have another sale. I'll probably end up getting divorced.

And that really is a lot of turkey! On Thanksgivings where it's just my mom and me we don't even do turkey, maybe a roasting chicken or even cornish game hens. Turkey is really the easiest thing I could chop out of Thanksgiving and never miss it. Gotta have my mom's cornbread dressing though. :)

I looked at the $5, and realized I was spending that much for one pound of sliced deli turkey for the husband's lunches each week - even if all we used was one breast and threw out the rest I'd be saving money. Not that we did that, I use almost all of it, down to soup and when we're sick of that I freeze the soup in batches for reheating.

And the freezer - we have a side by side which helps, and my old small fridge from when I was single in the basement as a beer and home canning fridge, but even with that trying to fit them in was like doing a jigsaw puzzle when you aren't absolutely sure you have all the right pieces.

You're really smart to store that many away. For some reason our family doesn't care for it other than once a year, but they do love whole chickens (roasted especially) so I stock up when those go on sale.

Only on Thanksgiving. We had it on Christmas for a while, then my mom switch to much more preferred seafood gumbo. Yum yum! Easter was always brisket or ribs that my dad smoked. Now, I can take it or leave it, turkey isn't a deal breaker.

We do steak and seafood at christmas and ham or lamb on easter. But I love seafood gumbo--do you have a good recipe?

I've never made it, my mom always does.

You can't screw with the thanksgiving turkey, it's sacred, but with the others I played with different cooking techniques like jamming stuffing between the skin and the meat to keep it from drying out. I spatchcocked one of them - and was smart enough to do it when I was home alone. I was doing fine til it came to the time to break the breastbone and I wasn't strong enough. I had to wrap it in a giant plastic bag and jump up and down on it. (They never show those scenes on iron chef.)

When we were clearing out the chest freezer before moving into the new house, I found at the very bottom a turkey that had been frozen for over five years. Hubby wanted me to cook it. I did not think it was worth the risk. He put it in the refrigerator to thaw it.

I won - I took the thawed carcass out into the pasture and left it. The vultures had a great time. The only parts of the turkey we could find the next day were the pelvis bones, the plastic bag the giblets had been in and the plastic thing that held the legs together. I sweat those vultures check that spot in the field every time they fly over, hoping we'll put another turkey out for them again.

I have cooked turkeys that were frozen for nearly a year. And with only two of us, lots of them went back in the freezer in a cooked state and took a couple of months to use up.

when they go on sale prior to Thanksgiving. They have them at times over the whole winter, get huge great meals for 80 cents a pound or less.

I have one in my freezer right now, and will get at least one more over the next few weeks.


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