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I was at my local market and noticed they had Butterball smoked turkeys (frozen.) I was kind of in a rush, so I uncharacteristically did not stop to inspect.
Has anyone ever tried these. Are they cooked? ARE THEY GOOD?

Hmmm... anyone?

Smoked would imply cooked. Look for a package statement saying "fully cooked", or otherwise.

http://www.butterball.com/product/froze ... ked-turkey

Thanks Low-N-Slow!

I remember eating one at a cousin's house.

I made a mental note not to ever buy one. It tasted kind of chemically.

That said, I don't think she added anything to it, IIRC.
Just straight from the package.

My suggestion is to order a fresh smoked turkey from Schexnaydre's.
They are at most of the Farmer's Markets.
Talk to Deidre.

Last Christmas I got a smoked duck.
I made Brigtsen's Cherry Sauce and my whole family was literally moaning.

Their products are excellent & affordable.

Hi for the first time,

and I agree with Isabella on getting the real deal.

I don't like Butterball's normal tasteless birds, so I sure wouldn't trust them with something like smoking which might benefit from a human touch.

I grew up in the Texas Hill Country where smoked turkeys were common, and you won't find a better way to eat them IMO. But they do lean toward the dry side so you have to be cautious when heating.

They make the best sammiches ever -- smoked turkey with cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce on marble rye. Yeah, baby.

Good luck on your quest and let us know what you find.

ratcheese wrote: But they do lean toward the dry side so you have to be cautious when heating.

That tends to be the result of any meat cooked too low and too slow, especially poultry. I suppose people assume that if you want smoky flavor, you also have to cook it long and low like a brisket or pork butt. Such is not the case, and in fact, is not recommended. The reason for low/slow cooks is to render intramuscular fat and break down tough connective tissue, neither of which are found to any degree in poultry. Sub-cutaneous fat, yes, especially with duck, but otherwise we're dealing with relatively lean meat throughout.

The preferred method is to cook at higher heat-- as one would in a conventional oven-- in a BBQ "smoker", pit, or even charcoal kettle grill. Brine the turkey first*, to add flavor to otherwise bland meat from the inside, and to give a margin of error to prevent overcooking the white meat. Cook indirectly at 325-350° until a thermometer stuck in the largest part of the breast registers 160, using a sparing amount of smokewood. Rest the turkey 15-20 minutes before carving to allow juices to redistribute, and residual heat to bring the final internal temp up to 165° or just a few degrees higher. Dark meat cooks faster, and should reach 170-175 at around the same time.

People have a tendency to say poultry "really soaks up the smoke", which in reality means "it doesn't take a lot of smoke to overpower a meat that has no strong flavor of its own". So keep it to a minimum with a couple of small chunks of a mild smokewood like apple, or, even more interesting, cherry, which also imparts a remarkable mahogany color to the turkey skin.

(*A turkey labeled "self-basting" is technically already brined.)

Low N Slow,

That bird is absolutely gorgeous!

Low-N-Slow wrote:The preferred method is to cook at higher heat-- as one would in a conventional oven-- in a BBQ "smoker", pit, or even charcoal kettle grill. Brine the turkey first*, to add flavor to otherwise bland meat from the inside, and to give a margin of error to prevent overcooking the white meat. Cook indirectly at 325-350° until a thermometer stuck in the largest part of the breast registers 160, using a sparing amount of smokewood. Rest the turkey 15-20 minutes before carving to allow juices to redistribute, and residual heat to bring the final internal temp up to 165° or just a few degrees higher. Dark meat cooks faster, and should reach 170-175 at around the same time.

Your details are really bringing back some memories.

I am not an outdoor cooker myself, but I recall conversations from my youth that centered around proper cooking temps for turkeys -- I remember people saying that turkeys would actually "spoil", or go bad, right on the pit if the temp wasn't high enough.

Supposedly, this phenomenon was particular to turkeys.

Apparently, many Texas BBQ cooks who were accustomed to smoking briskets overnight, low and slow, learned this the hard way.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Isabella Maja wrote:Low N Slow,

That bird is absolutely gorgeous!

Thanks. It's a rather unlady-like pose, but not trussing the legs allows the pesky thigh joint to get more heat in there, and avoid bloody joint syndrome.

ratcheese wrote:I remember people saying that turkeys would actually "spoil", or go bad, right on the pit if the temp wasn't high enough.

Maybe if it was a really big turkey, and the cook was using a really low temp. Food safety guidelines say you don't want raw meat in the "danger zone" any longer than necessary. You have to remember it's not the bacteria themselves, but the toxins they produce as waste that are the cause of food-borne illness. No high temperatures or amount of cooking will kill it. In reality, though, it would have to be a set of very extreme circumstances coming together for there to be enough toxin produced before the bacteria are killed off. I mainly don't do them low & slow because there's no point, IMO.