By Leslie Brenner
Over the next few days, more then 40 million Americans are expected to head to the supermarket and purchase a turkey. How many of those humans will take it on faith that the bird they purchase is the size it’s purported to be? And do they know whether the weight on the label — the weight on which many will base their roasting times — is with or without the neck, giblets bag and plastic holding things in place?
Last year my turkey was more than two pounds lighter than the weight indicated on the label. Good thing I weighed it when I got home, or that bird would have been toast.
The turkey in question — an organic one purchased at Whole Foods — was labeled 11.36 pounds, and that’s what I paid for. Once home, I weighed it: The actual weight was 8 pounds, 12.6 ounces — including all the plastic, the neck and the giblet bag. Weight of the turkey without the neck; in other words, the roast-able, serve-able part? A mere 7 pounds 14 ounces.
Good thing I hadn’t invited the neighborhood!
Meanwhile, weighing it also prevented me from leaving it in the oven too long. Had I timed the roasting as if it were a 10- or 11- pound bird, it would have been seriously overcooked before the instant-read thermometer went anywhere near it. Not even the president could have pardoned that.
Did my mis-labeled bird represent a larger, undiscovered phenomenon? Were other unsuspecting turkey-lovers being overcharged for their birds as well? Imagine 40 million such mistakes in supermarkets’ favor. Or could the packing houses or the turkey processors be the ones cleaning up, selling mis-labeled birds to supermarket chains? Are underweight turkeys something the cooking public needs to be on the alert for. Or was what happened to me simply an innocent, random mistake?
I had to find out, so I snapped photos of the weight on the label, the whole package on my scale (showing the true weight), and the weight of each component. Receipt in hand, I returned to Whole Foods to see the manager, who called over the head of the meat department when I showed her my photos. Bafflement all around — and no offer to refund what I had overpaid. They collected my email address and said someone would contact me from corporate.
Why the weight is important
There are many reasons an accurate weight is important — for any kind of food product. For one thing, you need to get what you’re paying for (pretty basic!).
In the case of a turkey, obviously you need to know that you’ll have enough for your guests. The general rule-of-thumb is one to one and a half pounds of turkey per person (when you’re talking about a whole bird). If I were serving 10 guests and chose what was labeled an 11+ pound bird, that should have been ample. But if it were actually under 8 pounds? Might be a bit sparse — not what you want on Thanksgiving.
Then there’s the prep and cooking. If you dry-brine — that is, salt the bird a few days in advance of roasting for succulent, flavorful meat and crisp, golden skin — you need an accurate weight to know how much salt to rub on.
Whether you have dry-brined, wet brined or not brined at all, the weight will tell you approximately how long the turkey will need to roast. It won’t be anything like exact — oven temperatures very wildly, and most ovens do not heat evenly or maintain even heat during a long stretch. But at least the weight will help you know at what point to start checking on the turkey for doneness.
Using our Cooks Without Borders recipe, a 12-pound turkey usually roasts in about 2 hours and 45 minutes, but I always start checking at about the 2-hour mark, just in case. Miss the mark, start testing too late, and it’ll quickly go from done to dry and overcooked, particularly the breast.
You want the dark meat to reach 165 degrees F / 74 degrees C, but not go beyond that. The white meat will already be a bit more cooked than ideal at that temperature (which is why many cooks spatchcock). I love the presentation of a whole bird, so I live with less-than-perfect white meat. It’s a choice. It’s still delicious. But not if you go must past that dark-meat-is-done point.
The case of the mis-labeled turkey
In an effort to find out how my turkey was mislabeled, my local Whole Foods’ “Meat Team Leader” contacted someone in corporate, and it went all the way up to a District Vice-President, who personally called me, promising to get to the bottom of it and get back to me. I had to point out to him that still, no one had offered to refund what I had overpaid.
He did, and gave me a $25 Whole Foods gift card for my trouble.
He also got back to me, after contacting the processing center, and told me that they thoroughly looked into it, and determined that my mislabeled bird was an isolated incident — there was no systemic problem. Much appreciated, and I hope he’s right. Please weigh your bird.
Ready, set, go!
Today’s the day to purchase your turkey if you’re dry-brining; that way you’ll have it ready to salt Monday morning. (Or you could purchase first thing Monday and get it going by mid-day.) Here’s the recipe, to guide you, along with recipes for savory sides and appetizers.