Whole turkeys are a steal for meat, when bought during the holiday season, and stored in the freezer, even at the higher price per pound that we've seen in recent years. (I paid about 50 cents/lb last year for each of my turkeys.) But after the holidays, with only a small family to feed, we're not as thrilled with leftovers that last for weeks (I can get 8-10 family meals from a 20 lb turkey). The last of the turkey is often the bits and scraps that we don't care for as much, like back meat, or the wings.
All that aside, I like the savings of having an extra whole turkey or two, for roasting during non-holiday periods. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I clear some space in the freezer for one or two extra turkeys. Then when the turkey deals come out, I buy three turkeys, roast one for the holiday and freeze the others, raw in their packaging from the store, with no extra attention to wrapping. Over the years, I've only had one turkey ever have signs of freezer burn, and that was one small-ish patch on a turkey that had been stored up against a frost-free freezer wall (where the heat cycles on and off to keep the freezer frost-free), for over a year. I typically roast the last of my extra whole turkeys in September each year, just after the weather has cooled and heating the kitchen with the oven is welcome, but still long enough before our Thanksgiving that the whole turkey, then, still feels novel.
This week I roasted my last turkey from Thanksgiving 2016. To circumvent my dislike for several meals of what we think of as the inferior parts of the turkey in the freezer-leftovers repertoire, I actually cut off and froze what we think are the best parts -- the breasts.
When the turkey was roasted and ready to carve, my first step was to carve off one and a half breasts, as close to the bone as I could. I wrapped these pieces and tucked them in the freezer. For our family, one and a half breasts is about 3 family meals, with lunch leftovers. I kept the breast pieces in half-breast slabs, to hold in juices and flavor.
When I made the gravy, I also froze 3 containers of it, ready to go. What tackling the turkey this way does is force me to use the less-palatable portions of the bird, in the early days, when we're still happy-enough to be having so much turkey. And it gives me ready to go options for some of the leftovers, like simple, sliced turkey in gravy. (Basically, I made three convenience meals for our family, with little extra work.) I will still have some of the smaller bits of meat to use in pot pies or soups, but we will plow through much of that today, tomorrow and Friday.
I thought I would pass this on in case you have some of the same sentiments concerning roasting a whole turkey in the non-holiday season.
My advice if you buy extra turkeys for the freezer, keep them in an interior spot in the freezer, away from a wall, floor or ceiling of the freezer, where the temps can be more variable. According to the USDA, a whole, uncooked turkey will be safe to eat, if kept at 0 degrees F, indefinitely -- "Food stored constantly at 0 °F will always be safe. Only the quality suffers with lengthy freezer storage." The agency goes on to say that, for best quality, however, use within one year. (for more info on food safety, visit the USDA site)
