Turkey At Makro: Anyone Tried This?

[Greenside]

Last year we didn't bother so I don't know if these have been around for a while:

 

They have some fresh frozen Thai turkeys at 319 per kilo and these baked Butterball birds for 399/kg.  Looks like it's by Ingham which is an Australian company I'm not familiar with.  Has anyone tried one? 

[wgdanson]

'FRESH' frozen ready cooked turkey....yuk. At that price a decent one would be Bht 4000, and a lot of it bones and waste, and meals for the following week.

Their frozen duck breasts at Bht 199 for five is MUCH nicer.

Edited December 22, 2019 by wgdanson

[Samuel Smith]

Have a nice roast dinner with all the trimmings.  Either roast lamb or crispy pork, but not turkey at that price!

[legend49]

Inghams is the largest poultry company in Australia. I have audited many of their sites. Their product is safe as long as what you buy has been kept frozen correctly from Sydney to Thailand. I find milk from California is not stored at correct temperature here; some where in the supply chain there is an issue, lasts only 50% of its 20 days you can use it. Bit like eggs they are suppose to ( food standards) be stored at 4 degrees C. How often you see stacked cartons on the back of a pick up truck cooking in the sun?

[boriga]

Given there are no imported frozen uncooked turkeys available, the only options are local or imported cooked. Speaking to friends and a few professional chefs, the concensus was to go imported cooked. The local birds have low meat to bone ratio and are tougher.

 

The key thing with cooked frozen turkey is to defrost well first so all the bird is at a similar temperature when cooking (!). We had a 5+ kilo bird heated the oven high to start and dropped it after 30 mins. Heated for just about 2 hrs all the time under foil and with some water in the pan to avoid drying out.

 

The result was good enough but not perfect, you could tell the turkey was not freshly cooked, but overall 8/10.

 

As for price, our 11-12lb bird from Villamarket cost 2,300thb. Which was reasonable in my opinion.

[herwin1234]

you might think it over, there is a lot of animal cruelty behind these turkeys. 

[dlclark97]

Had the frozen Butterball from TOPS at Thanksgiving.  Really good.

[Pilotman]

I took a good look around at the Thailand turkey supply, in Big C, Makro, independent retailers etc; they all look very unappetising and as they will not tell you how long these balls of stuff have been frozen, maybe up to 2 years,  I decided on fresh chickens for Christmases now and in the future.  Shame because I do like a nice fresh turkey. 

[TPUBON]

To answer your question, yes I had a Butter Ball just two weeks ago and it was delicious.  

[smccolley]

I tried this frozen cooked turkey last year and it was horrible, a congealed mass of goo. I love turkey so I powered through it but I will never again buy it or even look at it without remembering what a disgusting mess it was.

[Guderian]

I tried one of the Thai turkeys a year or two back when they were on offer for 100 Baht/kg.

And that was about all they were worth, no way on earth would I pay 300 Baht/kg for one.

 

If you want a roasted Butterball turkey, go to Siamburi's, it's cheaper than Makro but still eye-wateringly expensive compared with buying them back home.

[Grusa]

We tried a Thai fresh frozen turkey last year. It was quite inedible, tough as old boots and very little white breast meat. It ended up in the bin, and we had beef wellington for new year, American beef!

[Captain 776]

I have had these frozen pre cooked Butterballs at Chiang Mai Smokehouse..........they are excellent.

going there with 8 people for Christmas buffet to eat some more.

He still has whole ones and can ship to you if necessary.

if in Chiang Mai........look at Chiang Mai Smokehouse and you can book 1 of 2 sittings each on 24 and 25

[Kenchamp]

It's a shame you can't buy those turkey breast portions that are  sold in the west. Easily a good meal for two with those, and would fit in my counter top oven too.

[Greenside]

Thanks to all, especially the person who had actually tried the frozen pre-cooked Butterball! ????

I keep meaning to try the Chiang Mai Smokehouse.  It's close by but I've never made it to one of their monthly buffets - sounds like a good way to try it out.

Happy Christmas (or Holidays) to all.

 

[NancyL]

Just "processed" one of those frozen, cooked Butterball turkeys yesterday, after thawing in the fridge for three days  It was my intention to carve it into manageable pieces and refreeze much of it for Hubby and me to enjoy over the next several months.  The instructions give a cooking time, implying that they may not be fully cooked and I soon discovered that to be the case as I carved the bird.  

 

I roasted the carved white meat in our small oven for about 45 minutes since we like to use it in salads,  but not the dark meat which I left on the bone to cook later in various dishes. 

 

And, most importantly, there are enough bones to make three batches of turkey stock.  W-A-Y better than chicken stock, IMO.

 

Overall, I'm happy with the bird, but I think the flavor was better back when we bought a Butterball from Rim Ping and they delivered it after cooking in their kitchen.

[LukKrueng]

19 hours ago, Greenside said:

fresh frozen

Isn't that an oxymoron? 

[Jaggg88]

2 hours ago, Kenchamp said:

It's a shame you can't buy those turkey breast portions that are  sold in the west. Easily a good meal for two with those, and would fit in my counter top oven too.

They are called Turkey crowns in the UK and are usually excellent.

[Peterphuket]

Looks like all people from the USA who answering.

In my opinion, people from Europe, maybe except GB, don't eat Turkey, with christmas.

Incidentally it always reminds me of people from Turkey, but that's another story.

[Burma Bill]

21 hours ago, Samuel Smith said:

Have a nice roast dinner with all the trimmings.  Either roast lamb or crispy pork, but not turkey at that price!

Tomorrow it will be roast pork and roast chicken with all the trimmings, followed by sherry trifle for 250 baht!

[Kurtf]

6 hours ago, boriga said:

Given there are no imported frozen uncooked turkeys available, the only options are local or imported cooked. Speaking to friends and a few professional chefs, the concensus was to go imported cooked. The local birds have low meat to bone ratio and are tougher.

 

The key thing with cooked frozen turkey is to defrost well first so all the bird is at a similar temperature when cooking (!). We had a 5+ kilo bird heated the oven high to start and dropped it after 30 mins. Heated for just about 2 hrs all the time under foil and with some water in the pan to avoid drying out.

 

The result was good enough but not perfect, you could tell the turkey was not freshly cooked, but overall 8/10.

 

As for price, our 11-12lb bird from Villamarket cost 2,300thb. Which was reasonable in my opinion.

$76 is reasonable? For one turkey? Man your values are truly warped.

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

Who's buying all these turkeys? Do many hi-so Thai families do the whole Western style Christmas, with turkey and all the trimmings? Or are these mostly for the farangs?

 

I thought all the farangs were bailing, per the hot threads at the moment. But I sure still do see a lot of turkeys for sale!

[Max69xl]

6 hours ago, legend49 said:

Inghams is the largest poultry company in Australia. I have audited many of their sites. Their product is safe as long as what you buy has been kept frozen correctly from Sydney to Thailand. I find milk from California is not stored at correct temperature here; some where in the supply chain there is an issue, lasts only 50% of its 20 days you can use it. Bit like eggs they are suppose to ( food standards) be stored at 4 degrees C. How often you see stacked cartons on the back of a pick up truck cooking in the sun?

Unwashed eggs (like eggs in Thailand) doesn't need to be stored in a fridge. BUT, they do last longer when stored in a fridge. Just Google it if you want. In most supermarkets in European countries, fresh eggs are not stored in fridges. 

[NoshowJones]

5 hours ago, Greenside said:

Thanks to all, especially the person who had actually tried the frozen pre-cooked Butterball! ????

I keep meaning to try the Chiang Mai Smokehouse.  It's close by but I've never made it to one of their monthly buffets - sounds like a good way to try it out.

Happy Christmas (or Holidays) to all.

 

It's Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for us westerners.

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

I thought all the farangs were bailing, per the hot threads at the moment. But I sure still do see a lot of turkeys for sale!

There's lots of them left because nobody's buying them, not because they're popular sellers.

 

Normally there are none left at this time so draw your conclusions from that!

 

 

[eyecatcher]

Whilst you are all criticising underfed local produce take a look at how they fatten up turkeys and chickens in the West.

force fed chemical induced food products 24hrs a day, then injected with saline for that final plumping up to appeal to the supermarket customer..

At least they are actually free range here.

Theres a turkey farm barely 300m from me, free range, runni g about in muck and it inspires me every year to make the effort to start a september turkey stud offering them fresh in December. At 2k for a decent bird its gotta be worth a punt.

[from the home of CC]

On 12/22/2019 at 4:45 PM, wgdanson said:

'FRESH' frozen ready cooked turkey....yuk. At that price a decent one would be Bht 4000, and a lot of it bones and waste, and meals for the following week.

Their frozen duck breasts at Bht 199 for five is MUCH nicer.

and a lot less drier...

[wgdanson]

25 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

and a lot less drier...

Moister is the word. LOL. 

[from the home of CC]

2 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Moister is the word. LOL. 

maybe on your small island lol

https://www.allrecipes.com/video/3921/how-to-fix-dry-turkey-meat/

[Just Weird]

8 hours ago, Pilotman said:

...they will not tell you how long these balls of stuff have been frozen, maybe up to 2 years, 

And maybe they were frozen last week, why do you suggest that frozen turkeys, of which there is not an oversupply in Thailand, could have been there for 2 years?