Where’s the Beef?!

Or to be more precise, ”Where’s the white meat?” I saw an sign in my local grocery store the other day for an early Thanksgiving special on for frozen turkeys and, like many signs I see, it got me thinking.

How often have you gone to a Thanksgiving dinner and said, “Wow, look at the size of that bird!” or “I can’t believe she bought such a big bird”.  But how big is that bird really? Butterball has a calculator to help you find how much to buy for your crowd.

For arguments sake, let’s say you get a 15 pound frozen turkey, how much actual meat are you getting for your dollar?  I’d argue that once you defrost the turkey, cleaned out the giblets, and cooked it you’ve already reduced the weight by at least 25% bringing the new weight to 11.25 lbs. Now we have to figure the weight of all the bones, remaining fat that’s trimmed and what are you really left with? I’ll be nice and say that knocks it down another 25% of it’s weight, leaving you with 7 lbs of actual edible meat.

Now remember, you paid $.54/pound for that frozen 15 lb bird, or $8.10 before tax. Well with the meat you have left you’re now at $1.08/pound which is still dirt cheep, compared to chicken or ground beef.

The moral of this story is, well there is no moral…turkey is cheep and in abundance so bring me some…NOW!