My turkey's missing its giblets!

[spkspk]

I'm making my turkey stock tonight and went to pull the neck and giblets from my turkey. I was up to my elbow in the turkey, but no giblets to be found. Aside from being bummed that I won't be able to utilize the giblets, I'm worried that they're hiding somewhere deep within the turkey and I'll only find out when the sucker's roasting tomorrow.

Please reassure me that this has happened to someone else and I'm not giblet-excavating challenged.

[dmartindale]

I found my giblets but neck is missing from my bird, I have searched all through, any ideas?

[wolfe]

Hard to miss something that is 9 to 12 inches long and weighs over a pound. It is usually in the body cavity and is frequently late in defrosting and needs to be pried out. If not there they forgot it.

[Breezychow]

If your bird came with giblets, the neck is there too. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've given up the search for it - including today!! If the bag of giblets was in one end, the neck is stuffed into the other. It may still be partially frozen to the interior of the bird, but I bet it's there.

[spkspk]

I found the giblets... they were indeed hiding out in the neck cavity. Just glad I found them before tossing the bird in the oven!

[Sarah]

My Safeway turkey was also giblet-free! I found this out just an hour before roasting time... will have chat w/ their meat/poultry guy tomorrow. It's an epidemic!

[JoanN]

Was it, by any chance, a kosher turkey? This, from the Empire poultry Web site: "The kosher process requires separate processing to remove, clean and package the giblets. If the giblets are damaged or unclean they can not be sold or packaged."

[torty]

My friend had the same problem this year. They were definitely MIA. She found a carton of them at Whole Food of all places.

[RShea78]

Torty, you lost me. MIA, Carton, Conspiracies?

"Whole" Turkeys and Chickens, if I am not mistaken - per regulations of being whole, come with the neck and giblets packet. Beyond that they can be cut up for the parts, or pieced out, thus cartons of the edible organs do show up in the poultry section.

[spkspk]

Ah, the neck cavity! I didn't want to unwrap the whole turkey so I didn't check on that end. Perhaps I'll find the missing giblets tomorrow morning.

[wolfe]

Did you find them? In the words of Admiral Nimitz in his message to Bull Halsey at the Battle of Leyte Gulf "The World Wonders."

[RShea78]

Hey, don't feel bad if you find them in the neck cavity.

My Sister's Gynecologist realized she was mal-practicing on a turkey. ;-)

[wolfe]

Mine were hidden in a bag in the neck end with the neck in the body cavity.

[therealdoctorlew]

This isn't so new. Years ago in gtrad school I was the turkey roaster for our first group Thanksgiving feast and there were no giblets. Well, I found them when I carved near the neck and cut into the whole bunch of them, bag and all, cooked in the neck skin cavity.

Who knew?