Costco and Trader Joes fresh-turkeys

[swfood]

Looking for feedback on how Costco and TJs turkeys came out this year.

For the past several years, we've been ordering our bird from the local Fresh Market, and it has been excellent. After I placed the order I noticed good options at TJs and Costco which are slightly more convenient for us so might want to do this next year. If I don't make a note of this for next year I'll probably just be on auto-pilot again.

Any thoughts from folks who did either this year or in the past?

[cosmogrrl]

I bought a 17 lb bird at TJ's and it was great. It had been frozen, but they'd started the unfreezing part in their refrigerated section, so i was all set for Turkey day. It's $1.59 per lb. and it was delicious and juicy.

[Bob Brooks]

I got a 16lb Foster Farms bird at Costco for 99 cents per lb. Smoked it. Excellent.

[SIMIHOUND]

We cooked a 19lb brined turkey with the usual seasonings and it was fantastic.

[laststandchili]

We had a 15 pounder from TJs this year and it was much better than the usual supermarket birds I've always cooked.

Didn't do anything special to it, plopped it on some celery, smeared with mayo then S&P, poured a little water in the pan an into the oven.

Came out very juicy although I overcooked it somewhat (per temp). Much better flavor than mass produced birds.

[AnnieWilliams]

I'll be honest. I will never go back to ordering a fresh bird again. We have always ordered fresh and it's pricey in my area. This year I got a Butterball which was $1.09 a pound at Costco. It looked better than any fresh bird I ever got. It wasn't slimy nor did it have any yellow scum on it (my fresh birds never did either, but one time someone gave me a frozen turkey to cook and it was disgusting). We put ours on the smoker and it came out great!