Looking for the best brand of turkey. I've cooked 3 lately in preparation for Thanksgiving. (You have to practice). So far, my choice for the best is a fresh Butterball.
Haven't seen Fresh Butterballs around here (only the injected ones). We got a 12 lb. Fresh Perdue yesterday. We'd gotten one last year and really liked it.
I prefer "Fresh", but the main thing I look for are the words "All Natural" and/or "Minimally Processed" as this ensure me of two things:
1) No injection of any kind, so I can safely eat it!
2) No injection of any kind, so I can flavor it the way I want and control the amount of salt.
Since fresh, minimally processed turkeys can be hard to find most of the year, on Black Friday I head to the super market to stock a few in the freezer.
World Market has a packaged brine mix. Has anyone tried it? I have no problem doing my own thing, but I was curious if an off-the-shelf brine would have the kind of flavor profile a home-made one would.
I ended up buying 2 16+ lb turkey from Bruno's market in Carmel. Brand name is Ladino and Bruno's has been selling for years with great success. Turkey is fresh, 100% natural free range and packed in San Jose. By-the-way Bruno's has wonderful old school butchers. They will do anything for you. They have a large selection of prime cuts.
I'm lucky that the original Tower Chicken Farm store has remained 3 blocks from my house. Although the actual farm has moved to less populated areas and the product may be supplemented by other suppliers, the retail outlet remains and the quality of their fresh fowl cannot be beat!