Cooking a Thanksgiving turkey presents a host of unique challenges, including making sure it’s not dry, and making sure it’s delicious. But thawing out a multi-pound frozen bird is the first big one. Butterball has a solution with a new frozen turkey that the company says eliminates the hours-long thawing process. This week, the country’s largest turkey producer unveiled a new “Cook from Frozen” turkey that only has two steps to make it, which are unwrapping it and popping it in the oven. And while the company says it’s simply for ease of use,
it can be especially enticing to people just starting to host Thanksgiving on their own, according to Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData Retail. “This product seems to solve a lot of those issues, and it’s particularly appealing to younger consumers who may be hosting Thanksgiving for the first time,” Saunders told CNN. “It is also focused on convenience which, on a very busy day, is important to all consumer groups.” Thawing a turkey is one of the most popular questions Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line receives every year,
according to a company press release, so it created a specially made frozen turkey that aims to cut down on the stress and mess since there are no neck and giblets to remove. The “innovative offering” also cuts out other annoying parts of the turkey-making process because it doesn’t need basting, brining or even seasoning. Butterball made a “specially formulated” brine that keeps the meat moist during the roughly 5-hour long roasting process.
But by cooking a turkey on easy mode, one of the most traditional parts also goes out the window: Chefs can’t stuff the turkey, since that would “pose a food safety risk,” the website says. Butterball recommends making the stuffing separately. The new turkey is being sold at grocery chains including Harris Teeter, Publix and select locations of Walmart and Kroger plus the other chains it owns, like Fry’s and Ralphs.
