Monday, August 25, 2008

Butterball Oven Roasted Turkey Deli Meat

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Who doesn't love a good turkey sandwich?
Heck, even I do and I have a love/hate relationship with poultry.
Let me explain. One of my favorite meals ever is a beautifully roasted whole turkey ala Thanksgiving dinner. In my family over the years I think we tried every possible brand but we always came back to Butterball. Is there a better smell to wake up to then that roasting turkey on Thanksgiving morning?

And of course who doesn't love the sandwiches that you get to have from the left overs?- well me. Now to be clear, I love the sandwiches made within the first 14 hours or so after the bird has been cooked. After that the meat picks up something that I call "leftover turkey taste". Since I only eat the breast meat I do not know if the dark meat picks this up as well (I would assume it does) but leftover turkey taste is best described as turkey that tastes like it spent time hanging out in a vat of "turkey flavoring" that was past it's prime and too heavy on the salt, then it sat in a fridge with the smelliest leftovers possible, picks up all those flavors- And then the meat gets dry yet slimy on top of all of that.

Even beyond that, who has the time to roast a whole turkey every time you want a turkey sandwich?. There are dozens of "lunch meat" turkey options to be found at the mega mart of your choice and over the years I am sure I have tried most of them. You can go to sandwich shop of your choice and get something made for you. It's not like there are not other options out there. The problem for me has been I had yet to find a market or a fast food version of turkey that I even remotely liked. The meat always seems too salty, too slimy and pumped too full of preservatives and other magic chemicals. And what is the deal with those weird clear patches that run through some of the slices?! is that fat?, some sort of gelatin binder to hold the meat together? Whatever it is it is just gross.

I was dying for a turkey sandwich the other day and Albertson's had Butterball Oven Roasted turkey on sale in the deli. This is one of the slice to order products so I got just enough to either satisfy my craving or not make me fill guilty about wasting food and money (depending on how it turned out). Was I pleasantly surprised!

The flavor really is about as close to "real" oven roasted turkey as I have ever gotten from a deli meat. It's not overly salty and doesn't have that taste that suggests it was injected or marinaded in "turkey flavor". And while I am sure they are there, the meat doesn't taste staturated in preservatives.
Texture wise it's moist without being slimy and has none of those weird clear jelly/fat/who-knows-what patches that lunch meat tends to have- I still want to know what that stuff is (and no, I never eat it. I will tear those patches out)

Now, if you'll excuse me after talking about it so much I need to go gobble (hahaha I am SOOOOO funny) down a sandwich.

PURCHASED FROM:
Albertsons Supermarket

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