Kitchen

[JJsMom]

If you buy fresh turkeys, how far in advance would you get it?

[I am still oxox]

No more than three days I will buy a turkey Sunday to cook for Thanksgiving

[grandma2pkmh]

@JJsMom I go by the "use by" date on the price tag. They are usually weeks in the future.  Think how long they sit in the grocery store before someone buys it.

[cherry]

From the Butterball website

Storing Fresh Turkey: Fresh turkey should be refrigerated at 35º F to 40º F. The lower temperature is preferred. Cook as soon as possible to ensure maximum freshness. If you are not confident about the temperature of your refrigerator, cook or freeze the turkey within 4 days of sell-by date.

[Nightowlz]

If it was me I would buy on Tues. I for sure would not buy one before Mon.

[ID2]

I'm buying a fresh turkey from a local farm. They "slaughter" it on Monday, I pick it up on Tuesday and won't be cooking it until Saturday (our Thanksgiving dinner) without a problem. I do it this way every year. 

[RedTop]

I usually buy my fresh turkey breasts on Saturday before Thanksgiving.   I’ve never had a problem with keeping them in the refrigerator until I cook them on Thursday.   

[Carmie]

in my area, fresh turkeys are scarce and they sell out fast.  If you snooze, you lose.  Most of them also are half frozen inside when you get them anyway.

If you have a place to keep it properly refrigerated to about 38 degrees, i’d Get it on Monday.  If no storage, I’d see if the market could hold one for you.

Those Fresh turkeys are all sent to the market ahead of time, so if you wait later in the week, your turkey isn’t any fresher.  The only difference is, the market can store it at the proper temptature.

[Big Joanie]

For dinner on Thursday .. i always got mine Tuesday or Wednesday ..

However I did take the giblets etc. out of the inside immediately ...

and rinsed out the cavity ....of course I had to rinse the cavity out

again come Thursday ....but where I ran into trouble was leaving

those giblets sit in the turkey till Thursday morning ....

We had a turkey farm right in our town ...

[kelsey17]

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@I am still oxox wrote:

No more than three days I will buy a turkey Sunday to cook for Thanksgiving

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I also buy my fresh turkey on Sunday for Thursday...has been fine...but i do remember to turn the temp down a bit

in my fridge to keep things just a little cooler then usual...

read that somewhere some years back....so i have always done it...