[Sca-cooks] Got a question about frozen turkey

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Heleen Greenwald:
>Got a question about frozen turkey.  so I have 2 turkeys that are
>dated: 'sell by Jan 22, '02'.  They have been in my freezer since
>some time last January. I want to donate them both to the woman's
>center and ment to do so long before now. Do you think they are
>still good? Should I go ahead and donate them or do you think they
>are just out of date?

If this is a deep-freeze we're talking about, rather than the freezer
compartment of your fridge, they should be okay. Note that the "sell
by" date is the result of issues like corporate liability, and is
much more a conservative estimate of what the meat packer needs to do
to make absolutely sure there are no liability lawsuits, than a clear
statement that anything past that date is going to be either
dangerous or even of low quality.

I would guess that turkeys kept properly frozen for 10 months past
their sell-by date may have suffered some very slight quality
diminution, but probably not much. They may not have suffered any
quality loss at all. You might simply ask the people at the center
what they think; if they unwrap them and they're all freezer-burned
or otherwise funkified, they have the option of not using them.

Adamantius (obvious child of depression-era parents?)
--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER