How much meat does a turkey yield?
The question of the ages, isn’t it?
Okay, maybe not. But I’d wondered in the past, so when I cooked up a turkey I bought at an after-the-holidays sale (49¢ a pound), I decided to find out.
My bird (a very large hen) weighed in frozen at 21.67 lbs.
I cooked this just for the meat, so once it was cooked, I put on my trusty, industrial, food-safe gloves and ripped the meat off while it was still reasonably hot (comes off MUCH easier that way).
I got 4 pounds, 5 oz. of breast meat and 3 lbs, 13 oz of dark meat (not completely dark, some of this was off the back, the wings, etc.)
So, the final tally: 8 lbs., 2 oz. cooked meat.
21.67*.49=$10.62 /8.125 lbs = which boils down to $1.31 per pound.
Always good to have a comparison. That way I’ll know a good price when I see it.
I wasn’t as frugal as I could have been. I didn’t even make turkey stock this time. We had several meals with the turkey and the rest was shredded, vacuum sealed and frozen.