Aldi Frozen Ground Turkey (Kirkwood) Review
Author’s note: I have no affiliation with Aldi, and I was not compensated in any way for this review.
If it seems too good to be true, don’t make meatballs out of it.
I bought this frozen ground turkey from Aldi because it was $2.75. That’s the entire reason.
I should have known better. Mom always said, “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” I ate this turkey, but I regretted it. Here’s how it went down:
Aldi’s Kirkwood Ground Turkey comes in a frozen 1-pound log. I thawed this in my refrigerator for about 24 hours. When I cut the log open, the turkey meat texture was already a little suss. It’s kind of mushy and more like a blended dog food texture. Although the package says it “contains up to 3% retained water,” it was slushier than I expected.
I had already decided to make meatballs from this … meat … so I pressed onward.
Here’s another lovely shot of the ground turkey texture. Yes, it looked gross in person. Yes, it’s got a bunch of weird, white, stringy, gummy bits in it. Skin? Ligaments? Who knows. We probably don’t want to know. I mixed the turkey together with breadcrumbs, chopped onions, egg, Swedish meatball seasoning, and salt.
After browning the meatballs in a pan, they looked pretty good, and had started to smell wonderful (from all the seasonings), so I was hopeful. I tasted one, and immediately spit it out. It’s the meat texture. Ugh. It was slimy and gooey, even after cooking through.
Unwilling to waste so much food, I decided to do what I generally do for any cheap meatballs: slowly simmer their brains out in a seasoned sauce. I usually do this in a crockpot, but this time I made a creamy Swedish meatball sauce and simmered on low in the same pan for more than an hour.
The slow simmering and super-flavorful sauce saved my meatballs. They were still not my favorite texture, but they were edible. They had a much more typical soft-but-structured meatball texture, and the gooey-ness had disappeared.
Did you know Swedish meatball gravy is made with Worcestershire sauce and mustard? Now you know. Yes, I ate this over rice, because I didn’t have egg noodles. The richly seasoned cream-based sauce was tasty on everything. Even if I overcooked it a bit.
Here’s the inside of my finished meatballs. I wouldn’t rave about these, but they were OK. All the zesty flavors from the seasonings and onions infiltrated the meat completely, and ameliorated the strange meat taste. The slow simmering compressed the gummy turkey and homogenized it with the other meatball ingredients.
Even so, as I ate these, I kept biting down on hard bits of what I’m guessing were bone shards. They weren’t crunchy or chewable — just hard and pointy. I fished some out of my mouth, and they definitely looked like bone pieces. If bone pieces can accidentally get in here, it makes me wonder what other turkey parts might have also fallen in. Not cool, Aldi.
Nutrition Facts in Aldi Kirkwood Frozen Ground Turkey
Here are the nutrition facts from the label. There are 4 servings per 1-pound log. Each serving has 220 calories, 17 grams of protein, 17 grams of fat, and 80 mg of cholesterol. There’s 8% of your daily value of iron, too.
It’s kind of a bummer to see as much fat as protein in what is generally considered a lean, healthy meat option. In fact, turkey is generally leaner than chicken. Not sure what went into this ground meat to make it so fatty and weird-tasting. For me, I wouldn’t consider this an especially healthy meat choice, even IF it tasted awesome. Which it did not.
Ingredients in Frozen Ground Turkey from Aldi
I turned the log around and around and around — trying to find a succinct list of ingredients, and finally gave up. What I do see from the label is that this product is:
- Minimally processed
- Prepared from inspected and/or passed meat and/or poultry
- Contains up to 3% retained water
- 85% lean / 15% fat
- No artificial ingredients
- Gluten free
If you found an actual ingredient list on this, let me know. Otherwise, I am assuming it is just “turkey.”
What is “inspected and/or passed” poultry? I am used to seeing “Grade A” or something similar, so I googled this. Apparently, The Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) requires all commercially sold meat (for human consumption) to be “inspected and passed.” So, this wasn’t optional.
Grading is optional. Here is what the United States Department of Agriculture says about Grading: “After the meat and poultry are inspected for wholesomeness, producers and processors may request to have the products graded for quality by a licensed Federal grader….Those who request grading must pay for the service. Grading for quality means the evaluation of traits related to tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of meat; and, for poultry, a normal shape that is fully fleshed and meaty and free of defects.”
Aldi hasn’t opted to “grade” this ground turkey, so all we know is that it “passed” inspection.
Price and Shelf-Life for Aldi Kirkwood Frozen Ground Turkey
Well, you already know this cost $2.75. I’m embarrassed that I was motivated solely by the price. But I was.
Since there are 4 servings per 1-pound log, each serving costs 69 cents. Per ounce, this meat is 17 cents.
The best-by date on this turkey allows me about a year to consume.
Dramatic Conclusion
I won’t be buying this again. Not for $2.75, not for $1.75, not even for $1. Not worth it. It might be OK for dog food. If you hate your dogs.
For a cheaper (and tastier) lean poultry option, I recommend Aldi Kirkwood Frozen Chicken Breasts. You have to buy 8 pounds at a time, but per pound, it only costs $2.12.
If you’re determined to eat this frozen turkey meat, I definitely recommend some clever cooking strategies and a lot of tasty seasonings.
The end.
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