So Many Turkey Choices, So Little Time
I am a turkey rookie, so I generally get overwhelmed when trying to pick which type of turkey to make for Thanksgiving. I thought everyone else in the store knew what they were doing, so an article by Gwen Schoen of the Sacramento Bee about all the different types of turkeys made me feel much better. I’m not the only one who is confused. So, here are your options.
“‘Free range’ means turkeys had access to the outdoors,” says Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation in Modesto. “In most cases, that means the barn had a door. It doesn’t mean the turkey ever used the door, it just means he had the option.”
Heritage turkeys are breeds of birds that once were the standard Thanksgiving turkey. Today, most true heritage turkeys are endangered, and they are difficult to find in local markets. Most are available only by mail order — and they are expensive. Heritage Foods USA has just 7,000 of them available for this Thanksgiving.
In California, our turkeys do not have growth hormones or preservatives, so the “natural” label doesn’t mean much here. But if you want a turkey that is free of antibiotics, an organic turkey raised on organic grain is your best bet.
The next question you have to answer is whether you want fresh or frozen. This is an important decision because a fresh turkey has to be ordered in advance (and it will cost you more, too).
Speaking of cost, that’s the next issue for turkey-picking. Schoen says that for a frozen turkey, “you can usually find them for less than $1 per pound just before Thanksgiving.” If you decide to get a fresh heritage turkey, it will run you $200 (for a twenty pound bird, including shipping) at www.heritagefoodsusa.com. For a local turkey in my neighborhood, the price is around $3 to $4 per pound.
So you know what type of turkey you are getting - now what size to get?? One pound per person is good if you want leftovers, but also consider that the bigger the turkey is, the longer it will take to get to the table.
Now that we are all educated, we have no excuses!
The Bee article is a little misleading about heritage turkeys. That $10.00/lb. figure is daunting and, in my experience quite excessive. We have at least two local sources of heritage turkeys for $4.00 and $5.00 a pound here in Western North Carolina. As Cate points out on Growers & Grocers, if you cannot order a heritage bird locally, Local Harvest has them for $4.00 or so a pound (before shipping).
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy defines a “heritage turkey” as meeting the following criteria:
* “Naturally mating: the Heritage Turkey must be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating, with expected fertility rates of 70-80%.
* “Long productive lifespan: the Heritage Turkey must have a long productive lifespan. Breeding hens are commonly productive for 5-7 years and breeding toms for 3-5 years.
* “Slow growth rate: the Heritage Turkey must have a slow to moderate rate of growth. Today’s heritage turkeys reach a marketable weight in 26 – 28 weeks, giving the birds time to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs prior to building muscle mass. This growth rate is identical to that of the commercial varieties of the first half of the 20th century.”