Heritage Turkeys

by Christina on November 9, 2009

By now most of you probably know where you will be enjoying your Thanksgiving feast, who is cooking what, and have started mentally preparing for the excessive family time and chit-chat with distant relatives who you haven’t seen since last year’s festivities. And if you are like me, you are still considered the “kids” in the family and get tasked with bringing an addition to the meal such as rolls since you are the ones traveling and your parents don’t want to burden with you with complicated recipes or pricey ingredients (although I’m wondering if I’ve exposed my true colors with showing them my blog and will be switched from roll duty to homemade pies!) What this usually means is that I have no say if our turkey comes plumped and “hormonified” from Costco or if it arrived to the table after spending its life running freely through open fields.

When trying to feed a small army, a 25-pound turkey from Costco is usually the most affordable and reasonable option and therefore the one that usually ends up on our table. I’m not blaming anyone, heck I grew up eating a Butterball every year and never thought twice about it. Since starting my culinary journey, the phrase “heritage turkeys” has come up again and again in things I’ve been reading this time of year. So while you may not yet hold the power to choose feast day bird and understand that sometimes this culinary journey involves enjoying family and friends rather than over-analyzing where each food item on the table comes from, I thought I’d share a bit of info I’ve learned about heritage turkeys so we can at least start becoming aware that there is another option out there for our holiday meals.

Heritage Turkeys, the birds our ancestors ate, are a now-rare breed of turkeys that spend their lives roaming freely until they naturally – without being given antibiotics, hormones or additives – grow to their full size. Broad Breasted White turkeys on the other hand, which represent 99% of supermarket turkeys today, have been “industrialized” to efficiently funnel through the factory production process in order to produce plumper birds more quickly. This means that they live in the crowded confinement of factory farms with no access to the outdoors and are fed grains and supplements rather than the bugs and grass that birds are naturally born to eat.

Why do farmers/producers favor Broad Breasted White birds over Heritage turkeys? The factory birds grow to an average of 32 pounds over 18 weeks, while Heritage birds take anywhere from 24-30 weeks to reach their market weight. And birds who get bigger faster equals more money in their pockets. Plus, the factory birds have been bred to taste exactly the same as their confined neighbor, which makes supermarkets happy because they then know that all of their customers will be buying birds that taste exactly the same.

What does that mean for consumers? Broad Breasted White turkeys will be cheaper and are more readily available, but because the “natural taste” has been bread out of industrial turkeys, they are often injected with saline solution and vegetable oils in an attempt to help improve the taste and texture of the meat. Not exactly an appetizing thought. Heritage birds usually have to be ordered in advance (Local Harvest and Mary’s Turkeys are good resources to find them) and are more expensive, but are far superior in taste and juiciness. Plus, in choosing this option you are supporting the efforts of Slow Food U.S.A. and the Heritage Turkey Foundation to “protect the surviving heritage turkey strains and re-introduce them to the American marketplace”. Too late to find a heritage bird this year? There are also organic or free-range turkey options, which may be easier to track down on short notice.

If you are not ready to hound your host about the exact origins of their bird, just make a commitment to continue learning more about turkey alternatives, share your knowledge with others and think about buying a heritage bird next year!!

*Photo Credit: Stone Hill farm in Ohio