Fresh Turkeys are a Rip-Off
November 26th, 2008I KNEW It
I decided to log in to the Cook’s Illustrated site to get the lowdown on fresh turkeys, and wouldn’t you know, they turned out to be the worst turkeys available?
Here’s the scoop. Turkeys have to be dropped to 26 degrees after slaughter, even if they’re sold as fresh. At that temperature, the water in the meat freezes, but the meat does not. Supposedly. While your local ripoff upscale grocery tries to keep the bird cold without freezing it hard, it is likely to undergo a bunch of cycles in which ice crystals form inside it and thaw. They break up the meat so it doesn’t hold water when you cook it.
On top of that, fresh turkeys tend to be spoiled. They get more exercise than factory birds, so they’re in better physical condition, and that adds up to tough meat.
Great. I hate it when a turkey turns out to be a challenge. My practice is to buy the cheapest factory bird I can find, and my turkeys are always perfect. Now I have a mutant Greenpeace bird that may taste like a brick.
Yuppies are never right about ANYTHING.
If you can find it, you want a fatty turkey. That means you don’t want the breed most packers use. You want a breed called Heritage.
If you have a fresh turkey, get it into some brine NOW. SCHNELL! And don’t buy one next year, unless you think expensive + bad = good deal.
The turkeys they liked best were Walters Hatchery (Heritage turkey) and Rubashkin’s Aaron’s Best.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:39 PM
Heritage is not really a breed but a category .. I think eight or ten different, specific breeds are characterized as heritage. Also they are less plump than factory turkeys, somewhat closer to wild.
I cooked a heritage turkey a couple of years ago. Mind you, Thanksgiving Day is sacred to me .. I also cooked a traditional (factory) turkey along with it. Based on several recommendations, I cooked the heritage turkey on its side, turning at halfway point for improved browning of skin. It was superb, very much more flavorful than factory turkey. However, some in the family are so used to factory turkey that they preferred that to the heritage. Go figure, tradition.
For me factory turkey means whatever fresh turkey is available. I don’t do frozen turkeys, way too much work. I don’t care from ice crystals, fresh turkeys taste much better to me than frozen.
Lately I have been getting free-range farm fresh turkeys, they are truly excellent at about $2.25 a pound. Heritage turkeys cost more like $7 or $8 a pound plus ridiculous shipping if you can’t get one locally.
I just finished roasting and peeling a couple of pounds of chestnuts for a dressing. More food prep and mis en place today so tomorrow should be semi-relaxed despite over-the-top menu of multiple dishes in quantities to serve twenty.
I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday of the year.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Like Cook’s Illustrated says, “fresh” turkeys ARE frozen. Over and over. “Frozen” turkeys are only frozen once, which is why they’re better.
I don’t fool with ninja turkey tricks. I don’t roast it upside down or turn it on its side. I put foil over it and roast it. Absolutely perfect, every single time.
My bet is that people who can’t roast a good turkey are turning the temperature up too high.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:43 PM
p.s. Cook’s Illustrated is excellent but they are NOT always right about everything.
Recently they did a big taste test of olive oils and picked one or two, and then ended up by basically pointing out that top brand olive oils change in taste from one batch (harvest) to another and so basically their taste comparison wasn’t worth much and just go with whatever you like. Oh. OK. Thanks.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:47 PM
No reference is perfect, but Cook’s Illustrated is in a class by itself. The Food Network is a joke; even Alton Brown screws up. The Joy of Cooking is just plain bad. James Beard is invariably disappointing. Cooks.com is a minefield. Cook’s Illustrated takes the prejudice and old wives’ tales out of cooking.
The only site I can think of that compares is Cooking for Engineers.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:51 PM
Money quote: “When organizing our tasting, we decided to buy fresh turkeys wherever possible, assuming they would be better. But as we tallied the results of the tasting, we learned that most of our higher-ranked birds were, in fact, frozen. Our tasters consistently found the frozen birds to be moister than the fresh, in fact a ‘fresh’ bird can actually be tougher and drier than a frozen one.”
Looks like I was wrong all fresh turkeys being chilled to 26 degrees. Apparently that is allowed but not mandatory. So I guess the smart thing is to buy one that has merely been refrigerated.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:01 PM
Okay, I’m not senile after all. The bit about freezing fresh turkeys was from Emeril’s site. Since it’s not part of a recipe, it may be reliable.
“A fresh turkey is just that—an unfrozen bird that is chilled to 26F. after being processed, and then sold quickly thereafter.”
November 26th, 2008 at 7:32 PM
You and I sure think a lot alike when it comes to food and Cook’s Illustrated Magazine is THE food bible. Cook’s Country is also very good. Food Network lost it years ago. Now it’s just another reality-style/travel network. Iron Chef? What a joke.
We first made Alton Brown’s brining technique in 2003 from an article in the holiday issue of Bon Appetit. It was the first roast turkey I ever enjoyed. Before then a roast turkey (especially the breast meat) was as moist and tasty as compressed sawdust.
Recently Brown has altered his brining recipe so you are correct about him occasionally being wrong. In the original recipe he promoted the use of butter to coat the bird and sugar in the brine solution. His latest Food TV recipe calls for honey instead of sugar and vegetable oil instead of butter. No wonder the smoke alarm went off every time we made one. He also recommends vegetable broth in the brine. Try finding it. Chicken broth works just as well. Still, brining is the only way to roast a turkey and I am going to get started in about two hours.
The best way to cook the big bird (to me) is to deep fry it. We brine and roast one then deep fry another. Something to please everyone when you host 22 people. The men folk gravitate to the fried version. After many fights over the skin I now ration it in portions. I wish they sold turkey skin, I would buy pounds of it and deep fry that too.
One last thing, I found that some turkeys are pre-brined via injection (I think the Butterball brand is one) so reading the label is important. Go cheap! And take out that pop-up thermometer, they are garbage. Use a real one.
Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving with your family, Steve.
November 26th, 2008 at 7:53 PM
A great turkey should be cooked like a pork butt (low and slow); only sealed in foil to contain the broth. I couldn’t care less about carving at the table, its all about the taste. Cooking low and slow gives the ligaments and tendons time to gelatinize into the broth and the meat will completely fall off of the bone. I cook the bird breast down for convenience; it’s easier to take the bird apart after cooking if you start with removing the spine. I learned the method from my wife’s family, who have been using it for years with success.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:13 PM
I like Cooking for Engineers, too.
http://www.cookingforengineers.com
November 26th, 2008 at 9:02 PM
“I wish they sold turkey skin, I would buy pounds of it and deep fry that too.”
I was standing at the butcher counter the other day, looking at the piles of skinless chicken breasts and thighs that they sell, wondering: what do they do with all that skin? I mean, when you eat fried chicken, it’s not about the meat – it’s about that wonderful, crispy, deep-fried skin.
I’m thinking there’s a market here for a meat product they’re probably just throwing away. Ask your butcher what they do with the skin, and see if they’ll save it for you. Cut it up into bite-size hunks, dredge in batter, toss it in the deep fryer for a couple of minutes, and Voila! The new pork rind!
November 26th, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Chicken chitlins!
November 27th, 2008 at 3:06 PM
They get more exercise than factory birds, so they’re in better physical condition, and that adds up to tough meat…
Now I have a mutant Greenpeace bird that may taste like a brick.
Come on, man, you should know from cooking barbe4cue that well-exercized, tough meat is also more flavorful. Think of the fresh turkey as an aviam brisket or pork butt. And ScifiJim’s right — low and slow is the way to go, if you really want that crisp, gorgeous skin, crank upi the heat for a short time at the very end — the skin will brown long before you dry the bird out.