Turkey 2010

For Thanksgiving this year, we opted to try out a heritage turkey from our local meat farmer.  I’m not entirely sure which breed of turkey we ended up with, but it was a fantastic and delicious bird. 

Although it might be hard to tell from the photograph, the breasts weren’t quite as wide as the turkeys we’ve gotten in the past and, even raw, you could see that the breast meat was a bit darker than the past turkeys.  (The breasts look lumpy here because I’ve wedged some butter underneath the skin.)

You can sort of see that the breast meat is darker here.  The skin cooked up a beautiful colour and Art easily removed all of the meat from the bird with plenty for Thanksgiving dinner, a few plates of leftovers, and Turkey Tetrazzini. 

The flavor was simply fantastic. It just tasted more.. natural.  More flavorful.  I cooked it with my standard High-Heat Roasted Turkey method but, for future heritage birds, I’ll be reducing the cooking times during flipping from 30 minutes to 20 minutes.  Due to the fat distribution, the heritage bird cooked up a bit faster than previous birds. 

Without a doubt, I will be getting a heritage turkey again for next year.  This one was scrumptious!  If you have the option to get one for your own future Thanksgiving dinners, I can’t recommend it enough.