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Lindac and Lou, What Kind Of Turkeys Are You Getting?

16 years ago

I always seem to take your advice on this site. I had ordered a fresh organic free range turkey, but after reading the site below, I'm not sure that is the best one. What do you buy?

Thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Turkey Information

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Comments (11)

lindac
16 years ago
I posted a link to that site a couple of days ago....someone asked about why their "fresh" turkey had a use by date of December 10th.
On that thread I stated that a frozen was always better than a supermarket fresh bird....but in all cases...a fresh killed turkey from a source you know butchers the day before you pick it up is really best.
Most of the time I use a local brand of frozen turkey.
Thanks for the vote of confidence....I was 23 the first time i had the family for a turkey dinner...of course then the family was just 7 people!

Here is a link that might be useful: turkey terminology
hawk307
16 years ago
Trudy:
I never worried about which brand or Organic, because they were always good.
The last one was a " Shur Fine " Young Tom, self basting, 13 lbs. I think from Acme Market.
In 55 years the Turkeys were always good.
Probably just lucky.
The best tasting Turkey, that I remember was a 23 lb. Butterball.

In fact that was the best Thanksgiving Dinner ever.

Had 35 people for Dinner. Think it was 1964.
We had that and a 23 lb. Ham , along with Lasagna w. Meat Balls and Sausage, Chicken Wedding Soup.
and all the other things, plus dessert.
Why am I telling you all this ???

Happy Thanksgiving !!!
Lou
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Here you go Pat, it's Ann T's recipe. As you can see in the picture I do individual puffs. Ann does a full ring. La Gougere (Ann T) 1 Cup water (or half milk/halfwater) 1/3 Cup butter 1/2 Tsp salt fresh nutmeg,Grated cayenne pepper 1 Cup flour 4 eggs 1 Tbl Dijon Mustard 1 Cup gruyere cheese 1 Tsp milk extra cheese for top Bring the water/milk to a boil and add butter. When butter has~melted remove pan from heat and add flour, salt, cayenne, nutmeg, pepper and stir vigorously with a big wooden spoon. The mixture should come away from the sides of the pan and form a ball. Place mixture in the bowl of a large mixer and add one egg at a time beating well, After you add last egg continue to beat well. Mixture will be shiny. Add dijon mustard and taste for~ seasoning. Adjust to your taste. Add coarsely grated cheese. Butter a large cookie sheet and flour. Draw a small circle in the flour (about 2 inches wide) and proceed to drop the dough by tablespoon fulls around the outside of this hole, making a ring, or a crown. Dough should be piled high. Brush lightly with milk and sprinkle the extra cheese over top. Bake the ring in the over for 45 minutes at 400F. Do Not Open Door. Aften baking, open the door of the oven and leave the gougere in the oven for 5 minutes. It should be firm to the touch and golden brown. My Notes: 1)Do not refrigerate batter it needs to be at room temp. Do not place on the pan until ready to cook or they will spread. Cook as close to servng as possible...best warm but OK room temp 2)Gougere are best when cooked as close to preparing the batter as possible in order to get maximum "puff" and best texture. 3)I prefer individual puffs. Scoop up a heaping teaspoon of dough and with another spoon, push it off onto the paper-lined baking sheet (it should form a mound about 1 inch in diameter). Continue with the remaining dough, leaving an inch of space between the gougeres (work in batches as necessary, the dough can stand, covered with buttered waxed paper or parchment, for up to 1/2 hour). Bake until the gougeres are puffy and light golden, about 25 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving, or turn off oven and let gougeres remain in oven, with door ajar, for up to 1 hour. 4) Chopped chives make an nice addition so does roasted garlic .
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I almost started this very post last night. Even the title would have been exactly the same as Murphy's. I made the CJ on Wednesday night. Everyone else was already in bed and I was finishing up my last do-aheads. When the CJ was done, I just had to have a taste, and I had a difficult time resisting the urge to have more. I had only made the single recipe, which appeared to me to be about the same amount as one can of regular cranberry sauce (or maybe a tad more). If I had another bag of cranberries on hand, I would have certainly dipped into the first one and just made another. I needn't have worried. Only one of my brothers also liked it. Everyone else tasted it but couldn't take the heat. I will say that I thought it tasted better when I first made it. On Thanksgiving day I tasted the mustard much more. I think I may cut down on the mustard next time. I can't wait to have a turkey sandwich with it today. Thank you again, Linda C.
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"dcarch, would you please share more info re the J. Pippin method. Do you put the whole frozen bird into an oven set at 145? For how long do you cook the bird? I am very interested, because I cook most meat/poultry pieces in a frozen state. Have never cooked a whole chicken or turkey in the frozen state, but am most interested in doing so. Just need more information. Thanks." Jacques Pépin’s (Spellcheck keeps on changing to Pippin ) method is to cut up the turkey, similar to what’s known as spatchcock method. Basically cutting up the turkey in sections to cook, making it easier not to overcook the bird. Safety in cooking is very important. Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas many people get sick from eating improperly prepared turkey, from thawing to cooking. Many refrigerators are not cold enough to thaw a frozen turkey for a few days, and not using a thermometer is highly questionable. My method requires the use of sous vide cooking equipment, which can heat up food much faster using moving hot water at a precisely digitally controlled temperature. Temperature for cooking using sous vide electronics can be accurate to less than one degrees. This allows the turkey to be thawed and cooked much faster and cooked to known safe temperature inside and out. You cannot try to cook at a low temperature because oven hot air cannot conduct heat as fast as hot circulating water, and oven temperature can be off by as much as 40 degrees. dcarch Guaranteed perfect results for every part of the turkey
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Thank you LindaC and Mrs. Avery
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As I was looking for posts of this recipe before it was posted in this thread, I saw that there is a part missing to this recipe...it seems they leave out to allow the rolls to rise before baking. I found the recipes posted a bunch of times and always leaves out allowing the rolls to rise until doubled in size. Is this a necessary step or do you not have to do that? Someone actually asked about it and some other person besides linda said to allow to rise first....I would like to hear this from linda herself.
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trudymom
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you both for your thoughts--I appreciate your time. Oh that 1964 dinner sounded great!!

Trudy
lyndaluu2
16 years ago
Frozen toms are always good....never had a bad one yet!!!

Linda
beachlily z9a
16 years ago
I've had a bad frozen turkey--breast only. When I thawed it, the smell was off. Being young and dumb, I roasted it. We went out to dinner. I called Publix and explained what happened. They didn't want the wrapper--they cheerfully refunded the money. Talked to the butcher--he said the turkey had fallen into the vat and should not have been wrapped. I agree!
moosemac
16 years ago
I usually get a 30+ lb. turkey from a local farmer. He butchers them the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I pick it up Monday. This past Sunday I got a call from the famer saying he had a horrible year with his turkeys nothing over 10 lbs. so he would not be selling them this year.

After I got over the shock that I did not have a turkey for the holiday, I called DD to see if she could get one from the butcher shop she worked at over the summer. DH's nephew is the manager so we can get an organic fresh turkey but only 20-24 lbs. so we are getting a breast as well. I just hope it is somewhat close in flavor to the wonderful turkeys we usually get. Sigh......
annie1992
16 years ago
Moosemac, I usually get a fresh one from a local Amish farmer, they're slaughtered on Tuesday and I show up Wednesday to take my pick out of a horse tank full of turkeys and ice, LOL.

Mine have always been good, and I like dark meat, so the heritage turkeys are good for me, not those overblown breast heavy birds that commercial breeders have available now.

good luck on that bird.

Annie
hawk307
16 years ago
Moosemac:
30 lbs. plus ??? Are you sure it wasn't a Ostrich. Lol!
Lou
annie1992
16 years ago
Lou, the farmer I get my turkeys from has mostly birds over 30 pounds. A 25 pounder is a "small" turkey, usually a hen. He raises something called "Standard Bronze" and the average weight of a Tom is 35-40 pounds, hens are 25-30 pounds. He's had a couple of big Toms that have neared 50 pounds but they're old birds and not suitable for roasting.

He also has a few smaller Bourbon Red turkeys, but he's building his flock and doesn't sell those yet. The Toms are averaging 35 pounds and the hens about 20 pounds.

He doesn't sell the "broad breasted white" turkeys for a couple of reasons. One, they cannot mate naturally, and so the only way you can get them is to get poults from a hatchery. They are too hybridized and inbred to breed. Second, they are bred to have a lot of breast meat and to mature quickly, so many times they have the same problems that broiler chickens do. Their puny little legs cannot support the weight of the bird and their legs break. Or, they sit at a feeder and eat until they have a heart attack.

The big agribusiness turkey growers don't care about either of those things, they are interested in quick growth and profit. For small independents, though, those traits are not conducive to raising flocks year after year.

Annie
hawk307
16 years ago
Annie :
Didn't you see the LOL !
Some woman have the same problems!!! lol! lol! Lol!
I heard that !!!
- - - - - - - -

At my brother's farm in Ma zur a. A neighbor Turkey Farmer,
was also a Preacher ,and a Rodeo rider.
One year he lost most of his Turkeys to a disease.
I don't know what it was but I think it wiped out all or most of them.
Plus he didn't do too good in the Rodeo. My Nieces took 2 blue ribbons.
I don't know how he made out as a Preacher.
- - - - -
They did a lot of Bartering there.
- - - -
Lou
carmen_grower_2007
16 years ago
From what I know of turkey farmers, it is unusual to get a turkey that weighs less than 25#. They grow real fast and if they are under 25# at Thanksgiving, they are probably sick. Don't know how they do the commercial ones.

That said, I have a 30# one this year and am hoping we can actually eat it before midnight on Thanksgiving day.

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