Three Turkey Tips: How To Pick, How To Cook, & A Great Thanksgiving Recipe

With Thanksgiving coming up, I figured now is a good time to give you a few turkey tips. First up, let’s talk about how to pick a turkey, then I have a tip on how to cook your turkey so that it turns out moist and juicy every time. Finally, I have a recipe that I made last year for Thanksgiving (using a goose instead of a turkey) that is lip-smacking good.

How To Pick Your Turkey

Pastured Vs. Conventional Turkeys

As you all know, I’m a big fan of high-quality grass-fed beef instead of the mass-market, grain-fed stuff you find in most stores. Similarly, I am a big fan of pastured poultry. And since Thanksgiving dinner typically includes a turkey, I hope you’re using a pastured-raised turkey.

I’ll just cut to the chase and give you 4 reasons why you should pick a pastured turkey instead of that tasteless, dry, grain-fed turkey you’re used to eating at Thanksgiving. If you’re one of those that thinks turkey is boring, look no further than that Butterball on your plate. Pastured turkeys:

• Taste better – Turkeys are natural foragers, like chickens. On an unnatural, grain-fed diet like all those turkeys you find in Kroger, Von’s, Albertson’s, etc, turkeys are bland. Allowed to move around and forage, turkeys develop a richer flavor.
• Are better for you – Pastured turkeys have higher levels of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (a healthy cancer-fighting fat), along with higher levels of other nutrients.
• Aren’t dosed with antibiotics – Pastured turkeys are only given antibiotics when necessary to fight an actual disease, not as a matter of course to counteract poor production methods.
• Are good for the ecosystem – Go drive past a commercial turkey production facility and tell me that the noxious odors emanating from the turkey houses, where the turkeys never see the light of day, are good for anything. Pastured turkeys, on the other hand, fertilize the soil and don’t require the use of pesticide-laden feed.

Quality Costs Money

You do pay more for a pastured turkey, just like you pay more for grass-fed beef. You do have to pay for better quality. Nobody complains about paying more for a Toyota than for a Yugo because the quality difference is evident. The same goes with turkeys, chickens, beef, pork, and lamb. Pay more for a higher quality, healthier, tastier product.

One other thing: the price difference shrinks (though there is still a difference) when you consider that you’re being lied to in the grocery store. Check out this recent USDA study about brine-injected meats:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday that brine-injected meat is composed of 40 percent salt water and proposed a rule that would require companies to disclose this information.

That’s correct…up to 40% of the weight of those birds (and other meats) that say “Enhanced with a solution of salt water” (or something like that) is water. So you’re paying for water. No wonder the price is so cheap, but the actual price for the meat can be almost double what the price tag reads in the worst instances (since water is both heavy and non-meat).

What Size Turkey Do You Need?

Alright, if you aren’t convinced that you should buy better meat by now, me hammering you over the head with it isn’t going to change your mind. The bottom line is that food raised the right way tastes better and is better for you. If you don’t buy that, I can’t help you. I know, it’s probably too late for this Thanksgiving since you likely already have your turkey, but think about it when you buy a turkey for Christmas or Easter or next Thanksgiving.

So now what size turkey should you buy? Regardless of what type of turkey you buy, the rule of thumb is about 1lb of turkey per person. That will get you through the Thanksgiving holiday, but if you want leftovers, you might want to add an extra one-half to two lbs per person (depending on how long you want to be eating turkey).

Tom or Hen?

You can buy a Tom turkey (male) or a Hen turkey (female). They are the same in terms of tenderness and flavor, but a hen will have more breast meat. I prefer the dark meat because it has more flavor, but if you and your family prefer the white meat, opt for a hen (though on a pastured bird, the white meat is less white since the turkey actually uses its wings some).

How To Cook Your Turkey

How To Thaw Your Turkey

Most likely, you have a frozen turkey. If not, well, skip this part. To thaw your turkey, it’s best to place it in the refrigerator several days prior to cooking to let it slowly thaw. The general rule of thumb is about 24 hours per 5lbs of turkey. So for the 14.5lb turkey I have, it’ll take about 3 days.

How To Brine Your Turkey

This is a key step for those of you with conventionally-raised turkeys. Pastured turkeys will be juicier and more flavorful. Conventional turkeys tend to be dry, especially in the white meat. Therefore, you want to stave off having bland, dry meat before you start cooking it. The way to do this is with a brine, either wet or dry.

The Wet Brine

I was going to do a full run-down on how to do a wet-brine for your turkey, but my friend John beat me to the punch. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’ll just send you over to his post about it: How to Wet-brine a Turkey

I love the wet-brining method. It produces an incredibly moist and juicy turkey. It gets the flavor past the skin, which just applying a rub to the outside just before cooking won’t do. Like John says in his post, even if you overcook the turkey, it’ll still stay moist (to a point, of course!).

The Dry Brine

I recently came across a dry-brining method that I’m very interested in trying. It reduces the amount of clean-up and eliminates the large space requirements for a big bucket or bag of water to hold the turkey. And it actually beat out the wet brine in a taste test.

With a dry brine, you heavily salt the turkey 2-3 days early, then massage the turkey once or twice a day. What happens is that the salt pulls the moisture out of the muscle cells (counter-intuitive, I know, stay with me). The muscle cells then reabsorb the water, pulling in the salt and any other flavors you add to the rub. You can actually dry-brine a frozen turkey while it thaws, but get the giblets out first by running cool water into the cavity to break the ice.

Adding Some Extra Flavor

Brining gets the flavor deep into the bird. If you want to add some additional flavor, you can pull the skin on the breast up so you can reach your hand in and add some melted butter, fresh rosemary and thyme, or anything else your heart desires. The butter will help baste the bird as it cooks and the herb flavors will distribute more evenly, especially on those breasts, which (as I’ve said already) tend to be blander and drier.

I have access to a good-sized smoker this year, so I’m going to try smoking my turkey after dry-brining it. Two new techniques…here’s hoping for the best! Oh yeah, don’t forget to remove the giblets before you roast your turkey. Surely I’m not the only one that has forgotten to do that.

Turkey with CranApple-Sage Stuffing

After all that yammering about turkeys, here’s an awesome recipe for you. I cooked this last year for me, my girlfriend, and two friends, using a goose instead of a turkey. It was absolutely amazing! If you’re not quite set on what you’re making this year, skip the Stove Top stuffing and go with this Turkey with CranApple-Sage Stuffing.

The stuffing is gluten-free and can be cooked on the stovetop in a pan instead of inside the bird if you prefer that from a food safety standpoint. For last year’s dinner, we added a Sweet Potato casserole (made with coconut cream), Sesame Green Beans, and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan cheese. And more wine than 4 people should drink.

Sound Off!

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Who’s doing the cooking? What dish are you most looking forward to?

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