I'm getting my turkey from _____________
I have an opportunity to get a turkey from a farm connected with a food coop. I've used Empire turkeys, Shady Brook turkeys, a couple of fresh farm turkeys. They were all good to varying degrees. I read Cooks Illustrated this month and their results surprised me. They like frozen turkeys. Where are you getting your turkey from?Why?
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16 Comments:
oops! It is co-op, not coop.
Mich23 at 7:09AM on 10/12/07
I used to get a frozen one at the grocery store but found that it took up to much space in the fridge and was a pain to thaw .. we talking a 24 pounder. Last year I got a fresh one from the meat market, was able to pick it up on the day before Thanksgiving. I'll do that again this year.
NanaJoie at 8:09AM on 10/12/07
Fresh Market or Whole Foods/Wild Oats.
chiff0nade at 9:55AM on 10/12/07
While I do prefer the more common 'broad-breasted white' over a heritage bird, I will certainly look for one has that has been raised in the most humane and sustainable way possible. I really like Allison's a poultry farm co-op in the Carolinas. Their chickens are also the best I have had.
coolname at 10:07AM on 10/12/07
I've been getting pasture raised turkeys from a local farmer. I don't know what breed they are, something common. I brine and then smoke them and they are the best! I've had people tell me that is is the best turkey they've ever eaten. The meat is so much more flavorful and dark. The birds tend to be small and the breasts are not gigantic like industrial-strength birds. It's more like eating a wild turkey.
Library Lady at 11:49AM on 10/12/07
I will be getting my turkeys from my brother who raises heritage turkeys in Northern Michigan (as well as pheasant and heritage chickens). I plan to grill one over a charcoal fire and the other will be on the rotisserie on the gas grill. We will brine one of the two. If these turkeys (it's his first year raising them) taste anything like his free range organic chickens, we will be in turkey bliss.
celticjig1 at 12:10PM on 10/12/07
No turkey -- for the last three years we have done crown roast of pork from a local family-owned grocery store with great butchers. I order ten days in advance and increase or decrease "bones" as needed for the size of the expected group. The roast comes fully trimmed and tied.
The pork goes with all of the usual and customary accoutrements - calvados gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce, etc. etc. Best of all, no thawing required, virtually no prep (salt, pepper, an olive oil rub) and a crown roast with 16 bones (feeds 8 to 10, with a couple bones left over for Cuban sandwiches the next day) cooks in under 90 minutes, keeps warm for an hour under a foil hood, and looks spectacular at the table on a platter filled with dressing, surrounded by cut sage and thyme, and wearing metallic "pants" that coordinate with the service platter.
Yum!
Mizbee at 12:31PM on 10/12/07
I ordered mine from a local farmer who does pastured poultry. We'll pick it up fresh two days before Thanksgiving, just enough time to brine it.
ExpatChef at 1:47PM on 10/12/07
I'm getting it (actually 27 of them) from Alison's Farms in North Carolina. To my knowledge it's the only Certified Humane poultry farming operation on the East Coast.
A couple of years ago I ponied up $140 for a 12 pound bird from Heritage Foods- a Bourbon Red, I think - and found it vastly inferior to the regular Nicholas Whites I've been eating (from Four Corners farm in VT.) The heritage bird had little flavor and a very high bone:flesh ratio. I was bummed, as I wanted and expected to love it from all the press heritage breeds have been getting.
zapatista at 2:08PM on 10/12/07
Frozen from the grocery store.
Colorado Jim at 2:08PM on 10/12/07
i've looked into getting an organic, free range bird only to find out i would probably have to mortgage the house to do so. I live in Los Angeles, if anybody has any suggestions for local farms (i know that may be an oxymoron in los angeles, but thought i'd throw it out there and give it a shot) where I can get one at that would be great!
foodiegirl at 3:22PM on 10/12/07
We like to have a turkey breast from our local smokehouse (Ozark Mountain Smokehouse) and a smoked turkey from Greenbergs: www.gobblegobble.com. They are both so good! The breast from OMS is tender, flavorful, moist and our absolute favorite for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. The smoked turkey from Greenbergs is a yearly gift from my parents. The reason I buy, rather than cook, is that I am more of a baker than cook....I do okay with side dishes from scratch but the meaty-stuff is beyond my comprehension. No matter how I cook it, it turns out too well-done and very dry.
elderberry44 at 5:27PM on 10/12/07
The same place we've gotten our fresh turkeys for the past five Thanksgivings: Raymond's Turkey Farm in Methuen, MA ( http://www.raymondsturkeyfarm.net/ ). They raise broad-breasted White Holland turkeys. We usually pick it up the day before Thanksgiving. I've not tried brining it, I just roast it, and it's the best turkey I've ever had, if I do say so myself.
macknitter at 11:43PM on 10/13/07
The supermarket. I'm all organic and that the rest of the year, but I got a free range organic turkey last year, and it just didn't taste like Thanksgiving. I finally realized that it was because I was raised on Butterball; it tastes like home (or rather, my aunt's home). I'm cool with eating that one day per year. So shoot me.
Barbara Hanson at 9:59PM on 10/14/07
I live in Iowa. Lots of farms and stuff, right? There's less than half a dozen farms in the entire state that raise organic/not factory farmed turkeys. And of course, since I live on the east side of the state, most of them are located on the west side of the state. (Grumble grumble).
What I ask of you, my dear little SEers, is if anyone has a local or online purveyor of delicious birds that will ship said gobbler to my doorstep (preferably without me having to mortgage my giblets, but hey, it is a holiday). I know, I could Google up something, but I'm looking for first-hand experience from someone.
corycm at 11:49AM on 10/15/07
Nowhere! I'm Vegan : )
StudentStomach at 12:38PM on 10/15/07