Hawk on chicken, New York City. Photo: D.Billy of I Am Not Lying

New Yorkers tend to throw fits about wildlife showing up in odd parts of their city. So we're unsurprised to hear that a local man was flustered when a large hawk flew into the restaurant where he was eating last week and perched on his lunch.

It'd be cruel to steal the story away from its hilarious original teller, whose best line was "I turned around to see it standing on my two-piece-with-side-and-soda combo, just chilling and looking out the window wistfully, as though a Sarah McLachlan song were playing in its head."

A phone call to the restaurant confirmed the tale, including the tidbit that a cook, Manoli (in the style of a true superhero, no one at the eatery knew his last name), whom a waitress describes as "pretty fearless," caught the thing in his bare hands when it flew into the kitchen. Said hawk was sent to the vet, who reportedly turned him over to a wildlife refuge.

The name of the eatery? Birdie's.

Should a holiday turkey be roasted for a longer time at a lower temperature or for a shorter time at a higher one? According to Robert L. Wolke , author of What Einstein Told His Cook 2, the Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science, one method isn't necessarily better, although the method of using a higher temperature is quite popular at the moment.

A turkey needs to reach an internal temperature of 165F in the thigh meat before it can be considered done. To achieve this, the bird must be cooked at a temperature greater than 165F for long enough to cook it through. The lower the temperature, the longer the time. A common temperature is about 325F, which results in a time of "about 20 minutes per pound." By increasing the temperature to 475F, roasting might take only 2 hours. Time, clearly, is a factor in choosing the latter method. Other advantages include getting a crisper skin and, according to many proponents of the faster method, a moister bird. In the end, it's a flavor and time preference as long as you check the meat with a thermometer to ensure that it really is done.

Perhaps some of you are just going to run out to the supermarket and pick up the first turkey that you see on the shelves of the meat section a few days before Thanksgiving. While this strategy will get you a bird, it will not necessarily get you the best bird, as evidenced by the NYT's cook-off of different types of turkey. The first step in turkey shopping is to find out what kind of turkey you actually want and how much it is going to cost you.

• Heritage turkeys are the types of birds that were served more than, say, 50 years ago when a turkey with breasts larger than the rest of the body was not necessarily desirable. Most of the breeds of bird are not commercially bred and some may even be endangered, so a limited number of them are available at a premium price.
• Free Range turkeys are ones that, like free range chickens, have the option of going outdoors instead of being completely confined, although some free range birds are actually raised completely in the open, so you might want to ask your meat provider about the origin of a free-ranger.
• Organic turkeys are raised on organic feed and without antibiotics and "natural" turkeys make similar claims. Whether you want an organic bird is a personal preference, but Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, is quick to point out that "growth hormones and preservatives are not used in California chickens or turkeys, so you just don't have to worry about [that aspect]."
• Conventional turkeys are the least expensive and easiest to find. Some say that they have somewhat less flavor than other birds and, because they have such a large amount of breast meat, they have the potential to be drier than the meat from other birds.

Once you have the turkey, all you have to do is defrost it (unless you've found a local source for frozen turkeys), cook it to perfection and enjoy. You might also want to mention to your dinner guests the amount of time you put into the turkey-finding process so they, too, can appreciate it a bit more.

Starting next month, poultry providers will have to meet a new set of packaging standards for their products. For example, the labels will clearly have to state if the product needs to be cooked. Regulators say that there is a good deal of confusion among consumers, especially over frozen, raw poultry that may already be partially prepared with a stuffing or breading, so the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has devised this label: Uncooked: For Safety, Must be Cooked to an Internal Temperature of 165 degrees F as Measured by Use of a Thermometer. The new labels will be added to all frozen poultry products.

The FSIS is in the process of approving cooking instructions that will accompany all the chicken products, with guidelines that suggest consumers use traditional food preparation methods as opposed to the microwave. "A fundamental part of label evaluation is to ensure that labeling will be understood and followed by consumers," said the FSIS.

I wonder exactly how many consumers are "fooled" into thinking that their raw chicken is already cooked. Are the artificial grill marks and colorings, not to mention breading, so convincing as to actually make people think their raw chicken was cooked before being frozen? Are people so used to buying frozen, pre-cooked meals that the concept of a non-precooked item is foreign to them? I would certainly like to think not. It is possible the the labels will help consumers be more prepared should the bird flu suddenly pop up.

 

Global health authorities say that there is currently no bird flu in the Western Hemisphere and the most likely way for it to enter the United States would be through birds smuggled in as pets or for cockfighting, or else from migratory birds, particularly ducks and geese. Nearly every chicken consumed in the US is raised here. Commercially bred chickens, including many "free range" birds, are raised inside giant airplane-hangar sized complexes and almost never see the light of day. Outdoor-raised chickens are usually kept away from wild birds with netting. The birds that are most at risk are unconfined birds and home raised birds, which may mingle with wild or migratory birds that carry the disease.

Almost all US chicken farmers have joined a program to test chicken flocks for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, which has already killed millions of birds in Asia and 76 humans. The producers who have joined the USDA's program - under which chickens from every flock will be tested approximately two weeks before slaughter - account for 90% of the US chicken production. Should an infection be detected, the flock will be destroyed and all flocks in a two mile radius will be held for further testing. State and national officials strongly recommend that even privately raised birds be brought in for testing on a regular basis.