"turkey" news and stories

Are all those holiday turkeys blurring together in your mind? I mean, how many different ways can you present a roast bird? Brown, brown, and golden brown. BBC blogger and food writer Stefan Gates has an extravagant solution for you: "Give the Midas touch to your turkey." Gates literally gilds the bird with gold loose leaf (or food additive E175, for the technically inclined). It's safe (meaning edible), and creates a dramatic presentation. Or you might say it looks like a turkey squeezed into a gold lamé track suit. For the recipe, and all the instructions, visit Gates at the BBC.

So you've got the bird home from the market and you've defrosted it, but how do you actually cook a turkey in the oven? The editors at KitchenDaily have rounded up a last-minute turkey 101 -- from turkey cooking times per pound, basting for moist meat, defrosting techniques, temperature safety and much more.

Read more: How to Cook a Turkey in the Oven

If you're looking for a way to spice up the Thanksgiving table, without adding a lot of extra steps to your preparations, try this Southwestern Rubbed Turkey recipe. Smoked paprika, cumin, and cinnamon add depth of flavor to the bird, and, even make it piquant.

If you've considered abandoning the roaster for a deep-fryer in order to put a turkey on your table, pay a visit to the fellows at the Serious Eats Food Lab. They take you through an illustrated deep-frying how-to, and skewer a few notions (such as the one that fried turkey meat is more moist) about dipping your bird in a big vat of oil. Join the experiment, thermodynamics and all.

Every Thanksgiving millions of turkeys find their way to Americans' dinner tables.

But animal protection organization Farm Sanctuary -- and spokesperson Ellen Degeneres -- is urging Americans to reconsider their Thanksgiving menus and adopt, rather than eat, Thanksgiving turkeys.

Degeneres has signed on as the spokesperson for Farm Sanctuary's 2010 "Adopt-a-Turkey Project," an annual program the sanctuary runs to raise awareness about the conditions of and mistreatment in factory turkey farms.

"Save a life this Thanksgiving, and join me in starting a new tradition by adopting a turkey instead of eating one through Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Turkey Project," Degeneres said in a statement.

Last year Farm Sanctuary petitioned President Obama to send the White House's annual pair of "pardoned" turkeys to its shelter rather than to Disneyland, where turkeys pardoned by President Bush were sent, Slashfood reported.