"turkeys" news and stories

Now that Sarah Palin isn't busy campaigning and dreaming about being the Vice President, she's got to keep busy. This includes conducting interviews in front of a turkey slaughtering contraption while its in use. Talk about setting the scene!

Beyond the gobbles, and bloodshed ... Have you ever wondered what the deal is with figgy pudding? Why do we sing about it, yet never eat it?

It's a shame that I didn't see this vegan turkey recipe before I tried making the rather... interesting... Tofurkey shortly before this past Thanksgiving. The Tofurkey was a tofu-based "roast" with a wild rice stuffing and a faux-giblet gravy on the side. The vegan turkey from Two Vegan sisters almost reverses the order of ingredients, ending up with something that sounds much more appetizing. At the center of their "turkey," they used seitan, a wheat-based meat substitute, and covered it in a layer of stuffing that was shaped into a turkey-like mass and had turkey/stuffing legs added. The whole construction was covered with a layer of homemade (vegan) puff pastry and baked until golden. A turkey and stuffing savory pastry? It seems hard to go wrong with that!

And if you're not a vegan, this idea could still work for you. I can picture sausages or even real turkey in the center of this faux bird. It would certainly be an interesting take on the traditional bird at your next family dinner!

[via the ppk blog]

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Roughly 45 million turkeys are eaten each Thanksgiving, so it's not too surprising that we - and just about everyone else who writes about food - spend a lot of time talking about what we're doing with our turkeys for Thanksgiving and presenting alternatives to the traditional roast bird. But not everyone is planning on having turkey at his or her Thanksgiving dinner. A few might opt for steaks or pasta dishes for the main meal and a handful choose Tofurkey, but the second most popular main course for this particular holiday is ham. HoneyBaked, which is one of the most popular sources for ham, says that they can sell 50 times more ham for Thanksgiving than the do during the average week. Even more than that is sold leading up to Christmas.

I'm still serving turkey on the big day in addition to all the usual sides. What's going to be on your Thanksgiving table?

First things first. Salon's Diary of a turkey killer is decidely not the daily musings of someone who works in a slaughterhouse. It's a thoughtful piece by a former vegetarian turned carnivore who decides to raise and kill her own bird. The author is also quite an engaged gourmand. She grows her own heirloom tomatoes, and thus chose to purchase a heritage bird. A Heritage Bronze, like the one pictured here, to be specific.

The author details the high and low points of raising Harold the turkey from chick to tom, including the death of his significant other, Maude. Inevitably the article ends with Harold's slaughter and the subsequent feast. What's interesting about the piece is how the writer deals with slaughtering a live animal as an eater who was intimately familiar with the PETA party line.

Given how much I love meat, I also found the following quote pretty cool, "...despite a vocal minority of die-hard vegetarians and vegans, it's carnivores who are chic." But I shouldn't even be allowed to write that. First of all I'm hardly chic, and, unlike the intrepid author, I've yet to come to terms with my killer instinct. One of these days I'll watch or help slaughter an animal, not that it's something I look forward to. But I'm sure it will give me a more profound understanding of how meat comes to my table.

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There can never be too may turkey taste tests or suggestions about different methods of cooking turkey before Thanksgiving, whether you are trying to choose the perfect bird, find the perfect temperature or narrow down your list of useful gadgets. After all, the holiday comes only once a year and anyone motivated enough to cook their own bird is going to want to do it right. In their quest for the perfect turkey, the Washington Post tested out several more expensive local brands against the ubiquitous Butterball. Their food section staff and chef Todd Gray got together and tasted four birds prepared by Chef Bryan Voltaggio of Charlie Palmer Steak (who shoots and plucks his own wild turkeys).

The favorite was the free range, all-natural turkey from Maple Lawn Farms, with moist and full flavored meat. In what came as something of a surprise to everyone, the ordinary Butterball came in second, pleasing taste buds with its familiar flavor even though it was a bit dry. The judges did not like the flavor of the fresh, free-range, organic, certified humanely raised and handled American Bronze heritage breed turkey from Ayrshire Farm or the fresh, natural Shady Brook Farms turkey.

Chef Voltaggio said he could see the difference in textures in the two mass produced birds (Shady Brook and Butterball) and would prefer to serve one of the other two brands. But the taste test here is a good reminder that it doesn't matter what you pay for the bird as long as your guests enjoy what you're serving

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