Maybe you're cooking it wrong. I like the white meat.

Yes, I know; that's racist.

It's turkey. It's not like there's any part of it that's particularly interesting. The entire reason gravy exists is to disguise the fact that turkey, even the dark meat, is bland and uninteresting.

Securing one of the turkey legs is something for which I am fully prepared to go to war. The good thing about this is that this is a lesson most have learned over the years, and so outright aggression is usually not necessary. But the threat is always there.

Pocket Ninja: Securing one of the turkey legs is something for which I am fully prepared to go to war. The good thing about this is that this is a lesson most have learned over the years, and so outright aggression is usually not necessary. But the threat is always there.



Maybe we can make some that have a couple of extra legs?

whether chicken or turkey, white meat doesn't have enough fat to be moist and flavorful - unless you do two things: brine it and don't overcook it.

We usually separate the dark meat, chop it into bit-sized chunks, then mix it into gravy with mushrooms and onions.

Turkey sucks. No, it would have to be edible to suck.

That's why every bite of it must be combined with something else...stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy...anything!

It's actually kind of sad that the only edible turkey is the processed turkey loafs they ship to supermarket delis so you can buy a pound for sandwiches.

There's a reason your parents gave you the white meat when you sat at the kids table.
Of course if it's dry, you're doing it wrong.

If you can't cook a turkey such that the white meat is delicious and flavorful, you're doing it wrong. I just stuff mine with aromatics and cook it breast-side down, so the white meat gets all the extra juices and flavor. We eat some of the dark meat, but most of that is reserved for turkey gumbo later on in the week.

Homemade cranberry jalepeno jelly can fix anything. I will rip arms out of sockets to protect my few precious jars of that tasty, tasty treat

/annual gift from a friend
//got mine just yesterday!

Yes, if you're buying a turkey that's been frozen since December so an incompetent can shove it unmodified into a 365 degree dessicator and ignore it for nine and a half hours, the meat will be dry and tasteless.

Animals taste like what they eat and if they eat what they are supposed to, they are delicious. Organic birds, and heritage if you splurge, is nom nom nom

/but by Crom cook it right.

CygnusDarius: I've always heard heritage turkeys were good.

This is indeed true. Several of the awesome reasons why they are tastier is that they are physically, structurally different from the Broad Breasted White turkey that we get in the grocery stores. The meat distribution on the BBW turkey is 75% breast/wing and 25% leg/thigh, whereas the heritage birds are the more natural 50/50 breast/leg ratio. This gives them jumbo long legs and powerful hindquarters, and a smaller breast. The breasts on the heritage birds are also deeper (think deep greyhound type chests vs barrel-shaped bulldog chests) due to a much longer keelbone (breastbone), so you have to take that into consideration while cooking them.

Another fun physical difference that very much adds to the awesome flavor of heritage turkeys is the thick layer of corn yellow fat that they get under their skin. This fat layer does not develop in turkeys until 7 months of age, and since BBW turkeys are slaughtered at 2-4 months, they literally never get a chance to create this layer of delicious yellow gamebird fat. The heritage birds (slaughtered at 8-9 months) have it all throughout their body, like a pheasant or a wild duck. The fat melts off while you cook it, naturally self-basting the bird from the inside and giving it a richer, more intense flavor (its intense in a good way, not a gamey way).

/raises and eats heritage turkeys
//had people fighting last year over who got to bring home the scraps from my 18pd Bourbon Red tom

Friskya:
Maybe we can make some that have a couple of extra legs?

Meh. Chernobyl Farms has sold six-drumstick turkeys for a quarter century.

/They're cheap, too.

Glenford: calm like a bomb: Every year, every farking year, I ask as nicely as I can, "Hey, how about we get a ham as well? Or some fish. Or I grill a steak?". And every year, every year without fail, is supposed to be the year that this new awesome super special recipe is totally going to turn me on to turkey so shut up about that other stuff. And it never does. And I feel like weeping.

And then my in laws always come for Christmas from Europe, where there is no Thanksgiving, so I get to do it twice in two months. And my family wonders why I keep a bottle of rum in my office closet.

One year it was just my parents and I. My mother made the suggestion of having something else and my father threw a tantrum like I have never seen before. 20 pound turkey and all the fixings for 3 people. Thank FSM there was lots of booze.

What you should do there is buy the turkey fresh, and have it cut in half. Cook half for Thanksgiving, freeze the other half for Christmas. Plenty of meat for three people.

shokokuphoenix: CygnusDarius: I've always heard heritage turkeys were good.

This is indeed true. Several of the awesome reasons why they are tastier is that they are physically, structurally different from the Broad Breasted White turkey that we get in the grocery stores. The meat distribution on the BBW turkey is 75% breast/wing and 25% leg/thigh, whereas the heritage birds are the more natural 50/50 breast/leg ratio. This gives them jumbo long legs and powerful hindquarters, and a smaller breast. The breasts on the heritage birds are also deeper (think deep greyhound type chests vs barrel-shaped bulldog chests) due to a much longer keelbone (breastbone), so you have to take that into consideration while cooking them.

Another fun physical difference that very much adds to the awesome flavor of heritage turkeys is the thick layer of corn yellow fat that they get under their skin. This fat layer does not develop in turkeys until 7 months of age, and since BBW turkeys are slaughtered at 2-4 months, they literally never get a chance to create this layer of delicious yellow gamebird fat. The heritage birds (slaughtered at 8-9 months) have it all throughout their body, like a pheasant or a wild duck. The fat melts off while you cook it, naturally self-basting the bird from the inside and giving it a richer, more intense flavor (its intense in a good way, not a gamey way).

/raises and eats heritage turkeys
//had people fighting last year over who got to bring home the scraps from my 18pd Bourbon Red tom

Start a branch farm in Tucson.

/Please.
//You write awful purty.

I don't really care for any of the turkey. I will eat all the stuffing though. All the stuffing.

FunkOut: I don't really care for any of the turkey. I will eat all the stuffing though. All the stuffing.

Are you from a mixed family that celebrates both the Canuckistan and American Thanksgivings?

/Gravy is its own food group.