Nice, but it just makes me think "damn the lengths people will go to so the world's worst poultry tastes decent"
No way, turkey is a lot tastier than chicken, it's just the commercial breeding/farming has taken the flavor out of everything in the US. Once you leve those boarders (or know small farmers) you find it has a very robust flavor compared to the frozen bowling balls currently on offer.
Or just go turkey hunting, one of the most popular sports in the country. Wild turkey tastes worlds different than farmed.
Commercial farming is all about feeding as many people as possible for as cheap as possible. Not about taste or quality. That’s why you can get a turkey on sale for under $1 per pound, and even cheaper on sale after the holidays. I got two of them earlier this year after the new year for 27 cents per pound when they were trying to get rid of them.
If turkey tasted better than chicken, there would be a turkey aisle instead of a chicken aisle.
Where I live in the regular supermarkets there is a variety of meat: turkey (fresh, tenderloins, breast, sliced leg meat), lamb, pork, 2 types of chicken (regular and "corral" which has a much better flavor), a little bit of beef, duck (breasts, foie gras, smoked duck breast), couple different styles of sausage, on and on...this is the regular supermarket too, not a specialty one. Its just that in the US you get Walmart Grade Beef, Chicken, Pork....and thats about it.
So you see my point, but it upsets you. Should I also list my availability of meats?
There are plenty of places to buy good meat in the US, but many people don’t bother looking. I live in a small town, and we have a butcher shop that works with local farmers and provides everything you listed above. You’re correct about the threat that Walmart and other national chains (Krogers is the worst, honestly) that have “out competed” small businesses so they can put the cheapest three meats of the lowest acceptable quality in front of people at “value prices”.
Absolutely. Growing up it didn't used to be this way, but now the shareholders must feast while plebs get the feedback pigs. On the other hand, the US dodged a bullet with not approving (most of) the importation of meats and poultry processed in China...could you imagine even lower standards than what is on the market now (and probably laced with a little led flavor enhancers).
The only way to commercialize eating turkeys is to tell consumers they don't have to eat salad.
Wild turkey and/or small farm raised turkey is delicious. They’re smaller (this one was right about 10lbs), but they are significantly more flavorful.
Looks fantastic. Need to try a turkey soon!
I'm a big fan of breaking the turkey down into white and dark meat, since they're done at different temps. Turchetta for the breast, deboned + stuffed for the leg quarters.
Looks delicious. How does the skin come out? I've heard it's rubbery, but never smoked one myself.
If you do smoke it too low the skin can turn out rubbery. You’re looking for temps around 250-275° and raising it to about 350° for the last 30 minutes or so. I also pull the bird off the smoker at 158°, and I don’t tent it while resting.
Also, and this sounds counterintuitive, but five years (and about a dozen turkeys smoked) has proven it true: don’t baste. If you dry brine the turkey, basting it during cooking doesn’t make the meat juicier, it just makes the skin gummier. A dry brined, smoked turkey will be plenty juicy if not basted.
Looks good enough to eat ;-)
But what I'm really waiting for are the applications for the "Deep Fried Turkey Failure of the Year" video.
