DILEMMA OF ROASTING A TURKEY

Forums: Cooking, Turkeys, Heritage Foods, Kafka Method
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We like to roast a turkey at the reccomended Kafka temps of 475-500 F for 10 minutes per pound of bird. NEVER put stuffing in the cavity.
ANyway, for the last few years weve been buying these "Heritage grass fed birds" (Its marketing, not food science). We got sucked up in the hype and bought 1 each year.
They cook up horribly at the Kafka method(and the Kafka method imparts a supwerior taste and moistness otherwise). So weve had to drop the heat and raise the time which makes it even drier.
SO , WHAT TO DO?--yesterday I bought an "Imperial" turkey which was grown and fed with grain and was a nice fatty dude. It roasted up so fine and the fklavor was just delicious.

SOMETIMES these "heritage foods" ideas are just bullshit to make us no longer fear our food.

IMHO.
Anybody disagree or agree?

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I always buy the supermarket brand. I am not afraid to eat it, since I never buy over two in twelve months' time.

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@edgarblythe,

I think that this is the best way to go. I can get a better deal and it actually tastes better.

ANYTIME a turkey can fly around its pen, you dont wanna eat it. The damn thing is so buff that its stringy and loaded with lactic acid

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Hmmmm....

I might disagree. I buy a fresh, local turkey at Thanksgiving (the only time I buy a turkey) and it's always good (don't know the brand, it's sold at my tiny neighborhood store that only sells local, humanely raised meats). I dry brine it for 3 days, cook for 30 minutes at 400, then turn it down to 350 for about 20 minutes per pound.

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Oooops. Left out an important step....

Dry brine, THEN DRY for about 3 hours (on a rack, in the fridge) (this is important if you want crispy skin), then cook.

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@boomerang,

fresh and local isnt the prblem, whereas "Heritage organically raised bird" is. Grass fed turkeys are leaner and therefore not conducive to the KAfka methods (High temp, short time)

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Listening. I'm a small bird spatchcocking woman and can't afford them fancy pants birds, though I'm for the 'humanely' raised business. I was thinking of springing for a capon one of these days.. I used to like Rocky free range chickens, back in the day. Best flavored chicken I've had was from a teensy village in italy where the bird was from the yard by the small inn. It was, though, too done for my taste, but that could be adjusted.

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@farmerman,

Turkey's pretty damn lean to begin with. You don't need to go grass-fed for them.

It can make a positive difference if you're preparing duck or goose - both can afford to be somewhat leaner - though I'm not sure they'd benefit by a high heat approach.

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@farmerman,

split the skin and insert a coupla slices of bacon before roasting...

thank me later.

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@ehBeth,

Quote:

Turkey's pretty damn lean to begin with. You don't need to go grass-fed for them.

MArket trics and words like "hwritage" are all done to merely get us in the door.
We bit from all the hype. (Its just like how some folks are militant vegetarians---we also have militant epidurian "foodies" who will only et anything that is cerified organic).

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@farmerman,

Quote:

SOMETIMES these "heritage foods" ideas are just bullshit to make us no longer fear our food.

Sometimes old fashioned is going back to ways that were ditched because better ways were discovered. This is how I feel about grass raised beef. Not. For. Me....I want beef that was properly fattened in a feed lot on grain for a couple of months.

Re your turkey: I am pretty sure the only way to make that crap you where buying edible is to brine it. That is most likely what was done in the bad old days before Butterball by cooks who knew what they were doing. They also might have larded them

As an aside, my Norbest this year was injected with 9% salt water, which pissed me off till I ate it (excess water in poultry has long been a scam to raise profits)...not bad. I still prefer the birds that used to be injected with fat, but I am too lazy to do that myself.

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DILEMMA OF ROASTING A TURKEY

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