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Somebody Help This Poor Girl: Heritage Turkeys in Dallas

Posted on November 10th, 2009 1:50pm by Nancy Nichols
Filed under Holidays, Local/Slow Food, Thanksgiving

: Warning: Some fancy turkeys are vain.

Several area farmers are raise raising heritage and pastured birds. Here’s a link to some. A loyal Disher asks the obvious question:

Have you eaten one of these heritage birds? I’d love to hear from someone who has. My big question is this… will it be worth the extra cost to buy a heritage turkey when I’m not wild about turkey to begin with? Will a heritage bird make me love this Thanksgiving tradition or should I just stick with a crown rib roast?

8 Comments to “Somebody Help This Poor Girl: Heritage Turkeys in Dallas”

Worzel Gummidge @ November 10th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

We bought one through the local Slow Food chapter a few years ago. I was disappointed in that it was tougher and had less meat than the factory raised/anti-biotics injected/drug-ridden/blubbered mass produced birds and didn’t taste better. It may have been a bad sample but now I usually do goose or duck.
Jordan @ November 10th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Rehoboth Ranch provides two heritage turkeys…broad breasted white and a bourbon red.

I have always been impressed with RR’s products.
Droopydave @ November 10th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

I suggested to my family we try one this year… they agreed and I have one reserved at Rhineland Farm in Glenn Rose. This will be our first time trying this and after Thanksgiving I’ll try to post back on it…
Shane @ November 10th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

If you are not crazy about the taste of the turkey then this turkey is not going to be a better tasting bird to be honest. Many have a leaner meat to them as they are allowed to run around instead of force fed or fed continuously in a caged environment. The fact that there is less fat makes the bird tougher (as in Worzel’s case). The taste is not significantly different.

Much of the principle behind heritage turkeys, grass fed beef, heritage hogs, etc is tracing your food source in that you know who raised it, it was raised locally (in most cases) and that it was humanely raised. Also with heritage breeds the breeders/ranchers are saving a particular breed of animal from extinction. These facts are in lie the additional cost.
Mike Ramsey @ November 10th, 2009 at 6:42 pm

Brining a heritage (or even a wild) turkey will give you much better results. All that walking around makes for more developed muscles than a supermarket bird.

Water, kosher salt, sugar, and your favorite herbs makes for a nice basic brine. Start early and do it for several days (in the fridge and changing the brining solution daily). The end result will a tender, flavorful and juicy bird.
Margie @ November 10th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

Interesting info. This is exactly what I’ve been wanting to know. Thanksgiving is always confusing to me because I never eat turkey during the year, not even deli meat. While I’d love to participate in the traditional turkey feast, I usually don’t. Feast, yes. Turkey, no. There are so many other premium meats that I enjoy more.
Billuas99 @ November 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am

We brined a heritage turkey last year. Brining does *not* make up for the decided lack of edible flesh on a heritage turkey. It in no way tastes any “better” than a brined, cage-raised turkey.

If you want a heritage turkey, get one 3-5 pounds larger than you normally would if you want leftovers. Which, after all, is the only point in cooking a turkey!

If you don’t care for turkey, they won’t help. Eat a cheeseburger instead.
Margie @ November 11th, 2009 at 11:15 am

Maye a Greenberg Smoked turkey would be better…