Thanksgiving Feast

Well Raised

The first thing you can do to ensure a great meal is to splurge a slower growth genetics. Heritage breeds are best, but even getting the slower growing females often discarded by the factories is a big help.

Turkeys which cost less per pound than a can of cranberries are probably not the best choice -- unless you want cranberries to be the best part of the meal.

The fact of the matter is that fast growth factory style birds are designed to be cheap and simply can't compete in flavor or animal welfare.

Most (if not all?) of those turkey's you see for sale in the natural food stores are raised in regular old factories - they put a few birds out on pasture for a nice photo opportunity, but take the time to ask if they are raising hundreds of thousands in a completely conventional system and you might be surprised.

Dark Meat vs. White Meat

We've tried all different types of preparation strategies to get a moist white meat and fantastic dark. Having a heritage turkey really gives you a buffer here -- better results even roasting traditionally.

However, to enjoy the best of what any turkey has to offer, the dark meat and white meat should be cooked separately.

Cooking the dark meat ahead of time also reduces the amount of work on the big day.

Separating the dark meat from the white is fairly easy. Here are the basic steps:

1. Cut the skin to separate the drumsticks from the breast without cutting through any meat. Try to cut the skin as close to the drumstick as possible
2. Flip the bird over and press your thumbs into the thigh joint by the backbone and pull out on the drumsticks to dislocate that joint.
3. Work your knife along the backbone to separate the thigh from the backbone, trying to avoid cutting through any meat. I like to start from the back, carving out the 'oyster' from just behind the joint before coming forward through the thigh.

Here is a video of me cutting the dark meat off of our turkey. This is a one-shot video so forgive the non-polished nature of it!

Dark Meat Instructions

Follow the steps for our Smoked/Sous Vide chicken. I added Herbs de Provence as well as the salt (after smoking). In total, you want about 1tsp of salt per pound of turkey.

After the meat has Sous Vide at 165 - 170 for 10-12 hours, you can put it into the freezer, or keep in a fridge for a few days.

To serve, bring the meat back up to 140+ degrees in a water bath, then grill, broil or pan fry to crisp up the skin just before serving.

Tips

• If you don't have a smoker, you can skip that step and just include a bit of liquid smoke along with the herbs and salt.
• Consider following the instructions from our confit recipe to dry out the dark meat a bit in a fridge overnight.
• Remember: You don't need a Sous Vide machine, but it is easier. Just use a stockpot full of 165-degree water placed in an oven at the same temp (see example in the video)
• We use this sous vide machine - totally worth it.

Include your wings as 'dark meat' and cook with this recipe unless you really want them on your white meat roast.

Smoking our turkey dark meat quarters...

Here is another quick and rough video. This time showing how to get by without a vacuum sealer or sous vide machine. Remember to add your salt, herbs, liquid smoke or other seasonings before sealing the bag.