How To Cook A Heritage Turkey

Imagine the perfect farm to tabular array Thanksgiving

The rich smell of turkey wafts through the air as family unit and friends gather in the kitchen. As you place your farm-raised heritage breed turkey on a beautiful platter everyone admires the crispy pare and tries to steal a bite. You're relaxed and confident that you've prepared a delicious, flavorful bird and can't wait to share information technology with loved ones. Sounds ideal, right? So how exactly do you get in that location?

What is a heritage breed turkey?

Showtime things first, we have to start with the bird. A heritage brood turkey is one of a dozen or so breeds that are more than closely related to their wild ancestors. Typically they are heartier, healthier and capable of running, flying and mating. Most turkeys sold in the grocery store are wide-breasted varieties that have been bred specifically to reach higher weights in less time with more chest meat. They often crave highly controlled diets to stay healthy and abound so big they are non able to reproduce naturally. Heritage breed turkeys accept dissimilar body structure than most store bought turkeys and consequently melt a little differently.

Yous may discover specialty grocery stores that carry heritage brood turkeys, just your best option for acquiring a heritage brood bird is to find a local farmer. Try doing a Google search of your area or inquire at farmer's markets to see if you can detect a farmer to support. Heritage breed turkeys can exist more challenging to raise and take longer to mature than conventional birds, so exist prepared to pay a slightly higher price for your farm-to-table turkey. The Atlantic wrote an interesting piece several years agone about whether heritage breed turkeys are worth the splurge – it'due south worth a quick read! And if you want a quick view into our pasture-raised poultry operations, check out our video virtually raising chickens on the subcontract.

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What'due south the ultimate goal when cooking your turkey?

As Stephen Covey famously says, "brainstorm with the end in heed." We have to know where we're heading in order to produce the best bird possible. To keep it simple, you desire crisp skin and a fully cooked turkey without compromising moist chest meat. This can be easier said than washed since the night meat on the bone takes longer to cook. Don't fearfulness though, it is an doable goal! Nosotros'll walk you though a few essential steps to ensure you go a delicious, moist turkey. After all, you don't want to overcook and dry out this beautiful heritage breed turkey you just purchased (or raised yourself)!

6 tips to successfully melt a heritage breed turkey

While these tips are applicable to cooking any farm-to-table poultry, they are especially important when cooking a heritage brood turkey.

1. Fully thaw the meat in accelerate

In order for the turkey to cook evenly, it needs to be fully thawed. The general rule of thumb is 24 hours in the refrigerator for every 5 pounds of meat. So if yous have a 15-pound heritage breed turkey, plan on taking it out of the freezer 3 days in advance. As when thawing whatsoever meat, place it in a basin or on a tray to catch any drips. The extra infinitesimal it takes to take hold of a tray is nothing compared to the hours information technology takes to clean up leaked meat juices…believe me, I've unfortunately fabricated that mistake earlier.

2. Table salt or brine the meat the nighttime earlier

Introducing common salt the night before either dry (sprinkling over the surface and inside the crenel) or in a wet alkali (a salt h2o solution) gives the salt time to penetrate the protein. This ultimately results in a juicier, more flavorful bird. One huge reward of pre-salting or dry out brining is that you don't need a ton of extra fridge space to fit in a pot or bag full of salt water for your alkali. We've washed both methods in the past and both aid you go a more flavorful bird that retains more wet.

three. Bring your turkey to room temperature earlier cooking

Simply like we needed to fully thaw the turkey, nosotros demand to become the whole turkey upward to room temperature before putting it into the oven. If nosotros skip this step and go straight from the fridge to the oven, the turkey will cook unevenly and you can near guarantee the breast meat will dry before the night meat has finished cooking. Generally we'll pull the turkey out of the fridge an hour or two before we plan to cook it.

4. Rub a seasoned butter mixture between skin and meat

Absolutely, this is not my favorite office of the process, but information technology helps keep the breast meat moist and imparts and so much season it's totally worth information technology. Or realistically I unremarkably enquire Steve to do this part! Take softened butter and add whatever spices and seasonings you'd like – rosemary, thyme, paprika, salt, pepper, etc. and so rub it between the meat and skin. You accept to gently pull the peel up to dissever it in guild to let your hand to fit in. Information technology's messy. But the payoff is great.

5. Cook at a high rut

E'er pre-heat your oven before you lot put your turkey in then that it tin can begin properly cooking and browning immediately. Typically the dorsum is the hottest part of the oven, then place the legs facing a back corner to aid protect the breast meat from drying out. You can rotate the feet to face the other direction halfway through the cooking process to fifty-fifty it out.

We usually begin by cooking our turkey at a loftier temperature (450 degrees Farenheit) for the first 20 or xxx minutes. After it's browned nicely we'll drop the temperature downwardly to 375-400 degrees for the residue of the cook fourth dimension. Because you're cooking at a higher temperature, information technology's not going to accept all day. I don't think nosotros've e'er had a heritage breed turkey take more than 3 hours.

While information technology tin exist tempting to baste frequently, opening the oven oftentimes is detrimental to the cooking procedure considering then the oven has to keep kicking back into high gear to get information technology back up to the correct temperature. Then simply baste a couple times and then cover with foil if it looks like the pare is browning more than than y'all'd like. With the butter under the skin it will help add that extra insurance to go along it from drying out.

6. Allow fourth dimension for your heritage breed turkey to remainder

Take your turkey out of the oven when you can prick the joint between the thigh and leg and have the juices run clear. For a heritage breed turkey yous'll generally desire to pull information technology out when a thermometer inserted in the thickest role of the thigh is around 150 degrees. The turkey will go along to cook when you pull it out of the oven considering of the rest heat trapped inside the meat. Then take the turkey out, tent it with foil and let it rest for at least 30 minutes before you go to carve it.

Your flavour profile personality

By following the suggestions above, you should have a moist, delicious heritage brood turkey to feed your family, but how exercise y'all make it your own? Seasonings!

While a simple, archetype herb combination like rosemary, thyme or sage can evoke memories of past Thanksgivings, you can have it in many unlike directions. Perhaps endeavor smoked paprika, chili powder and minced garlic. Or Cajun spices. Information technology's upwardly to you!

You can incorporate those flavors in the butter rub, but yous can also add aromatics to the cavity of the bird to help amp upward the season. Nosotros oftentimes add together lemon, onions and apples, simply once again, the options are endless.

Turning your dream into reality

To prepare the heritage breed turkey and enjoy the farm-to-table Thanksgiving of your dreams, all you need is a little forethought and planning. Write out a brief timeline to help you know when to pull the turkey out, when to table salt, etc. Yous may even desire to do a "practice" run with a whole roast chicken since the same concepts apply. This will help reduce your stress on the day of your big feast so you can be more present to enjoy the fourth dimension with family and friends. If eating farm to table meals at home sounds appealing to you lot, be sure to cheque out our Farm to Tabular array Planner for even more guidance on how to make it a reality in your own home. Bon appetit!

Source: https://theforbesfamilyfarm.com/how-to-perfectly-cook-a-heritage-breed-turkey/