The Turkey Verdict

I’m sure you all are anxious to find out how the humanely raised and slaughtered turkey tasted. I can honestly say it was the best turkey we have ever made.

But I’m not sure if I can give the credit to brining or to the turkey itself. This was hardly a controlled test.

I had bought a brining salt mix at The Spice House in Chicago. My daughter, who was home, read about how brining chemically alters turkey in a good way, by denaturing the proteins in the meat and through osmosis helping the meat to retain liquid. Yesterday we submerged our Polyface turkey in a solution of homemade stock, the brining salt mixture, and a small amount of brown sugar.

Today as the turkey roasted, it released very little fat. There was a small amount of dark brown drippings after the roasting was completed. I combined those with white wine, chopped giblets, a little flour, and turkey stock to make rich gravy. No salt was needed.

The meat itself was extremely moist and flavorful – both white and dark meat. We will be eating turkey for several more meals since it was just our family for dinner.

The other favorite on our menu was the cranberries with port and figs. It’s nice not to be overwhelmed by the flavor of oranges.

It takes a crazy amount of time to make Thanksgiving dinner. It almost seems a shame not to be able to eat for hours. But unfortunately the natural turkey was just as soporific as the grocery store variety, so we would be asleep by now if we were still at the table.

(The picture above is Polyface Farm.)

P.S. My neighbor KC who also tried a Polyface turkey for the first time didn't find anything remarkable about hers. She also thought there was not as much meat on those bones. I would rather know I had a skinny turkey because it had been enjoying itself on a grass farm instead of being cooped up in a little space to fatten up for somebody's Thanksgiving dinner. But then I wasn't trying to feed 12 people yesterday.