Ingredient: Turkey
Category: Poultry
Season: All
The domesticated turkey is a large poultry bird raised for food.
The modern domesticated turkey descends from the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), one of the two species of turkey (genus Meleagris); however, in the past the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) was also domesticated.
Despite the name, turkeys have no relation to the country of Turkey and are native to North America.
The turkey is reared throughout temperate parts of the world, and is a popular form of poultry , partially because industrialised farming has made it very cheap for the amount of meat it produces. The female domesticated turkey is referred to as a hen and the chick as a poult. In the United States, the male is referred to as a tom, whilst in Europe, the male is a stag.
The great majority of domesticated turkeys have white feathers , although brown or bronze-feathered varieties are also raised. The fleshy protuberance attached to the underside of the beak is known as a "wattle".
In the early 20th century, many advances were made in the breeding of turkeys resulting in varieties such as the Beltsville Small White.
Availability and commercial production
Prior to World War II, turkey was something of a luxury in Britain , with goose or beef a more common Christmas dinner.
Turkey production in Britain was centred on East Anglia with two breeds, the Norfolk Black and the Norfolk Bronze (also known as Cambridge Bronze).
These would be driven as flocks, after shoeing, down to markets in London from the 17th century onwards - the breeds arriving in the early 16th century via Spain (1500).
Intensive farming of turkeys from the late 1940s, however, dramatically cut the price and it became far and away the most common Christmas dinner meat.
With the availability of refrigeration, whole turkeys could be shipped frozen to distant markets. Later advances in control of disease increased production even more.
Advances in shipping , changing consumer preferences and the proliferation of commercial poultry plants for butchering animals has made fresh turkey available to the consumer.
In the UK Bernard Matthews is a name synonymous with turkey production and the largest single producer in the world.
The dominant commercial breed is the White (also known as "White Holland") which are large birds with lots of meat, but too large to achieve natural fertilisation.
Turkey as food
Turkeys are traditionally eaten as the main course of large feasts at Christmas, in much of the world, as well as Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, though this tradition has its origins in modern times, rather than colonial as is often supposed.
In fact, before the 20th century, pork ribs were the most commonly consumed food on the holiday, as the animals were usually slaughtered in November.
In the USA, turkeys were once so abundant in the wild that they were eaten throughout the year, the food considered commonplace, whereas pork ribs were rarely available outside of the Thanksgiving-New Year holiday season.
Turkey has also displaced, to a certain extent, the traditional Christmas roast goose or beef of Britain and Europe. While eating turkey was once mainly restricted to special occasions such as these, turkey is now eaten year-round and forms a regular part of many diets.
In countries where turkey is popular, it is available commonly in supermarkets:
Turkeys are sold sliced and ground, as well as "whole" in a manner similar to chicken with the head, feet, and feathers removed.
Frozen whole turkeys remain popular.
Sliced turkey is frequently used as sandwich meat or served as cold cuts.
Ground turkey is sold just as ground beef, and is frequently marketed as a healthy beef substitute.
Without proper preparation, turkey is usually considered to end up less moist than, for example, chicken or duck.
Leftovers from roast turkey are generally served as cold cuts on Boxing Day.
In Israel, turkey, rather than lamb is usually the choice meat used to make shawarma .
Turkey is often found as a processed meat .
It can be smoked and as such is sometimes sold as turkey ham.
Twisted helices of deep fried turkey meat sold as turkey twizzlers came to prominence in the UK in 2004 when chef Jamie Oliver campaigned to have them and similar foods removed from school dinners.
Wild turk eys (USA), while technically the same species as domesticated turkeys, have a very different taste from farm-raised turkeys. Almost all of the meat is "dark" (even the breasts) with a more intense turkey flavour.
The flavour can also vary seasonally with changes in available forage , often leaving wild turkey meat with a more significant game flavour in late summer due to the greater number of insects in the diet over the preceding months.
Wild turkey that has fed predominantly on grass and grain has a far milder flavour . Older heritage breeds also differ in flavour. [
Cooking:
Both fresh and frozen turkeys are used for cooking; as with most foods, fresh turkeys are generally preferred, although they cost more.
Around holiday seasons, high demand for fresh turkeys often makes them difficult to purchase without ordering in advance.
For the frozen variety, the large size of the turkeys typically used for consumption makes defrosting them a major endeavour: a typically-sized turkey will take several days to properly defrost.
Turkeys are usually baked or roasted in an oven for several hours, often while the cook prepares the rest of the meal.
Sometimes, a turkey is brined before roasting to enhance flavour and moisture content. This is necessary because the dark meat cooks more slowly than the white meat, so that fully cooking the dark meat tends to dry out the breast.
Brining makes it possible to fully cook the dark meat without drying the breast meat. Turkeys are sometime decorated with turkey frills prior to serving.
In some areas, particularly the American South, they may also be deep fried in hot oil (often peanut oil) for 30 to 45 minutes by using a turkey fryer.
Deep frying turkey has become something of a fad, with hazardous consequences for those unprepared to safely handle the large quantities of hot oil required.[
When eaten at Christmas in Britain,
Turkey is traditionally served with winter vegetables including roast potatoes (Brussels sprouts, and parsnips).
Cranberry sauce is the traditional condiment in the northern rural areas of Britain where wild cranberries grow.
In the south and in urban areas, where cranberries until recently were difficult to obtain, bread sauce was used in its place, but the availability of commercial cranberry sauce has seen a rise in its popularity in these areas too.
Sometimes sausagemeat, cocktail sausages or liver wrapped in bacon is also served (known as bacon rolls or "pigs in blankets").
Especially during holiday seasons, stuffing is traditionally served with turkey.
There are many varieties: oatmeal, chestnut, sage and onion (flavoured bread), and sausage (possibly with mashed potato) are the most traditional.
Stuffing may either be used to stuff the turkey (as the name implies), or may be cooked separately and served as a side dish.
For Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada
Turkey is traditionally served with cranberry sauce and gravy.
Other items vary, but common complementary dishes include mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, various vegetables (such as corn, green beans, squash, and sweet potatoes), and various types of pie for dessert (such as pumpkin, apple and pecan).
One humorous decades-old Thanksgiving tradition in the United States is the annual Presidential "pardon" of a selected turkey, which meets the President and then is taken to a petting zoo instead of a slaughterhouse.
Turkey breeds
The Broad-breasted White is the commercial turkey of choice for large scale industrial turkey farms, and consequently is the most consumed variety of the bird.
The Broad-breasted Bronze is another commercially developed strain of table bird.
The Standard Bronze looks much like the broad-breasted, except that it is single breasted, and can naturally breed.
The Bourbon Red turkey is a smaller non-commercial breed with dark reddish feathers with white markings.
Blue slate turkeys are a very rare breed with beautiful gray-blue feathers.
The Black turkey ("Spanish Black", "Norfolk Black") has very dark plumage with a green sheen.
The Narraganset is a popular heritage breed named after Narraganset Bay in New England.
The Chocolate Turkey is a rarer heritage breed with markings similar to a Black Spanish, but light brown instead of black in colour. Common in the Southern U.S. and France before the Civil War.
The Beltsville Small White is a small heritage breed, which development started in 1934. She was introduced in 1941 and was admitted to the APA Standard in 1951. She is slightly bigger and broader than the Midget White but both are often mislabel.
The Midget White Turkey is a smaller heritage breed, developed in Massachusetts in the 1950's, sometimes called Beltsville Whites.
The striking Royal Palm turkey has been developed not as a commercial strain but for more ornamental purposes, though it is also bred by those interested in preserving heritage breeds.
The average lifespan of a breeding tom is 64 weeks . Between the hen and the tom, the tom is the only one that "gobbles". |