Whether you prefer white meat or dark, enjoy it only at a holiday table or eat it weekly, or indulge in the deep fried version or chopped in a salad, turkey is a staple of the North American diet. It’s tasty, versatile, and low in fat. It can be roasted or fried, smoked or grilled. Turkey is a beautiful entrée to serve to guests yet it makes a delightful salad when mixed with mayonnaise, celery, onion, and carrot.

A little turkey history

The modern turkey that we nosh on at dinner tables and in restaurants has roots dating back to the wild turkey, which forages for foods of nuts and berries and is native to North America.

The turkey enjoys a long history. Fossils have been discovered containing the remnants of ancient turkeys. The turkey is one of the first animals to be domesticated. The Navajo peoples, annoyed with wild turkeys for continuously eating their crops, came up with a novel approach. They gathered the birds together, fed them, and kept them in pens. The results were tasty meals of turkey meat around the campfire. Turkey feathers provided a festive addition to the Native Americans’ headdresses. The ancient Aztecs dined on turkey meat and eggs. Settlers who arrived in North America realized that wild turkey was an excellent choice for dinner and hunted the birds for their meat.

Although it has the same name, the turkey has no correlation with the country of Turkey or that nation’s peoples. It is simply a coincidence that the bird and the country share the same name. Discovered by Spanish conquistadors in Mexico then they believed they were in India, this bird was first called “poulet d’Inde”(Chicken from India) in French, Which later became "Dinde".
The turkey is most often distinguished by its snood just as a peacock is known for its colorful feathers. The snood is a mass of flesh that protrudes from the underside of the beak. Turkeys have lots of feathers which are usually white but are sometimes brown.

There are various breeds of turkey including the Standard Bronze, the Broad-breasted Bronze, and the Narragansett, but the Broad-breasted White is the most popular and is most often the one that is raised on farms.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was a huge fan of the turkey. He found the brightly colored bird intriguing and wanted it to be the national bird. He was outvoted and instead the bald eagle was chosen as the symbol of the U.S.

Turkey Pardons

Because of the turkey’s popularity around the holidays – namely Thanksgiving – the U.S. has a fun tradition that is celebrated in Washington, D.C. Every year a special ceremony called the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation takes place at the White House and the President is presented with a male turkey. The President then “pardons” the turkey, saving it from the slaughterhouse. The turkey is then given to a farm to live out its life in peace. Nowadays, prior to heading to a solitary farm existence, the pardoned bird first makes a trip to Disneyland to be the grand marshal in Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Some folks say this long standing tradition of turkey pardoning may have started with President Harry S. Truman, although there are no records to prove this. Others say that it was President Lincoln’s young son Tad, when learning that a beloved pet turkey named Jack would become a holiday meal, begged his father to let Jack live. Both of these stories, while rich in folklore, aren’t even close to the actual truth. It was only recently – in 1989, to be exact – when a turkey became the poster child for presidential pardons. President George H.W. Bush was the first President to give a turkey back its life – after it had been sentenced to death at the slaughterhouse. Now, that custom carries on every year at the White House.

On the Dinner Table

Turkey is quite often served as the main entrée during feasts and holidays. It is easily available to the consumer in supermarkets in a variety of ways. Although most people serve up turkey whole on their holiday tables, the meat is sold ground, sliced, or as simply the breast. Turkey can be sold frozen or fresh. The turkeys that are sold in the stores for purchase are farm-raised whereas wild turkey, which can also be eaten, has a very different taste. Wild turkey has a much more “gamey” flavor due to the diet of insects and berries that the creatures feast on.

Gather your loved ones around a holiday table for a turkey dinner and every guest will have an opinion on which meat he or she likes best. The white meat of the bird consists of the breast and wings while the dark meat comes from the legs and thighs. The roasted turkey that is a common sight at holiday gatherings is often stuffed with a variety of ingredients which usually include bread, onions, sausage, bacon, celery, fruit, sage, or a combination of these.

One of the benefits of hosting a holiday dinner where turkey is a featured guest on the table is the usual large plate of leftovers! Turkey is just as tasty the second day whether it is in a cold sandwich with a bit of stuffing or reheated in its gravy and nestled among mashed potatoes.

Turkey in the Healthy Diet

White turkey meat is lower in calories and fat than the dark meat but tends to have a drier texture. Regardless of your preference for dark or white meat, turkey is a wonderful addition to your diet because not only is it lower in fat than other meats, but it is delicious, too. Remove the skin before you dine and you will take away extra calories and fat.

Turkey is a good source of protein (17 grams per every 3.5 ounce serving) for those who are watching their waistlines, but has very little fat (1.66 grams). The bird is also an excellent source of riboflavin, thiamin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, phosphorous, and zinc. Also, turkey is low in carbohydrates like other meats.

Organic vs. Factory Farmed

Organic turkey has been introduced to many supermarkets in the past few years. Organic birds are raised in a cleaner environment than most turkeys. Such farms provide organic diets to the birds and raise them in areas free of pesticides and other chemicals. Generally speaking, organic turkeys are thought to be healthier because they have cleaner food and space.

Factory farmed turkeys are confined in pens with hundreds – or more – other turkeys to produce the largest number of birds at the lowest cost. Most birds raised in this type of environment never go outside but instead spend their lives indoors under artificial lighting. The animals are often injected with antibiotics to prevent disease and hormones to ensure that they “bulk” up and have heavier weights than they would normally.

While it would seem that most people would wish to purchase an organic bird over a factory farmed one, that is not always the case. Factory farmed turkeys are much cheaper than the organic variety and are more widely offered in markets and shops.

How to Prepare the Bird

If you have purchased your turkey surely you want to cook it properly. You could choose the best, most expensive bird on the planet, but if you overcook it, you will ruin it. Determine if you want a fresh or frozen turkey. You will have to figure out how big of a turkey to purchase. Consider a little less than one pound of turkey meat per person. Your guests won’t actually consume that much, but you have to factor in waste such as gristle and bone.

Hens are female turkeys while toms are males. The sex of the turkey makes no difference in taste but male turkeys tend to be heavier than the hens. When purchasing a fresh bird, make sure to cook it within 2-3 days. Should you choose a frozen turkey, defrost it in your refrigerator – don’t leave it on the counter to thaw because that will breed bacteria, making your bird likely to harbor a food borne illness.

Cook your bird as per the instructions that it came with or set the oven to 325°F. Place the turkey into a deep pan with a lid or cover it with foil to ensure that it cooks properly. A meat thermometer can help you determine if you’ve cooked it to the right temperature. Breast meat needs to reach 170°F while the thighs should get to 180°F. The bird will continue to cook when you remove it from the oven, so take that into consideration when roasting.

Once you remove your bird from the oven, allow it to cool on the counter for about 20 minutes. This method helps seal in the juices before carving.

A few turkey facts

Although it is widely believed that the turkey was the entrée of choice between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans at the First Thanksgiving in 1621, the truth is that it is highly unlikely that the two groups indulged in turkey at that famous meal. It is now thought that although the Pilgrims probably had eaten wild turkey prior to that Thanksgiving gathering, it is more likely that they would have feasted on deer meat.

The female turkeys – the hens – do not gobble although most people probably think that they do. Only the male turkeys – the toms – actually gobble.

So, whether you like your white meat on bread or your dark meat right off the bone, it doesn’t matter. Turkey has been enjoyed for centuries by many different cultures and ethnicities and is still widely eaten today in the modern world.

Cleaning Turkey Guidelines:

• After the turkey has thawed, the packaging is removed. The neck and the giblets are usually found inside the body cavity, so these can be removed and discarded, or if they are to be used, they should be washed with cold water and patted dry with paper towels. The turkey should be thoroughly washed inside and out with cold water and then patted dry. Proper food handling practices must be followed during the preparation of the turkey in order to avoid possible problems with food poisoning.
• The raw turkey, giblets, and their juices should not be allowed to come in to contact with any other food item.
• After handling the raw turkey, your hands will be contaminated. Do not touch any other food items and as few surfaces as possible before your hands have been thoroughly washed.
  Cutting boards and utensils must be thoroughly washed after preparing the turkey for the oven.
• Do not place cooked food on the same plate that has held the raw food.
• Besides using soap and water for cleaning surfaces, bleach or an antibacterial spray may be used to help kill any organisms that the soap and water have missed.

Turkey 101:

An essential guide to making a turkey dinner.

Turkey is the centerpiece of the holiday dinner table, and one of the most anticipated flavours of the season. But cooking a turkey with all the fixings can be a daunting task. The following guide and videos will help to accomplish your turkey feast with confidence and success. From preparing, roasting and carving the bird, to stirring up tasty stuffing and making rich gravy, we have got each step covered.

1. Buying

Buy one pound per person. You may want to buy a fresh turkey, as opposed to frozen, to avoid days of thawing.

2. Thawing

Thaw turkey in unopened wrapper, breast-side up, on a tray in the refrigerator. For every four pounds of turkey, allow one day of thawing. It takes that long!

3. Preparing

Remove neck and excess fat and giblets from chest cavity. Rinse cavity and outside of turkey with cold water. Blot with paper towels. Season cavity and area under the skin with salt, pepper and herbs. Try poultry seasoning, thyme, sage or marjoram. Stuff the bird with your preferred stuffing or one from our recipes. Help turkey cook evenly by making it as compact as possible. Tuck legs into ring of skin that they were originally in when you first unwrapped the bird. Fold first joint of wings underneath bird's back. You can make gravy even more flavorful by cooking turkey on a bed of quartered carrots, celery and onions till the last hour or the aromatic garnish will burn. Brush and baste the skin with vegetable oil to prevent it from drying out during roasting. Insert a meat thermometer deep into the thickest part of the thigh next to the body. Make sure it does not touch the bone.

4. Cooking

	Place in foil roasting pan and add , a clean damp rag, previously damp in the chicken stockon the top of the breast. Roast in preheated oven at 325°F. Every 30 minutes, baste the bird using a bulb baster, with the fat in the roasting pan. After 1 hour of cooking, remove the rag on the top of the breast and set the oven to 350ºF.
	Check bird after the indicated cooking time. The internal temperature should register at least 170°F on a meat thermometer. Thigh juices should run clear, not pink, when pierced with a fork, and leg joint should move freely when cooked.

5. Resting

Remove turkey from oven. Place on a cutting board resting in a large cafeteria-style tray with a lip or on a flat aluminum foil tray. Tent the cooked turkey with foil. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes. This resting time allows the juices to saturate the meat evenly for the tenderness of turkeys.

6. Stuffing

Our stuffing recipe is easy to do and will bring flavor along with moisture to the bird.

7. Carving

Carve the turkey in the kitchen, not at the dinner table. A cutting board and tray will allow you to carve without juices leaking all over.

• Start by removing the wings.
• To remove legs, pull back leg to expose the joint while you cut. Then cut through the joint.
• Cut each breast off the turkey in a whole piece. Make an incision on either side of the breast bone and cut along the ribs until the breast is free.
  Remove any other large portions of meat still attached to the bones.

The remaining carcass can be picked apart the next day for use in sandwiches or soups. Simply wrap up in aluminum foil and refrigerate.
Choosing the right-sized turkey and knowing exactly how much time you would be needed can be challenging. See our turkey guide below to help you make the wisest choice.