The Most Important Thanksgiving Turkey Terms Defined
Like eggs or beef, a lot of words are written on the packaging of a turkey. Words like “heritage”, “air-chilled”, “kosher” and “pre-treated” tell you something about how the bird was raised and/or processed, or at least state it. Here are the most common turkey-related terms you’ll find in the wilds of the grocery store, and what they actually mean.
Is fresh turkey better than frozen?
While turkeys are certainly capable of misbehaving, a fresh turkey is not the type of bird to get too pissed off at an office holiday party. According to the USDA , a fresh turkey is one that has never been stored below 26℉ and “meets consumer expectations for ‘fresh’ poultry, i.e. not tough to the touch or frozen.” The term “fresh” says nothing about how the turkey was raised or processed, only the temperature at which it was stored. Fresh poultry should be used within one to two days or frozen until ready to eat.
A frozen turkey is a turkey that has been stored at or below 0℉ and is firm to the touch. These are the turkeys you are probably used to seeing in the grocery store. They are wrapped in plastic and it usually says “pre-frozen” somewhere on the packaging. Most frozen turkeys are flash-frozen (refrigerated very quickly) to preserve the texture and flavor of the turkey. Frozen turkeys are much easier to find and much cheaper than fresh turkeys, which typically need to be ordered or bought from a farm, co-op, grocery store like Whole Foods, or specialty store like Williams-Sonoma.
In terms of taste, I have never met anyone who can tell me with 100% certainty that a fresh turkey tastes better than a frozen one. While I am sure that such a person exists, I doubt that he will be at your dinner table.
Should you get water or air cooled birds?
The USDA requires all poultry to be chilled to at least 40℉ within four hours of slaughter, and this is done either by air refrigeration or water refrigeration. Water chilling is exactly what it sounds like: bird carcasses are immersed in an ice bath, which lowers the temperature but allows the bird to absorb water (anywhere from 2 to 12% of its body weight), and the extra water can result in a softer texture. and diluted taste. According to bird distributor D’Artagnan , air-cooling is a little more difficult, but ultimately worth it:
In the air-cooling process, the chicks are hung individually from a rail that runs through several chambers. In the first, each bird is blown with cold, purified air, which quickly lowers its body temperature. Then, depending on the system used, the chicks will pass through one or two more refrigerated chambers over a period of 3.5 hours. The air-cooling process takes longer than a water bath, but many find the results worth the time.
Buying an air-chilled turkey (or any poultry) also means you only pay for the carcass, not the carcass plus any water that may have soaked in during the chilling process.
Is pre-coated poultry tastier than “natural”?
A pre-drenched turkey (also called “self-dipped” or simply “dipped”) is a turkey that has been injected with an aqueous solution containing salt, sugar, broth, fat, and other flavorings. According to Taste of Home, the solution can be up to 3% of the total weight of a whole turkey, or 8% of the weight of boneless cuts.
On the positive side, the turkey is already flavored – and flavored all the time – so you can probably skip a step, but you give up some control over the taste and you might not like the taste at all. Cooking a pre-cooked turkey can cause it to be too salty, so it’s best not to double it, but Cook’s Illustrated noted in its 2022 Thanksgiving issue that many of these pre-flavored birds taste “bland” and “tasteless”. “. If you want to make it easier to cook a brine-free turkey and don’t mind lightly seasoned turkey, pre-roasted poultry may be the way to go; but if you don’t trust someone else to flavor your bird, it’s best to look for “natural” turkey.
A natural turkey is simply a turkey that has not been added to anything, including artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, and has been “minimal processed.” However, this doesn’t tell you anything about the turkey’s diet, how it was raised, and whether it was treated with antibiotics, although the presence of antibiotics in turkey meat is not something you really need to worry about. According to the United States Department of Agriculture , any turkeys that have been treated with antibiotics must go through a “withdrawal period” before slaughter to allow the antibiotics to pass out of the turkey’s body. Even if they’ve been treated for an illness, you won’t eat the antibiotics they were treated with. However, you will never have to worry about the presence of hormones, as the USDA has not approved hormones for use in turkeys.
How about a kosher turkey?
Kosher turkeys are similar to birds cooked in pre-sauce in that they are lightly pre-flavored, but the process is much more specific and the only additions are salt and water. We have already written about the benefits of kosher turkey, but we recall:
What makes a turkey kosher? There are several explanations (some longer than others), but I’ll stick with the short one: Kosher turkeys are slaughtered quickly and humanely , washed only in cold water, salted thoroughly, and rinsed to remove any remaining blood. Cold water keeps meat super fresh during cleaning and processing, but salting is key. As any decent cook knows (I’m sorry), increasing the sodium content of meat helps it retain moisture during cooking, especially if it’s frozen, like almost all turkeys. Plus, to state the obvious, salt makes food tasty.
The process is designed to remove most of the salt after cleaning, so you can still salt your kosher bird if you like, but it’s not strictly necessary. Kosher birds come out juicy and flavorful with a last-minute olive oil massage and a sprinkling of healthy salt (just be sure to get under the skin).
What does “free range” mean?
According to the USDA, a ” free-range ” or “free-roaming” turkey is a turkey that has been “allowed to go outside.” According to Taste of Home , when poultry farmers submit their labels to the USDA for approval, “farmers must include a description of turkey quarters that is verified by a third party to ensure they meet ‘free range’ criteria.” “.
The term “cage -free ” can be a little misleading, as a lot of poultry is raised in large barns that are not technically “cages” but can still be quite cramped. Ignore this phrase unless the distributor provides more details (like the number of square feet per turkey in their barn).
What is a native bird?
Historic turkeys are a breed of turkey that is “closer” to the turkey that was hunted and eaten by Native Americans before colonialism and capitalism changed the bird forever. These turkeys are usually raised in more humane conditions, without antibiotics. Apart from this, there are several other requirements that a farm must meet in order to call its birds “heritage”. According to The Livestock Conservancy , this includes naturally mating for at least two generations, a long productive outdoor life (including “the genetic ability to withstand harsh environmental conditions in outdoor production systems”), and a slow growth rate, “giving time for the birds. to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs prior to muscle building.” This means longer legs, more fat and deeper flavor, but a higher price.
At the end of the day (Thanksgiving, to be exact), the best turkey is the one you love to eat, so buy a frozen Butterball if that’s what suits you, or lay out extra batter for a fancy traditional bird. However, I would avoid water chilled birds. I don’t like paying for water.