I know it is still a few weeks away but this is good to plan ahead.
I live in Chicago and checking my local Jewel supermarket they offer two mass produced turkeys for sale…both of which have considerable water/brine added.
I do NOT want that (I will brine it myself if I feel it necessary).
That said I have been looking around at heritage turkeys and they are colossally expensive ($10/pound or so).
So my question to Dopers is what turkeys have they had good luck with. I will pay for a heritage if the opinion is they are worth the price. If the difference is minimal what are other options?
Thanks in advance!
P.S. If anyone has tips/tricks/recipes for Thanksgiving turkey feel free to share. I have a few that work well for me but always on the lookout for new ideas/techniques.
My parents go to a local hallal butcher. They choose the bird, it’s killed & dressed while-u-wait. When they put it in the oven its still warm from having been alive.
the price is higher than supermarket, but not that much higher.
Are there such things in Chicago? I mean, I thought big cities had rules against livestock and such in the city not to mention butchering animals in the city.
I am not opposed to the idea…intrigues me actually but never heard of that being an option in Chicago.
Well, they have such things in Brooklyn! and it turns out they sure do have em in Chicago too. Check it out: http://freshchickens.com/
6421 N. Western Ave Chicago, IL
The one and only time the turkey was my responsibility, I got a free-range one via my CSA. I think it was more in the realm of $3/lb. than $10/lb. It tasted very different from mass-produced turkey; more dark meat, not the abnormally large breasts you see on factory farmed birds. In spite of all the warnings to be careful cooking it lest it burn due to the lack of injected water, it came out fabulously bronzed and delicious.
There are tons of halal butchers in Albany Park and West Rogers Park on the north side (my fave for meat is Sahar), and I doubt that even at Whole Foods, you’d pay $10/lb. for something without added crap.
Also, some of the independent markets sell Illinois-raised Ho-Ka turkeys (a few now, more in season). You should probably pre-order, though. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you could drive out to the farm
If you’re not feeling quite as adventurous, anywhere that’s not Jewel or Dominick’s, but sells meat is a better bet for finding a turkey without crap in it. What neighborhood are you in? I’m sure someone could give you a recommendation. (We buy most of our meat at Costco or Fresh Farms in Niles - Fresh Farms has all kinds of wonderful things, if you have a car.)
We’ve had the local fresh turkeys from some farm in Oregon. I was spectacularly unimpressed with the flavor, but perhaps that’s because I’ve been used to things like Butterball over the years. I might try a different farm this year, as I really dislike the pumped up commercial brands.
I’m right on the edge of Uptown and Edgewater near the lake.
EDIT: And just to show I am not making this up I read a recommendation for BN Ranch turkeys. Checking their page they seem ~$10/pound which, unless really freaking awesome tasting, seems insane to me. Here is a different brand for around the same price per pound.
I checked America’s Test Kitchen and they did a taste test among different turkeys (you can see it at that link but you need an account with them…they have a 14-day free trial though and no…I do not work for them…just a data point).
Seems they did not find a dramatic difference. Turkey is fairly bland and as they note it is more a vehicle for gravy and stuffing. Still, there were favorites and Butterball was in the middle.
The winner was a kosher, brined bird from this farm (note they were not thorough trying all farms everywhere…just happened to be one of many of this sort that they chose). Looking at the list I cannot figure what the differences are.
Free range, free range AND organic or pasture raised. Huh?
The price differences are pretty dramatic and I have no idea which of those America’s Test Kitchen chose.
Well, then this place should be relatively convenient, even without a car. I’ve had turkeys form there (at a friend’s Thanksgiving - one of the guests was an observant Muslim, and my friend accommodated - and none of us were sorry he did). Or Gene’s Sausage Shopin Lincoln Square should be able to hook you up. Or Lincoln Quality Meat Market, just down the street from Gene’s. Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I set foot in Jewel or Dominick’s.
None of those are particularly close to me (they are fine on the North/South line but far west of me).
I was just in London and Paris so really happy to see some of these. Was wishing Chicago had similar things to markets I saw. I will definitely visit (I have a car).
I get the turkeys that go on sale at the local supermarkets - you know, where if you buy $50 of groceries, you get the turkey for $0.25/lb. (In fact, we stock up on canned goods and get three turkeys a year this way. They freeze well and this way we have another turkey at Christmas and one more smoked on the BBQ in July.)
I actually prefer the ones that have had less done to them, so I avoid the Butterball-like varieties. I personally think that free range and organic are code words for “needlessly expensive” though I understand it if people want to make a political/ethical statement.
I sometimes brine them myself, but I’m not convinced it does anything to the texture/moisture of the meat. It does add flavor, but it’s nothing you can’t get by adding the flavor to the outside of the turkey when you cook it.
The real key to getting a tasty and juicy turkey is a meat thermometer. Cook it to 165, using a proper baking pan. Pull it out and loosely cover with foil. Trust carryover heat to get it to 175. Do NOT trust the little pop-up. Do NOT follow the cooking time instructions on the package. Turkey is dry the same way beef jerky is dry. It’s because you made it that way!
Well, this place may be closer to you. Haven’t been in there in years, but I used to buy meat there now and again when I lived in East Rogers Park and didn’t have a car. I bet they’d special order for you if you were looking for something specific.
What stuff from London and Paris are you looking for, or are you just looking for better quality food than you find in most supermarkets? You will find lots of opinions around here.
I miss dedicated merchants for various items. For example a butcher and a fish monger and a bread baker and a pastry maker and a produce merchant and so on. Supermarkets have become the one-stop shop but we lost a lot for that convenience. It has been decades since I had an awesome tomato or heavenly peach versus the mealy crap supermarkets sell us. Not to mention going to the butcher and ordering exactly what you want (you can only sorta still do that…an-ex-GF’s dad was a butcher and he had a dim view of what supermarkets provided).
I feel you (especially on the fruit). Places like this are still around, but it takes some hunting to find the good ones, and they aren’t in every neighborhood.
I’m in the Loyola area of Roger’s Park without a car. The places I get produce and limited meats are: Newleaf on Loyola and Lakewood, True Nature, right across from the Broadway Dominick’s, and Urban Orchard on Clark and Foster. If I can’t find tomatoes/peaches/whatnot (in season usually, of course) at these stores or the farmer’s markets, then I avoid buying them. There are farmer’s markets easily gotten to via CTA in Edgewater, Uptown, Andersonville, and Roger’s Park from June to October. I get the majority of my fruits and veggies at the little Loyola market on Mondays during farmer’s market months. Plenty of heirloom tomatoes and oh, the beets and carrots the farmer had this year! Still have a few carrots and a couple pounds of potatoes, and acorn and butternut squash.
True Nature has a meat CSA, check out their website for details. They also have a beehive or two and a rooftop garden. Newleaf has a weekly produce veg/fruit box that can be picked up or delivered - they source locally when they can, but do buy from Florida, California, and Mexico from smaller growers and all organic, the advantage over a CSA is that you can just buy weekly as needed, no commitment, and it’s fairly reliable though sometimes effected by bad weather if the crops are effected or cross-country travel hits bad snow storms and such.
I get my meat from C&D Family Farms. At this point I’ve met both Crystal and Dave (the C&D), and Crystal’s mom, Linda. They are present at the majority of the farmer’s markets in the summer, and then try to park the truck for certain times at certain days near where the markets were during the off season. For instance, Crystal is in Andersonville parked on Ashland Wednesdays from 4-7pm, and I usually visit her a couple times a month in Lincon Square, parked in the CTA brown line lot on Western on Thursdays from 4-7pm.
She has fresh turkeys available this year, here’s a copy-paste from the email. If you would like it forwarded to you, I’ll be happy to send it to you. You can use the email address to ask her to add you to the emails, or contact her through their website, she sends them weekly to let customers know where she will be parked and when, week to week in the off-market wintertime.
Since I started buying my meats from Crystal, I have a new tradition of roasting leg of lamb for Christmas Eve. If she doesn’t have them already on the truck, I can order one in time for pick up.
Something else to know, all meat that crosses state lines has to be frozen, no matter where it comes from. At the natural foods stores, all the packaged meat is frozen (for conservation if it’s from Illinois), as some comes from Wisconsin, Indiana or Michigan. But know this about grocery store meats, as well. All the “fresh” meats, if they aren’t from Illinois, have been frozen at least once and defrosted at the store. Whole animals, that are butchered on-site, are the only exception. I really think that’s why buying from the meat counter (if you were to buy factory farmed meat) is better - but check they’re actually butchering the selections. I have bought from Holtzkopf’s on Broadway (a while ago, before I found C&D) and they know their stuff.
If you’re concerned with humanely treated livestock, don’t worry as much about organic as about where and how they live until they’re slaughtered. Animals can still be factory farmed and beef can be from feedlots, and still called organic, as long as they’re fed organic food. Small family farms, where you can visit and see the animals living, doing their thing, and happy, I believe is more important. Many of the small family farms can’t afford the certified organic process, or can’t afford organic feed on top of everything else, and I think the raising/living conditions are more important. That’s why I don’t trust grocery store organic meats. You still have no idea how those animals were raised, not even from Whole Foods. Just my humble opinion.
And now that I’ve written more than I have any business doing, I’m just hitting submit.
