In our column Fake It or Make It we test a homemade dish against its prepackaged counterpart to find out what's really worth cooking from scratch. Today, we pit a conventional supermarket turkey against a heritage bird to find out if the latter is really worth the cost.
So much depends upon a Thanksgiving turkey. Even as cooks across America lavish more attention than ever on inventive sides, the bird still is, and always will be, the star of the show. And lately, the question of which turkey to buy is becoming every bit as fraught as how to cook it.
Remember the days when the only turkey buying decision you had to make was choosing between fresh and frozen? Now consumers can add to those categories distinctions like organic, kosher, and antibiotic-free. On the opposite end of the spectrum from your standard supermarket birds lie heritage turkeys, historic breeds raised naturally that share more in common with the wild birds found on bourbon bottles than today's factory-raised specimens.
A turkey that fits this romantic ideal comes at a price, however: roughly four times what you pay for theconventional option. Last year's November issue of BA made a strong case for heritage turkeys in a Q&A with Heritage Foods USA co-founder Patrick Martins. But we didn't do a side by side taste test, and in the spirit of this column, we decided to find out once and for all: Is it really worth shelling out extra cash?
The Contenders
Conventional Turkey vs. Heritage Foods USA Standard Bronze Turkey
What most of us know today as a classic Thanksgiving turkey is a Broad Breasted White, selectively bred by USDA scientists over the past half-century to put on maximal breast meat in minimum growing time. This triumph of modern agricultural science is the industry's answer to what Americans demand--lots of white meat, on the cheap. The biological cost of such great efficiency is an ungainly bird, too stocky in the chest to fly or to reproduce naturally.
The turkeys sold by Heritage Foods USA are endangered breeds such as Standard Bronze, Narragansett, Black Spanish, and White Holland, raised in Kansas and bred from the oldest continuous stock of heritage turkeys in the world. These birds are very similar to what would have been eaten by the Pilgrims (the Standard Bronze, which is what I cooked, was the most popular turkey breed leading up to the spread of factory farming in the mid-20th century). They have proportionally smaller breasts, darker leg meat, and are generally gamier in flavor than industrially raised turkeys. Heritage birds are also older than conventional birds at the age of slaughter (26-28 weeks compared to 14-18 weeks), which results in sturdier meat.
Relative Costs
No doubt about it, a heritage bird will cost you. I paid $1.89 per pound for my conventional turkey, versus around $8.00 per pound for the heritage turkey.
Method
I brined both turkeys for 18 hours before cooking, then prepared them using chef Tom Colicchio's excellent Herb-Butter Turkey recipe.
Nutritional Considerations
Hormones & Antibiotics
No hormones are approved for use in turkeys of any kind. Heritage turkeys are raised antibiotic-free, whereas conventionally raised turkeys are given antibiotics throughout their lives. However, the USDA requires a mandatory pre-slaughter antibiotic withdrawal period and has set a strict legal limit for antibiotic residues that they say is well below what could potentially be harmful to humans. Inspectors are continually doing spot checks to ensure compliance.
Additives
Heritage birds are all natural and contain no additives. Conventional birds are typically injected with a solution of water, salt, preservatives, and flavorings during the packaging process.
Food Safety
When it comes to preventing food borne illness, USDA standards are the same for heritage and conventionally raised birds. There is no evidence that either type of turkey is safer than the other from potential contaminants like salmonella and e. coli.
Nutritional Composition
Both conventional and heritage turkeys are fed on a diet of corn and soybean meal mixed with a supplement of vitamins and minerals, although the heritage birds also have access to what they can eat in the wild. In terms of the exact nutritional composition of the meat, no data is available for heritage breeds, but scientists believe them to be broadly similar to conventional options.
Ethical Concerns
Opinions differ as to what constitutes "cruelty" to poultry, but it's clear that the heritage birds live a nicer lifestyle, moving freely within a spacious, natural environment. Conventional birds are raised in a comparatively concentrated, crowded indoor space. Selective breeding for feed efficiency means they put on a huge amount of breast meat in a small period of time, which renders them top-heavy and unable to fly, and often plagued by leg issues. These intensive farming practices are necessary to maintain the extremely low prices at which conventional turkeys are being sold.
Environmental Concerns
The intensive farming of conventional turkeys is hard on the land they occupy, which is generally reduced to dirt by the high concentration of birds. Airborne ammonia emissions from waste can be harmful to the turkeys themselves as well as workers who spend time in the poultry houses. There are also worries that the use of preventative antibiotics in livestock will create drug-resistant "superbugs" in either animals or humans (scientists disagree on whether this is really a concern). Lastly, opponents of genetically modified food object to the selective breeding practices that have been used to create the modern industrial turkey.
Many heritage turkey breeds have lately been on the brink of extinction, so supporting their continued farming is a step in the direction of preserving the earth's species diversity. They are raised free-range in a low-density, sustainable circumstances so that the natural environment is minimally disrupted.
What The Taste Testers Said
First let me introduce our panel.
THE HEALTH NUT
A delicate eater, the health nut is calorie conscious but also likes to eat well
THE FOODIE
Calorie agnostic, our foodie judge has a sophisticated palate and a love of cooking
THE DUDE
Ambivalent toward food trends and health concerns, this guy just wants to be fed when he's hungry
THE KID
Between ages of 9 and 12 years old, not jaded, typically not into strong flavors
Testers sampled dark and light meat from both birds blind. People found the conventional turkey to be universally saltier and some claimed that it had a more artificial taste. Although most found the heritage meat to have better flavor, the biggest criticism was that it was the dryer of the two meats.
The Health Nut: Heritage. "I don't notice a huge difference between the two, but I probably prefer the heritage slightly. It's less salty and has more texture."
The Foodie: Heritage. "I love, love the flavor of the dark meat on this bird. And the white meat of the other one has an almost chicken nuggety texture and flavor."
The Kid: Heritage. "The other one is too salty."
The Dude: Store-bought. "This meat is juicier."
The Verdict
Heritage.
Testers mostly preferred the taste of the heritage turkey, but the eating experience is far from the only factor at play here. Thanksgiving is a symbolic holiday, a time when it makes more sense than ever to be mindful of the environmental and moral issues that come along with eating. It's as good a day as any to ask yourself "Should turkey really cost just $2 a pound?" If you decide that you're willing to pay a premium, heritage turkeys provide an opportunity to support endangered breeds and to eat a bird that lived the lifestyle of its turkey dreams.
--Elizabeth Gunnison
Sources for this post include The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the USDA's Food Safety Information Center, Patrick Martins of Heritage Foods USA, Joe Hess (Professor of Poultry Science at Auburn University), Casey Ritz (Associate Profession of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia), The USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, and The National Turkey Federation.