I went to the heartland of America to find out about heritage-breed turkeys and how they’re raised. I bet you think raising a free-range bird would be easy, right? Just let the bird go and do its thing, then catch it when it’s ready for market. Yeah, well, not so much. I worked my pants off on that job.
What I’ll tell you is that free-range turkeys are so far superior to commercially raised birds that the difference is almost night and day. First, free-range birds can fly, run around, and mate naturally, so they have much greater muscle mass. This means denser meat, which is much richer in colour and flavour. It doesn’t matter how you like to cook your turkey, you’re going to have a better dish when you start with a better bird. End of story.
For the dinner I prepared on that first adventure, I really wanted to be sure I used the whole bird in my meal, to get the most out of what I was discovering. You can smoke, confit, roast, fry, boil, and broil all with the same bird—each method has its own rewards, and all will mesh together to create one memorably sumptuous feast.