Turkey- Where do you buy it?

[Brian_Tuite]

Direct from the winery.

I didn’t get an allocation this year. How long where you on the list before getting an offer?

Guess I will need to start thawing my 23# Butterball soon.

My parents allocation, they moved to Vegas 20 years ago and I get all their Turkey now.

[Adam_G]

The TJ’s Kosher birds are dry-brined and not soaked? Are you sure? That might get me on board to try one. I detest wet-brined birds and birds with added “flavour enhancer” solutions like just about every frozen bird out there.
I usually end up with a Jenny-O or one from Sprouts.

Kosher meats by nature cannot be considered kosher if they are wet brined. The whole point of salting them after slaughter is to draw any excess blood out of them which also has the added affect of dry brining. So no, they don’t wet brine them.

I guess I’ve misunderstood something all these years. I thought they (both birds and meat) were soaked rather than just dry-salted. Chabad tells me that there’s both a soaking step and then the salting step. I guess I had melded them into a single step in my head. Thanks for setting me straight!

[Elliot_Steele]

The TJ’s Kosher birds are dry-brined and not soaked? Are you sure? That might get me on board to try one. I detest wet-brined birds and birds with added “flavour enhancer” solutions like just about every frozen bird out there.
I usually end up with a Jenny-O or one from Sprouts.

Kosher meats by nature cannot be considered kosher if they are wet brined. The whole point of salting them after slaughter is to draw any excess blood out of them which also has the added affect of dry brining. So no, they don’t wet brine them.

I guess I’ve misunderstood something all these years. I thought they (both birds and meat) were soaked rather than just dry-salted. Chabad tells me that there’s both a soaking step and then the salting step. I guess I had melded them into a single step in my head. Thanks for setting me straight!

Hmm you better ask your rabbi. The way I understand it is that it is dry salted on a rack so that the blood runs away from it and it doesn’t sit in it whereas soaking it would cause it to sit in its own blood. It’s the same reason you aren’t allowed to cook liver in a frying pan, rather it must be cooked on a grill or on a rack under a broiler where the blood will run away from it as it is cooked.

[saul_cooperstein1]

Costco diestel pre-brined and seasoned ($3.69/#). I scrape some of the seasoning add some of my own and right into the Weber Smokey Mountain.

[Adam_G]

Kosher meats by nature cannot be considered kosher if they are wet brined. The whole point of salting them after slaughter is to draw any excess blood out of them which also has the added affect of dry brining. So no, they don’t wet brine them.

I guess I’ve misunderstood something all these years. I thought they (both birds and meat) were soaked rather than just dry-salted. Chabad tells me that there’s both a soaking step and then the salting step. I guess I had melded them into a single step in my head. Thanks for setting me straight!

Hmm you better ask your rabbi. The way I understand it is that it is dry salted on a rack so that the blood runs away from it and it doesn’t sit in it whereas soaking it would cause it to sit in its own blood. It’s the same reason you aren’t allowed to cook liver in a frying pan, rather it must be cooked on a grill or on a rack under a broiler where the blood will run away from it as it is cooked.

You are exactly right. It’s just that in koshering, according to Chabad, there is a soaking step before the salting. The salting is dry (minus a bit of residual surface water from the soak to help the salt stick), and soaking for too long renders the meat non-kosher.

[MitchTallan]

Y

ou are exactly right. It’s just that in koshering, according to Chabad,

Not sure why you keep referring to Chabad. AFAIK, Chabad squawks a lot but they don’t speak for all of Orthodox Jewry. I would defer to OU (Orthodox Union) myself; https://oukosher.org
Please note that I don’t claim to be right and no offense is meant (just in case Neal Mollen is tempted to jump down my throat in this thread too).

[Elliot_Steele]

Y

ou are exactly right. It’s just that in koshering, according to Chabad,

Not sure why you keep referring to Chabad. AFAIK, Chabad squawks a lot but they don’t speak for all of Orthodox Jewry. I would defer to OU (Orthodox Union) myself; https://oukosher.org
Please note that I don’t claim to be right and no offense is meant (just in case Neal Mollen is tempted to jump down my throat in this thread too).

Chabad customs and the OU’s are one in the same when it comes to kashering meat. There’s only one right way to do it. After doing the research it seems as if the soaking step is not a brine soak, rather just a plain water soak in order to get excess blood out of as many cavities as possible before the salt is applied. It is then rinsed after it is salted three times.

[Pau1_M3nk3s]

Jay,
Diestel/Heidi’s Hens has a very flavorful heritage bird. I get them at my local natural foods grocer.

[Bdklein]

I get ours at Zorns on Long Island . They have fresh turkeys, plus various prepared foods (fried and rotisserie chicken, hot and cold sides , etc .). The turkeys used to be raised locally but now come from their farm in Pennsylvania. Not organic, but they are “natural”.

This years is a 34 lb.'er . Hardest part of it is flipping it from breast side down to breast side up near the end.

[Andrew_Kotowski]

D’Artagnan
Orgazmic ! (sic)
I’m going to Bresse it ;
Bresse Style Poached Roasted Turkey Recipe | D'Artagnan

I’d be careful with any recipe designed for Bresse poultry; the birds (chicken and geese, at least) are wildly different than anything you’re going to find here. I’ve never had a “Bresse turkey,” but I’ve cooked more than my fair share of chickens and the fat content is off the charts. I did a Bresse goose one Christmas, saved the rendered fat… and used it for the rest of the year. Single greatest goose I’ve ever had, but never again at 200+ Euros

[Adam_G]

Y

ou are exactly right. It’s just that in koshering, according to Chabad,

Not sure why you keep referring to Chabad. AFAIK, Chabad squawks a lot but they don’t speak for all of Orthodox Jewry. I would defer to OU (Orthodox Union) myself; https://oukosher.org
Please note that I don’t claim to be right and no offense is meant (just in case Neal Mollen is tempted to jump down my throat in this thread too).

Chabad customs and the OU’s are one in the same when it comes to kashering meat. There’s only one right way to do it. After doing the research it seems as if the soaking step is not a brine soak, rather just a plain water soak in order to get excess blood out of as many cavities as possible before the salt is applied. It is then rinsed after it is salted three times.

While the customs certainly differ from sect to sect, I find Chabad’s legalistic explanations to be helpful.
I’m conservative…and I don’t keep kosher. So this was mostly academic for me in the kashrut sense. But quite useful in the “what’s going to make for a delicious turkey” sense!

[MitchTallan]

I cooked two Bowman and Landes (local Ohio free range) and one Trader Joes Kosher for our crowd of 18. My take on the TJK is that it is an ugly bird with cadaver skin but thanks perhaps to it’s dry brining it is extremely forgiving. I will never buy one again. It does not hold a candle to B&L which look beautiful both before and after cooking and have much more natural texture and taste after cooking. The TJK on the other hand just went from ugly to uglier during the cooking process. They are night and day in quality. My analogy would be comparing a Woodbridge Mondavi Chardonnay to a top Corton. I don’t mean a shred of condescension. Say what you want about us in the midwest fly-over States but you on the metropolitan coasts are delusional in your love for middling foodstock. It reminds me that most of you have never seen a live chicken or cow before in its native habitat.

[Brian_Gilp]

Mitch, is that the same company that has the Landes Market out in Clayton? I think it is but even the web pages didn’t make it clear. I always hit that market when back but never had their turkey.

[Brian_Gilp]

The Kelleybronze was good but not worth the extra cost. Most people didn’t prefer it over the Koch which I ended up with due to a mistake at the market. After two experiments now, it’s obvious that my family prefers a deep fried free range turkey and that’s what I will stick with from here on out. But the Kelleybronze does make a killer turkey salad.

[MitchTallan]

Mitch, is that the same company that has the Landes Market out in Clayton? I think it is but even the web pages didn’t make it clear. I always hit that market when back but never had their turkey.

I can’t help you with that one Brian. Funny, I went to high school in Clayton-Northmont. But that seems like a billion years ago. That said, the mental construct that Clayton could have a store worth stopping at is a mind-bender. I grew up in a suburban archipelago between Englewood and Clayton and my memories of Clayton were through the snot-smeared windows of a Bluebird school bus where I saw discarded toilets in front yards by the mailboxes. They were not being used as Appalachian flower planters either. They were there because the owners couldn’t figure out where to dump them.

[Mike_Maguire]

I cooked two Bowman and Landes (local Ohio free range) and one Trader Joes Kosher for our crowd of 18. My take on the TJK is that it is an ugly bird with cadaver skin but thanks perhaps to it’s dry brining it is extremely forgiving. I will never buy one again. It does not hold a candle to B&L which look beautiful both before and after cooking and have much more natural texture and taste after cooking. The TJK on the other hand just went from ugly to uglier during the cooking process. They are night and day in quality. My analogy would be comparing a Woodbridge Mondavi Chardonnay to a top Corton. I don’t mean a shred of condescension. Say what you want about us in the midwest fly-over States but you on the metropolitan coasts are delusional in your love for middling foodstock. It reminds me that most of you have never seen a live chicken or cow before in its native habitat.

Could not disagree more re the TJ kosher, I have cooked two in the last 2 weeks , beautiful bird and absolutely
Delicious.And Dude you are condescending , we had a bird in Chicagoland for Thanksgiving that was less in every way than the TJ bird.