For many of us, Christmas Dinner is a classic affair, featuring a highly anticipated turkey as the centrepiece of the table. But there’s so much preparation that goes into the main event of many of our meals.
So we know there’s going to be a turkey – but with so many different varieties, which festive bird will you choose for your dinner?
Interestingly enough, the turkey is not many people’s first choice of meat – a bog-standard bird, probably a broad- breasted white, the kind favoured only by large-scale turkey farmers and supermarkets. Extremely fast-growing, it offers great value, and mild (some say bland) flavour with a very high ratio of popular breast meat to leg.
However, despite the turkey not being our everyday choice of meat, shoppers haven’t stopped ransacking shelves and filling their freezers this year – so as not to be caught out when it comes to Christmas dinner.
If you’re yet to buy your turkey, read below for everything you need to know when choosing your bird for the big day – as well as tips on how to cook it.
How to choose your turkey breed
The Rare Breeds Survival Trust, in conjunction with Prof Philippe Wilson and Prof Emily Burton, of Nottingham Trent University’s poultry research unit, conducted a research project in 2020, to compare the meat quality and leg health of rare breeds of turkey, starting with Norfolk black, against commercial white turkeys.
The aim was to encourage more farmers to stock rare breeds, and not just because they are delicious, although the team did continue to investigate the flavour with tastings and protein studies into 2021. Making these breeds commercially viable means they will be more widely farmed, protecting the dwindling stocks.
This is important for the gene pool and the future of farming, says Prof Wilson, who sits on the farm animal genetic resources committee at Defra. “The genetic make up of these native breeds is unique, and allows them to adapt.”
Commercial breeds, the professor says, are bred to “get the most wonderful productivity from them – but that always comes at a cost, which is the animal’s resilience to change.”
Hang on, though – what’s all this talk of native? Turkey isn’t native to us, it originated in the Americas. Indeed, there is an oft-told tale that the turkey very nearly became the national symbol of the United States, as Benjamin Franklin regarded them as “more respectable” than the eagle, which the president thought was “of bad moral character”.
But, explains Wilson, “Defra defines ‘native’ as a population being bred in this country for more than 40 years, and many turkeys were brought over in the 1700s and 1800s, and ended up producing the breeds that we now call native, such as the Norfolk black.”
According to Berkshire turkey farmer Hannah Moss, the term “native” is better, “as ‘heritage’ and ‘tradition’ have been overused”. A key difference between native breeds – as I shall now call them – and commercial white turkeys is the time they take to grow, she explains. “My turkeys are hatched in April and are slaughtered in December, at 28 weeks old. Most supermarket birds are 16 to 18 weeks old – some may even be 14 weeks.”
This has an impact on the way they cook, says Moss. “The time they have is spent putting on meat weight, rather than developing their bones. You end up with a smaller-framed turkey massively covered in meat, and a smaller cavity.”
When you buy a native breed bird, it has a huge cavity, with a less-heavy covering of meat, although it should still be copious. Once in the oven, the space allows the hot air to get in and cook the bird more quickly, from the inside as well as the outside.
That depends on the bird being cooked empty – not so much as a lemon should go inside, says Moss. “The rule is, never stuffed.” Never foil, either, as wrapping will stop the skin crisping. Less is more – which sounds like an excellent plan for this Christmas.
