<p>Just remember to cook the turkey upside down. </p>
<p>My sister raises turkeys. They have the most amazing cages, with open tops to full roofs, and a small stream to drink from. They live on a mountain top. They taste better than Trader Joes or Empire. I don’t know how other farmers raise their birds, but hers live in luxory.</p>
<p>[Greenberg</a> Smoked Turkeys](<a href=“Greenberg”>Greenberg)</p>
<p>Greenberg Smoked Turkeys, if you don’t want to cook one. Don’t know if you could get one for Thanksgiving at this point, you’d have to check. The best smoked turkey you could ever have. One of Oprah’s Favorite Things a couple of years ago. They are local here in my town. I’m pretty sure they are kosher, too.</p>
<p>I doubt they’re kosher; it would say so right on the website. I couldn’t find a mention of it.</p>
<p>I am no gourmet but I know a tender, juicy and flavorful turkey when I taste one.</p>
<p>After many years of cooking turkeys I have hit on one method that works best for me and the garden variety frozen turkey from the local store: Grill it on the dome shaped charcoal grill! Best turkey ever and there’s plenty of room in the oven to fix the sides.</p>
<p>Motherof4pearls, late in life my dad began to roast turkeys on his custom made oil drum BBQ grill. Fantastic flavor. There weren’t any leftovers.</p>
<p>Also, I too find that Shady Brook brand turkeys make great meals. Additionally, I’ve had ‘culinary success’ with birds from a farm in Virginia that ocassionally supplies supermarkets in the northeast. Can’t remember the name of the farm. I think they are located in Winchester or Harrisonburg.</p>
<p>My yoga teacher is a vegetarian and she recently handed out a flyer “Turkeys are too Neat to Eat.”
Talked about how cool turkeys are…caring mothers, playful, yada yada.
Then described the conditions of most farmed turkeys. Yuk.
I like turkey and my family would not appreciate tofu on Thanksgiving as an alternative - but I think I’ll pay the extra for a free range this year - (even though I tried it before and didn’t think it tasted all that much better). Poor turkeys…</p>
<p>"tofu on Thanksgiving "</p>
<p>It’s call “tou***y” it’s an actual soy product I guess flavored like turkey.
</p>
<p>This is always my tday threat to my veggie d. "How would you like your tou***y this year dear? "</p>
<p>“to***y”</p>
<p>YOU"RE KIDDING?</p>
<p>tou f u k y. It’s an actual product for heaven’s sake…</p>
<p>Does “tofurkey” work? I thought that’s how it’s spelled.</p>
<p>“tofurkey”</p>
<p>Yup that’s it… My kids are smart, my wife is smart, never said I was…;)</p>
<p>Hey, I’m thinking about using one of the counter-top rotisseries for my turkey this year (we don’t have a really large gathering - I think a 12 pounder would be enough). Any one have experience with this?
Regarding the OP, ButterBall has always tasted good at our table - but I’m really not crazy about that injected stuff so I stopped buying them a few years ago.
One year, I tried a Kosher Turkey from Trader Joes and I spent 2 hours pulling feather pins from the bird! Never again! I’ve had good luck with Shady Farms so far.</p>
<p>Am I understanding this correctly? So a kosher turkey (which is apparently already salted?) would not be appropriate for brining? I am FINALLY going to brine a turkey this year.</p>
<p>Nob Hill is advertising Diestel brand turkeys.</p>
<p>TheDad: Read Barbara Kingsolver’s chapter on the turkeys she raised (and, in due course, ate) in “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” – her compelling (and occasionally hysterical) argument for eating food as locally produced as possible (kind of the inverse of your philosophy for the distance beyond which kids should go to college). Some turkeys live very good lives. </p>
<p>Being chased by a turkey gives one a little less empathy for the “poor” bird. Especially when one’s family stands by laughing their heads off as one sprints down the road with the turkey in hot pursuit.</p>
<p>And brine!!! (although I’d avoid any turkey with pre-salting treatment – kosher or otherwise – if one plans to brine)</p>
<p>sushi, I have brined Diestel brand turkeys for the past five years and as long as I can find one, I’ll use them exclusively from here on out. Superb.</p>