Turkey is over-rated
I’ve had turkey just about every possible way it can be cooked, and it just isn’t that good.
Doesn’t matter how juicy or dry and it doesn’t matter what herbs or spices are used, it just not that tasty.
Give me a brisket or a standing rib roast or just about anything that isn’t turkey for thanksgiving.
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Thought you were talking about the country at first
Who says he isn't?
But have you been to Istanbul with rosemary in your pockets!?
All hungarians were hungry to see this comment
Glad I’m not the only one
Yeah I was going to say I assumed he meant the country, perhaps as a holiday destination 🤦♂️
Since Erdoğan is there, it s been a shit show. Waiting for better times to enjoy it
He needs to be baked at 350 for 1 hr/lb.
Because everyone only eats it once, maybe twice a year, nobody knows how to properly cook a turkey. Combine that with the only turkeys being butterballs from a grocery store and it’s no wonder you don’t like it.
A properly cooked, quality turkey is incredibly good and is one of my favorite meats. Definitely prefer it over chicken or other poultry
Yeah grocery store turkeys are the blandest factory farmed things on earth lol. There’s a reason why you can get them on sale for like 80¢/lb.
It's actually because it's a loss leader. Most consumers aren't just going to buy a turkey. They're getting all of those other fixins that go with it, and those prices are pretty minimal and steady no matter the store. Even cheaper by the pound, it's probably gonna be the most expensive thing you buy for a Thanksgiving meal. But most people are going to need one. People know all of this, so they shop for the best deal on turkey. That gets them in the door and since they're already buying, they go ahead and buy all the other things they need to prepare. They almost definitely lose money on those turkeys by themselves but make more money overall by selling them cheap. And for chain stores, the individual store isn't eating those costs. Those losses get written off and corporate eats the loss.
And sure, there are better quality turkeys, but you're gonna pay through the ass because those farms aren't producing at the same scale and can't sell to the stores for less, and there definitely wouldn't be enough to go around for all the people buying turkey every year. But if more people buy from those small farms, they can't upscale that same process to cover all those turkeys, so they'll resort to factory farming as well to keep up with the demand. It's very much a similar problem as complaining about traffic when you are also traffic. The only solution is to opt out but we live in a society and opting out can have consequences.
All of that is an excellent point. I’m only speaking to the quality though.
It’s probably a good thing that everyone can get a turkey for thanksgiving for $15, and you can make them taste very good. If they really just sucked then people wouldn’t still be buying 100 million turkeys a year lol. The cheap ones are perfectly fine for the vast majority of people.
I’m more speaking to OPs point of rather having a brisket or standing rib roast over turkey for thanksgiving. Both of those are extremely expensive compared to a turkey. Cheapest standing rib roast I saw even at Costco was $130 and a brisket will run you upwards of $50 at Costco and well over $100 at most regular grocery stores most of the time too. For those prices you absolutely within range of buying from a high quality producer and the difference will be night and day from a mass produced butterball.
Definitely not everyone can afford that, nor could production ever keep up that high quality to meet mass demand either. But for someone already willing to spend $100+ for their main thanksgiving meat, trying a very high quality turkey might be worth it.
I'd be happy to find some way that turkey could be prepared that I would be amazed with. Really, I would. But I've been disappointed time after time. And it's not like it was 'bad' turkey or whatever, other people would seem to be really enjoying it. So, I felt like somehow I just 'didn't get it'.
There's plenty of ways I like chicken and duck, but for me beef or lamb are what really satisfies me.
I'll have it again I'm sure, but I'd never request it or make it for myself.
I did a lot of research before hosting a decade ago, and have now had to host all future thanksgivings since I am apparently the only one in the family who can make a decent turkey. Read on at your own risk:
Seriously I used to hate turkey but with all the above I actually look forward to it.
Have you tried smoked? It really is nice. But generally yeah, I'd rather just eat a nice vegetarian dish than a bland turkey.
Dry brined and smoked turns out incredible each time.
"Butterball" sounds so good though
Just add butter to your turkey! Butter makes everything better. I think chefs would consider it sacrilegious for me to do so, but I even add a little bit of butter to duck. Helps it crisp up nicely.
+1 to this
We use 2-3 sticks of butter (+smoked paprika/salt) minimum to coat the outside of the turkey. Seals in a ton of moisture and makes it much better.
Turkey is cheap, and can be cooked a variety of ways. It's an amazing food source. Last year I brined a turkey breast for Thanksgiving, this year I'm doing a lemon-herb butter rub.
Before cooking my own turkey, it was just whatever my grandparents or inlaws made for thanksgiving, and it was usually dry and bland. You can do better and you should do better. That bird died for you, and you have a duty to make it delicious.
It is called Türkiye - Turkish people are quite adamant about it by now… I consider it silly though …
Yeah and everyone needs to start calling Germany Deutschland.
Or Little Turkey lol
Tell me you've only ever had overcooked turkey without saying you've only had overcooked turkey. Moistness is not a certain sign of properly cooked.
It's just impossible that he has a preference? What a stupid take.
Nah fam this is like the "I don't like vegetables" crowd who've only had boiled or steamed vegetables and thinks that's the only way they taste
"I don't like vegetables" vs "I prefer other meats to turkey" is vastly different. I agree that the I don't like vegetables people are dumb, but comparing that to this is a huge straw man. I guarantee you that I would vastly prefer the best brisket in the world to the best turkey.
If it's that hard to cook most people haven't had it and liked it.. it's still bad. It's easy to cook a delicious chicken in an air fryer.
That's like saying that poison fish (fugu?) isn't good because the average joe can't prepare it without killing the whole dinner party.
To be fair, I have had fugu in Japan and it is incredibly bland. People are only interested in it because it's poisonous if you don't prepare it just right.
Agreed. Turkey was a fine meal for settlers. Better things to eat nowadays. “But…but… it’s tradition!” they say. Well, so is the Running of the Bulls in Spain and most people wouldn’t do that!
Comparing eating turkey to running with a bunch of bulls is hilarious
Most of the bulls are extremely confused why are a bunch of two legged mammals running around and screaming at them.
I applaud each maiming.
Don't mess with the bulls.
I'm going to agree with you. Turkey is just not that great.
I shared your opinion until I recently had a properly smoked turkey for the first time. It was juicy and smokey and incredibly flavorful.
Because of the smoke. But while I don't have as strong a feeling as op on this since it's very much a first world problem, turkey really has a bland, inoffensive taste while I could smoke a rat to be delicious.
Hey you the guy selling smoked rats?
[Whips open one side of long coat revealing a display of smokey smelling rats]
Mesquite, hickory or applewood?
Post oak?
That’s probably because they’re domesticated and bred for breast size and not flavor. The same thing happened to pork.
You can fix this by brining the turkey and adding aromatics to the chest cavity before roasting if you don’t have a smoker.
My point is, if you gotta do that, it's not good meat.
If that's the case then chicken, pork, and most cuts of beef aren't "good meat" either. I can't think of a food that doesn't benefit from added flavor. Even pork belly gets cured and smoked to become bacon.
I guess wild foods have flavor without needing cooking and seasoning. But a lot of cooking techniques are there to disguise their gamey flavor.
Fair enough. Good food is good food. And I wouldn’t say no if I thought there was a chance it could be amazing. But I would also never request it, nor would I decide to make it myself.
I’ve had turkey roasted, brined, smoked and fried. People eating it would say “Mmmm this turkey is AMAZING!”, and I’d be interested thinking this would be the time that I’d like turkey. But each time I’m left with a plateful of disappointment and sadness, and I’m thinking my friends and family are insane.
Could just be that my tastebuds aren’t tuned for turkey.
I liked how the original sub had food as a banned topic because everyone's taste buds are different
Yeah, I could understand difference in tastebuds being a thing, but why ban it if everyone is respectful. I guess I can see that some people might get a little too heated about it.
I don't begrudge anyone that likes turkey, and I'll probably try it again hoping to not be disappointed. Maybe one day I won't be. So far that hasn't been the case.
For me thanksgiving is about being with people I care the most about.
I never had turkey (it simply is not a thing here), but I guess with a dish that is a) only made once per year and b) size-wise far out of the ordinary daily cooking experience, this will lead to a lot of below average experiences.
It's basically a giant chicken with minimal flavor. It tastes of whatever seasoning you use, just like some shitty supermarket tofu.
OK, so I never missed a thing.
I like it outside of the holidays. Turkey is my preferred sandwich.
Smoked turkey legs 🍗 ftw
i felt this way and then my aunt tried seasoning the turkey in a new way and -oh man- does it taste FANTASTIC.
can't wait for tonight!
Indeed! Enjoy it! :)
Goose is the better turkey.
Absolutely.
Also duck.
Turkey is one of those meats that are good to experiment with.
I haven't done it in a while but I would often buy a whole turkey and carve the bird as I prefer at home.
Thighs are good for slow roasting, with peppers and rosemary. The drums get drown in an onion and cloves based sauce and cooked for several hours until the meat falls off the bone, pulled, allowed to chill and then turned into sandwich meat. The breasts are sliced into very thin stakes, for grilling or frying or make into schnitzel. Small pieces are turned into stroganoff, with mushroom sauce. The bones are good for making meat stock.
It is a very versatile ingredient but it does require some degree of finesse to cook.
Turkey Club Sandwich is good, but bacon is pulling all the flavor weight on that one. Turkey meat is generally healthier than chicken meat though, so it’s got that going for it.
How is it healthier? They are both so lean already
Turkey is leaner. However I am not convinced that it matters. Heathy fats>>carbs.
so true. They think they're so cool just because they're a part of the EU, but they are like, the worst countryin the EU club, and mostly seem to have wanted in so they could keep everyone else out.
They are not part of the EU.
Seems like a lot of people just have no clue how to cook food. I'm not a big fan of turkey but it's pretty good if you cook it correctly with seasonings.
I'm with you. It's the most boring meat around.
I have heard that wild turkey tastes much better, but I've never tried it, as I'm not a hunter.
There’s a reason we only eat it once a year. It’s so bland.
Deli turkey is an extremely common year round food.
And it's good because it's brined and/or peppered. People need to brine their turkeys.
I'd have to say that either chicken breast or lean pork is the most boring meat around. Turkey breast is probably number three, though.
Most Thanksgiving food isn't that good. If it was, we'd eat it more than once a year.
What, like mashed potatoes, gravy, or brussel sprouts?
Stuffing is delicious and I will eat it all the time.
Smoked turkey fajitas. That's the answer.
Consider this: the strong association of turkey with Thanksgiving means that you're not expected to eat it any any other time.
Well done turkey (and I've had it done well) is very good. I have sliced turkey sandwiches the rest of the year. It is a lot leaner than fatty brisket/ribs too.
Same thing with meatloaf. My whole family loves it but it just tastes like unseasoned beef to me.
Have you tried seasoning it?
My Mom never seasons anything lol.
Well there ya go
"This unseasoned food tastes unseasoned.
You have my pity
I like me some deli-meat turkey. But roasted or whatever Thanksgiving prep is not for me. Like chewing soft woodchips.
That's not how turkey meat is supposed to be. Sounds like the breast meat got way too hot and started to dry out.
I only do breast roasts nowadays because the different parts of a full turkey have different ideal final temperatures. Brining and then smoking has resulted in fantastic entrees every year for the last six years. I'm up to making 5 roasts at a time now for each holiday because everyone wants leftovers as well.
I've had one really good turkey that was deep-fried.
Chicken is the far superior bird, which may be why everybody eats them all the time. Turkey is for sandwiches.
That's like saying carrots can only be eaten raw.
Any food item can be cooked in any way, as long as good preparation is put into the process.
I can make several meals out of a single turkey and sandwich meat is not even on the top 10 of the options.
Are you talking about mass produced farm turkeys, or a wild turkey that you shot and cooked? There is a huge difference between the two.
Idk why you are being down voted, you're right. Wild animals do not have conparable meats to captive. I catch wild rabbits and their meat is a deep red, while captive rabbits meat is very pale. They taste way different.
There are heirloom breeds of animals that are soooooo much better than modern breeds. If you can find Berkshire pork, buy it. It will change your worldview on pork
We started doing a rib roast for thanksgiving a few years ago. So much better than turkey!
I also do baked skin-on chicken thighs regularly, which we also like better than turkey, that we simply never have a craving for turkey.
You and me are homies forever now.
How do you like to do your rib roast? I'd like to do more ribs.
My Mom showed me a reverse sear method, which I've followed for a few years now and has given me a perfectly cooked roast every time. I've fiddled a bit with the exact temperatures and cook times, but here's my latest iteration. You NEED a meat thermometer!
I did a 5 pound boneless ribeye roast today, and this whole process took about 7 hours. Probably will try bone-in next year, as I didn't realize the meat market I buy from does the remove bones and tie back together thing.
Thank you so much for taking the time! I'll look forward to trying this.
This year we're cooking a 26 lb pasture raised turkey. If it's still not great, we're doing something else for the meat course next year.
I hope it turns out great!
So, how did it turn out?
Really good! I don't know that I'll be able to go back to store-bought.
Looks fantastic!
Have made/had so many and I agree. Heirloom to butterball, all type of seasonings and cook styles. End of the day it's turkey. We do prime rib now depending on crowd size will still add turkey for the purists.
I do duck. Delicious, but only feeds three or four people. Wouldn't be too hard to do two ducks, of course.
Is that unpopular though?
Who even eats turkey asides from Americans on thanksgiving?
Loads of people worldwide. They're just not cultural touchstones like they are for North Americans.
Is this true? Are turkeys raised worldwide now? They're native to North America and I've never really heard of other peoples eating turkey.
I ate turkey in Germany in the '80s already. It wasn't super-common, but it was there. My family tended to have goose at Christmas dinners, but turkey was an option that was frequently used by others.
Wackypedia says:
Here's a turkey farming operation in Ampfing, Germany. That one operation slaughters and sells 3000 tons of turkey a year, apparently.
Turkey consumption per capita statistics show that Germany, for example, is about 3.4kg annually per capita vs. the USA's 7.5, Hungary's 9, and Israel's (?!) 13.
Unfortunately statistics on this seem a bit incomplete. The first site lists 11 nations only. Over here they list 7, but barely have any overlap with the first site. More information gives some solid figures on the production and export of turkey meat. ... And so on and so on and so on. So yes, turkeys are raised and consumed worldwide.
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
England and former colonies do at Christmas.
You can get turkey sandwiches from any deli year round in the States, and they're pretty popular
I eat it outside the holidays. They’re cheaper and if you use the whole bird you can get like a week’s worth of meals out of one.
A whole turkey is more like a month's worth of meals for me. I'd definitely need to be using the freezer. You can eat it as is, make sandwiches, soups, pot pies.... I can get a week's worth of food out of a chicken, so I can only imagine how much I would get out of a turkey.
Thanksgiving is very American, but turkey is a common christmas dinner in the UK at least, and probably fairly common across Europe
But that only proves OP's point. Turkey is almost always only eaten on a holiday because it's a tradition, and basically no one ever chooses to eat it when they're deciding what to eat for any other regular meal during the year
The logic here doesn't work for me. Moon cakes are generally eaten only in the week surrounding the Mid-Autumn Festival here in China. It's traditional, see. Yet they're incredibly yummy and were they available at other times they'd likely be consumed cheerfully. In Hubei there's a special dish of "birthday noodles" eaten basically only on your birthday. (And only by you; the rest of your family doesn't get them.) They're also incredibly delicious ... and literally eaten only once a year.
The fact that something is eaten only seasonally or by special occasion doesn't mean that it's not tasty. It means that it's special, nothing more.
It could also be because fewer Americans have time to spend cooking dinner, and turkeys are large, cumbersome, and time consuming to cook well. I love to cook, and I love to cook turkey. I've converted a good amount of people over the years who said they don't enjoy it.
All that said, I only make it three or four times a year for the reasons above. That, and it's not practical when you're cooking for two unless you can find butchered pieces. I'm making a duck instead today, but I wish I was making turkey.
That's exactly how I feel about duck, although it takes less attention and time than a turkey does. I really love it, but it is a bit of a process, especially with the making of the gravy (if you've never had duck gravy, you really need to) and whatever sides you want to have. Roasting a chicken as much simpler if not as satisfying.
I make a duck for Thanksgiving every year.
I may default to duck if only cooking for myself or one other person. It turned out great! I have not had duck gravy, but now I must. I made a cranberry cherry chutney last night that was pretty satisfying, though.
Yeah, I don't know why every recipe wants to pair duck with a fruity sauce. Sure, that's good, but it goes great with gravy as well.
That just not true, people eat turkey all the time. Every sandwich shop has a turkey sandwich year round. Now do people cook a 15-20 pound turkey regularly? Absolutely not because it's time consuming and you would need a gathering every time because a normal size family is not gonna eat that much food hence why we cook them a few times a year.