(Image: John Cullen)
We’re a city obsessed with eating local, and when it comes to planning the biggest dinner of the year, we’re even more devoted. The ubiquitous Butterball, with its yellow and blue shrink wrap, used to provide a comforting barrier between us and the realization that our bird was once, in fact, a bird—with feathers, a beak and a snood (the floppy nose appendage of unknown use). Nowadays, that packaging evokes images of factory farm torture. So we’ll happily pay premium prices to know our turkey was raised in a pesticide-free pasture within a couple hundred kilometres of the city, where it munched organic feed and cavorted with other dignified turkeys. If it happens to descend from a 50-year-old Saskatchewan-born flock and come with certified ancestry papers, Yahtzee! We’ll pay even more. And it’s worth it. Heritage breeds like the Bourbon Red, the Bronze and the Narragansett have darker meat (the Broad-Breasted Whites in grocery stores have been genetically modified for Dolly Parton–like proportions) and fuller flavour. All of which means when you’re lying on the couch in a tryptophan-induced torpor, the only thing you’ll feel guilty about is that second helping of stuffing.
Broad-Breasted White
The most common breed found in grocery stores. Bred specifically to yield lots of breast meat
FEATURED MARKET:
Close to the Bone
Bronze
One of the oldest domesticated breeds in North America. It has finely textured, slightly red meat
FEATURED MARKETS:
Country Meadows Organics
Fresh From the Farm
The Village Butcher
Sanagan’s Meat Locker
Beretta Farms Organic Meats
Bourbon Red
A rare Kentucky heritage breed popular for its naturally large breasts and rich flavour
FEATURED MARKETS:
Fresh From the Farm
Sausage Partners
Narragansett
A descendant of a wild-domestic cross known for its dark meat and gamey taste
FEATURED MARKET:
Sausage Partners
Related
Related Tags
Ceili Cottage, Dufferin Grove, Holiday Food & Drink 2011, kensington market, Peter Sanagan, Sanagan's Meat Locker, The Village Butcher, Toronto, turkey
Popular
Most Commented