Posted on 11/17/2018 9:33:38 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Small birds are having a big moment.
Tiny turkeys will increasingly grace Thanksgiving tables next week, thanks to the millennial generations ongoing campaign to remake American gastronomy.
The holiday depicted by Norman RockwellGrandma showing off a cooked bird so plump it weighs down a banquet plateis still common. But smaller families, growing guilt over wasteful leftovers and a preference for free-range fowl have all played roles in the emergence of petite poultry as a holiday dinner centerpiece.
People are starting to understand its not natural to grow turkeys up to 30 pounds, said Ariane Daguin, co-founder and owner of DArtagnan LLC, a wholesale and e-commerce food company in Union, New Jersey. In general, that means they were penned up with no room to move around, and thats why theyre fat like that.
There are signs that wee birds are in greater demand. Inventories of whole hens, which are smaller than males, are down 8.3 percent from a year ago, the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Whole toms, the males, are up 6.9 percent.
Dont call them capons. Theyre not castrated chickens. Nor are they chicks. Theyre not babies. Theyre just turkeys that weigh in the neighborhood of six pounds. Bell & Evans is working with a breeder to make tiny turkeys that consumers will eat all year.
Owner Scott Sechler said the new breed, which isnt yet sold publicly, fills out nicely, unlike other undersized birds, which can be bony.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Someone inform them via their preferred social media that leftovers are to be eaten LATER. Up to a few days later. Hence, the name.
That’s always my second choice, too! I was rummaging around in the freezer last week and found a ham bone that Mom had given to me at Easter.
I made a big pot of Split Pea Soup. Heaven!
I buy ham all year ‘round. Like you said, so many yummy things to make with ham. :)
For us, a “small” bird is 10 lbs. It’s usually just the two of us, and after a week of turkey at every meal, it gets a little monotonous.
My family was so poor, we had Thanksgiving Day sparrow!
Credit to ‘Laugh In’.
Gonna have a crowd on T Day. Got the maximum bird. Love a big table filled with people noise.
We de-bone the leftovers, pack them in quart-size freezer ziplocks, and freeze them for up to 3 months (Butterball rules).
Take out a ziplock, defrost overnight in the fridge, and you have a meal or a sandwich ready to be made...
Our leftovers don’t go to waste. I put portions into the freezer. When we don’t know what else to make for dinner, I take out one, chop some veggies, and make turkey stir fry.
I love roasted turkey, but there may be something to getting smaller ones, if only a few people will be eating.
At a certain point, one has just had enough turkey for a good while. The meat has a distinctive flavor, so even were you to put it in salads or soups, that same flavor is going to dominate.
For the same reasons, I’ve been buying smaller watermelons while they’re in season. I don’t want to get stuck with a gargantuan melon taking up residence in my fridge and getting mushier by the hour. I’m taking a second look at those soccer ball sized melons. Sometimes bigger is not better.
Two small turkeys, instead of one large, means more legs!
A 6-pounder? That’s only enough for 2, if you consider the bones, etc., and want any leftovers.
But this has always been an issue for those who sell turkeys. The small ones are in greatest demand because there are so few of them—and more with small families or gatherings looking for them.
IMO the solution is to get a chicken, duck or goose instead. But if a new small turkey comes available, then I guess that’s fine too.
My Thanksgiving turkey is a little over 15 lbs. I will be smoking it on my Weber kettle grill. No more oven cooked turkeys for us. Smoked turkey is the way to go!
They are not disrupting anything, another BS article about how Millenials are “changing the world” when they really are not. How environmentally sound they are but carry around a device that pollutes more then a dozen turkeys could ever do.
These articles are nothing more then a circle jerk for the lefties who think the younger generation is changing the world for the better because they can’t afford anything lol
Apparently, I have a “hipster” beard now. I get comments and compliments on my fashionable face hair all the time.
This proves, if you wait long enough, eventually everything comes in style; I’ve had this same beard since 1978.
How big is too big? We get ours from a local grower, and I want to say we get 20 to 22 pounders, but bigger are available. The 22 pounders come out nice, but I wonder if we should get a 25 or 26 pound one since we always run out of meat by the end of the weekend. I love roast turkey. I don’t know if we should get 2 14s, we’d probably need 2 14s or 15s to match the meat on a 22. So maybe 2 17s, i dont know the meat to bone ratio. My wife is in charge of that so I don’t know if she’d be willing to manage 2 smaller birds. I do the carving(at my wife’s insistence as she’s usually tired) and clean-up. Cooking is hard, a couple glasses of wine and cleanup is not so bad. The dogs are my best friends then too.
“My Mother served us Leftovers for 30 years. We never found the original meal!” ~ Henny Youngman (I think?)
I’m also reminded of The Best Christmas Ever, the year that Grandpa got us a Christmas Tree that had fallen off a Christmas Tree Truck right in front of him! It was a sign from above, LOL!
And, THEN he accidentally hit a pheasant on the same road, so we had it for Christmas Dinner.
God Bless Us, Every One!
(We STILL laugh about that Christmas, though Grandpa has been gone since 1980.)
Best part of Thanksgiving is the leftover turkey sandwiches. I can get baked turkey year round, but HOMEMADE turkey sandwiches are always better than tasteless deli turkey.
One time I saw a Tom. Jeez! That guy was huge. My guess would be 40 - 50 pounds. I didn't want to run into him without a big stick or something...
After all of the years I’ve been on this planet, I’m tired of Turkey for every holiday. This year I brought home a ham. We’ll still get served turkey next Thursday at a relatives house, but at least I’ll get what I like on Friday.
Go with a cornish hen. Better yet, a tofu turkey.
Actually, I’m all for them going with the little birds. That way I can still find a nice big fat one. It’s the best bargain on meat. I always dig through the bin for the biggest one.
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