I purchased a Heritage Turkey on Friday. Larry and I talked about it, and decided to buy a small-ish one before Thanksgiving (since they are so expensive and we didn’t know how it would taste). I picked up the turkey at Mollie Stone’s in Palo Alto – it was a Bourbon Red from Mary’s Turkeys, ten pounds.
The turkey was very different from the standard broad breasted white turkeys that are raised commercially. The meat is richly flavored, and the texture is very firm. There is not very much white meat on the birds. It was good, just really different than any turkey I’ve ever had. The flavor is not mild at all.
– To roast the turkey, I just used salt and pepper, and midway into roasting I basted it with melted butter. I normally roast turkey breast-side down for a while, then turn it over breast-side up. I couldn’t balance the turkey on the breast side at all, so I had to cook it fully breast-side up. Because of this, the turkey did not cook evenly and the back side skin did not brown at all.
– I cooked up a batch of Willie Bird turkey bacon, and decided to use the same pan to saute the fennel and onions. It’s very good this way.
– The salad called for goat cheese, but all I had was Ricotta Salata. It was a good substitution.

• Roasted Heritage Turkey
• Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Chile (Fine Cooking #67, November 2004, p. 49)
• Sautéed Fennel and Red Onions
• Roasted Beets
• Warm Spinach Salad with Bacon, Walnuts & Ricotta Salata (Fine Cooking #53, November 2002, p. 94C)

Wine: Rafanelli 1999 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley, California). Good, but losing its fruit.