Turkzilla

How about an 80lb turkey for Thanksgiving?

Wired Magazine has an article out about the impact of science on the Thanksgiving dinner. One outcome has been the supersizing of turkeys through genetic selection since the beginning of the 20th century.

The entire article is worth a read but here are a few of the crazier excerpts...

• The United States pumped out 33 times more pounds of turkey at a lower cost to consumers in 2007 than our farmers did in 1929. Turkeys more than doubled in size in that time from an average of 13 pounds to an average of 29 pounds.
• In commercial and academic turkey-breeding programs, adult male turkeys, called toms, can reach 50 pounds at the tender age of five months, said John Anderson, a longtime turkey breeder. "We've got some adult male-line birds that went over 80 pounds."
• Unlike the colorful pictures we all drew in elementary school, modern, factory-farmed birds are all white.
• All that bulk comes with consequences. Commercial turkeys can't fly and researchers have even invented a way of quantifying how impaired the birds' walking has become. The 1-to-5 scale ranges from "birds whose legs did not have any defect" to bowlegged birds who have "great difficulty walking."

We decided to get a heritage turkey for this Thanksgiving. Looking at the bird last night two things stood out, the breast isn't nearly as large as on "regular" store bought turkeys and the skin and organs look incredibly fresh.

Not sure how it'll taste but I'll update this post to let you know.

Update: The heritage turkey we had for Thanksgiving was excellent. Juicy and with far more flavor than any other turkey I've ever had. I highly recommend it.