Taste Test: Heritage Turkey vs. Conventional Turkey Bon Appétit

Heritage turkeys are old-fashioned breeds with smaller breasts, darker leg meat and heftier price tags than conventionally raised turkeys, but many people say the superior taste is worth the higher cost. Bon Appétit's Test Kitchen put that assumption to the test with a side-by-side blind tasting of both types of turkey. Which one came out on top?

The 4-person tasting panel was a varied group which included a calorie-conscious health nut, a self-confessed foodie, a not-terribly-adventurous kid, and "The Dude," a guy who just likes eating when he is hungry, food trends and health concerns be damned. They did a blind tasting of both the white and dark meat of a Standard Bronze heritage turkey and a conventionally raised Broad Breasted White turkey from the supermarket.

The results? With the exception of The Dude, the tasters preferred the heritage turkey for its flavor and texture, and most found the conventional turkey overly salty. Store-bought turkeys are typically injected with water, salt, and other preservatives during their processing, while heritage turkeys are not, which may be why The Dude found the conventional turkey juicier.

The article also includes in-depth information on the environmental, nutritional, and ethical considerations for each type of bird, and is definitely worth a read if you are wondering whether or not the higher cost of a heritage turkey is worth it.

• Check it out: Does Heritage Turkey Taste Better than Conventional in a Blind Taste Test? at Bon Appétit

What do you think? Is paying more for a heritage turkey worth it for you?

(Image: Flickr member tuchodi licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (7)

It's a bit flawed don't you think? They are going to taste different because of the difference in diets. So it's not really a heritage BREED versus a conventional BREED.

Our heritage turkeys aren't breeding yet so we raised the commercial turkeys this year. We fed them a little bit of grain but mostly left them outside to fend for themselves. They butchered out around 9lbs. I cooked one for Thanksgiving dinner and it was the best tasting turkey I've ever eaten.

I've had both heritage & "conventional" cage-free organic turkeys. I do have to say the hertiage breed did taste much better. I had to go to a farm to get both because the store bought turkeys are usually or poorer quality. So, while I agree with you, canadaincook, that diiet plays a large role in the taste, I believe her intent was to show the difference between a farm bought heritage turkey and a plain ol' store bought.
The article was less comparing individual breeds than it was comparing the two approaches to producing turkeys

I think much of the appeal of heritage breeds is conservation (at least for me). If we didn't eat them, farmers wouldn't growth them. Because they generally require more effort than the industrial breeds, we pay more. If they taste better, too, so much the better.

Also purchase of a heritage breed typically entails visiting a farm, which is always good for the soul.

When you are aware of how conventional turkeys are raised in this country, factory farms, CAFOs, the monstrosity that is turkey breeding today, the value of heritage turkeys becomes much more than just an interesting conversation topic.

"Conventional" breeds taste good if they are raised on good feed, are free range, not water processed after slaughter, and aren't treated with additives. The musculature is more proportionate than the CAFO birds as well. And the flesh tastes like meat rather than a wet sponge. The price is higher than a CAFO bird but it is within range of most holiday budgets.

Heritage birds are delicous but will be somewhat unfamiliar to many people and probably out of most people's price range.

Read the article, it should have named the 'conventional' bird by brand. Was it Bell & Evans or Shady Brook or due to the salt remarks, one that was prebasted or not? The other issue is of course, for $102 including shipping, you're getting a 10 lb bird - is that enough turkey? Buy a Empire Kosher (skip the brining) and save a bundle.

I bet a dollar that a breed normally raised commercially would taste like a different bird entirely if raised on a small scale farm, and a heirloom breed raised in a conventional manner is probably prone to some flavor homogenization...we got a bird two years ago who roosted in trees, and ran around, and we could tell that the muscle had been exercised more. Their diet made a difference in the flavor of the meat, etc. I'd pick a home grown any day. Don't care what the breed is.