Which breed tastes the best?

[mrsteiner]

We've been raising meat chickens for a while now, and would like to add turkeys next year. We're accustomed to grocery store turkey, and like that traditional taste in a bird we raise ourselves. Any suggestions? Which breed do you prefer?

 

[ramirezframing]

dont think breed has much to do with taste. Its what you feed them. This I found out when we did pigs one year. The first one was sweet and

because they got lots of table scraps and a mix of feed, the second didnt get as much table scaps and the huddy fed it mostly corn for a few months before we did it. It didnt taste as good as the first.

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you like the grocery store bird with tons of breast meat, then you want to raised Broad Breasted Whites. You will probably have to purchase poults every year unless you want to learn how to AI.

The heritage breeds are much slower to grow and have scrawny breast meat compared to the commercial birds. They are butchered older, which might effect tenderness.

Even if you get the same breed as the grocery store ones, your home raised birds should taste a lot better.

If nothing else, the Broad Breasted White is a good turkey to start with. They are very easy to raise and nice natured. It's a good way to learn whether or not you even like turkeys.

 

[sandspoultry]

We like the Midget White or Bourbon Red for taste of all the varieties we have ever raised. Third for taste would be the Royal Palm. There have been a few blind taste tests done and the Midget came out on top.