DonRocks Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 Has anyone tried a KellyBronze turkey? They're quite expensive, but we're going to try one this year for Thanksgiving - I'm curious what other people's experiences are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 Yes we've had them for the past two years at Thanksgiving, and already put in our order for this year. If your expectation of taste is a traditional style Turkey, you may be slightly disappointed as the heritage bird tastes quite different. It's incredibly moist and almost reminds me of a pork tenderloin. The quality of the meat is unparalleled. We've really enjoyed them on Thanksgiving and the leftovers days afterwards. The first year, I emailed Judd Carver who answered my questions very thoughtfully. In our oven, it cooked very fast roughly 2 hours. They come with a thermometer which we used. Recommended cooking involves flipping half way thru and Judd recommended pulling it after the thickest part of the bird hits 140 degrees. It was the easiest Turkey that I ever made. We added some toppings before cooking to increase the flavor of the drippings but as he said the bird didn't really need it. The only change I made for the second year was to add slightly more salt since the first year was fairly conservative as my wife doesn't like over salted food. Highly recommend them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 21 hours ago, lion said: If your expectation of taste is a traditional style Turkey, you may be slightly disappointed as the heritage bird tastes quite different. It's incredibly moist and almost reminds me of a pork tenderloin. The quality of the meat is unparalleled. We've really enjoyed them on Thanksgiving and the leftovers days afterwards. Wonderful! I grew up on Butterball, and while I've had "good" turkey meat, I'm pretty sure I've never had a whole heritage bird, at least not one like this. I have no desire to relive the turkeys of my youth, which tasted like a dry, flavorless, white meat-sawdust dessicant, only given life by gravy and condiments. I suppose Butterball turkey is just as good as Purdue chicken, so extrapolate accordingly. Did the place you bought it from remove the tendons from the drumsticks? I think I'm buying ours at Organic Butcher, btw ($181 for a 13-15-pound bird; $220 for 16-18 pounds) - the second link (in the first post) is to Dickson's Farm Stand Meats in New York which says they remove the tendons, dry age, and hand pluck the turkey. I'm wondering if all that's done at the original source, or if it will vary depending on where you purchase the turkey. Please feel free to list all area places that carry them - I wonder if Georgetown Butcher is offering any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 On 11/9/2020 at 7:28 AM, DonRocks said: Wonderful! I grew up on Butterball, and while I've had "good" turkey meat, I'm pretty sure I've never had a whole heritage bird, at least not one like this. I have no desire to relive the turkeys of my youth, which tasted like a dry, flavorless, white meat-sawdust dessicant, only given life by gravy and condiments. I suppose Butterball turkey is just as good as Purdue chicken, so extrapolate accordingly. Did the place you bought it from remove the tendons from the drumsticks? I think I'm buying ours at Organic Butcher, btw ($181 for a 13-15-pound bird; $220 for 16-18 pounds) - the second link (in the first post) is to Dickson's Farm Stand Meats in New York which says they remove the tendons, dry age, and hand pluck the turkey. I'm wondering if all that's done at the original source, or if it will vary depending on where you purchase the turkey. Please feel free to list all area places that carry them - I wonder if Georgetown Butcher is offering any. It's a little shocking actually how broad the difference is between a factory mass produced Turkey and one at the level of a Kelly Bronze. Going back to a 'dry' Thanksgiving bird is not appealing now to my taste buds. Honestly, we were surprised by the taste and we thought to ourselves, "Oh, this is what turkey should taste like... I had seen the flyers at Organic Butcher of Mclean but we buy ours from Mom's Organic Market (there is a google doc signup), which sells it at $9.99 per lb. It's cheaper there but also the past few years OBM has been a madhouse before Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm still shopping at OBM a couple of times a month, however it's a crapshoot if the line will be long or not these days with the virus and my assumption line craziness will increase. Since, we'll be doing Mom's Apple Pie Company in Leesburg, VA for pies, would like to minimize time in line for Thanksgiving items. From my photographs, it doesn't look at the tendons have been removed and I can't remember if that was the case. Here is an article on the Carver Farm operation in Crozet, VA. From the Kelly Bronze website, the official video for cooking which I found helpful. And here is our turkey, before and after cooking: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithstg Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 10 hours ago, DonRocks said: Wonderful! I grew up on Butterball, and while I've had "good" turkey meat, I'm pretty sure I've never had a whole heritage bird, at least not one like this. I have no desire to relive the turkeys of my youth, which tasted like a dry, flavorless, white meat-sawdust dessicant, only given life by gravy and condiments. I suppose Butterball turkey is just as good as Purdue chicken, so extrapolate accordingly. Did the place you bought it from remove the tendons from the drumsticks? I think I'm buying ours at Organic Butcher, btw ($181 for a 13-15-pound bird; $220 for 16-18 pounds) - the second link (in the first post) is to Dickson's Farm Stand Meats in New York which says they remove the tendons, dry age, and hand pluck the turkey. I'm wondering if all that's done at the original source, or if it will vary depending on where you purchase the turkey. Please feel free to list all area places that carry them - I wonder if Georgetown Butcher is offering any. The Whole Ox in Marshall, VA. carries Kelly Bronze turkeys, though may well be sold out at this point. Believe that they deliver also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 I don't know if it's a Kelly Bronze, but Stachowski's Market is carrying Heirloom Bronze turkeys at $5.49/lb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted November 9, 2020 Author Share Posted November 9, 2020 5 hours ago, weezy said: I don't know if it's a Kelly Bronze, but Stachowski's Market is carrying Heirloom Bronze turkeys at $5.49/lb Mom's Organic Market has them for $9.99/lb - that's probably where we're going to bite. My guess is that all Bronze Turkeys are not created equal - "Bronze" is a breed, and any number of farms can raise them. I'm not even sure all KellyBronze turkeys are created equal ("KellyBronze" is a brand name - I'm sure you've figured that out by now - but are they all grown on the same farm?) Dickson's Farmstand in Chelsea Market (Manhattan), for example, doesn't list any farms in Crozet, VA (this is Judd Culver's farm). However, this Oct 9, 2020 article says: "One farm in Crozet is the only location in the United States for a British poultry company famous for its Kelly Bronze turkeys." "Crozet Kelly Bronze Turkey Farm Says Demand Is Good Going into Holiday Season" by Patrick Huddleston on nbc29.com There are only 3,300 of these turkeys for the entire United States. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Picked up our Kelly Bronze today. Size was larger than last year at 15 lb. Sign said they were sold out for this year at least at that location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 It was a great bird! Today's Turkey sandwich with my wife's gravy sauce made from the leftover pan drippings was excellent. This year used our regular oven settings instead of the convention setting which was about 15 minutes longer. Perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted November 28, 2020 Author Share Posted November 28, 2020 50 minutes ago, lion said: It was a great bird! Today's Turkey sandwich with my wife's gravy sauce made from the leftover pan drippings was excellent. This year used our regular oven settings instead of the convention setting which was about 15 minutes longer. Perfect! This was quite some turkey - really the only great turkey I've ever eaten. The dark meat was *really* dark (the drumsticks (peeled) are on the far right of the platter). The directions that came with it (reportedly) made cooking it a breeze. Likewise, carving it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DIShGo Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 I couldn’t believe how quickly a 14 pound bird cooked! I made my personal-best gravy with the giblets. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted December 1, 2020 Author Share Posted December 1, 2020 On 11/27/2020 at 9:09 PM, DIShGo said: I couldn’t believe how quickly a 14 pound bird cooked! I made my personal-best gravy with the giblets. I wish you could have quadrupled the amount - it was pretty fantastic gravy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 Our gravy when fast too, it was gone two days afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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