Nov 10 2009
The $178 Turkey
I’m a food snob with the best of them — but I am not necessarily an organo-phobe who demands to know whether my steak died happy and fed on grass. I am also a customer of D’Artagnan, the specialty butcher supply house that can provide everything from armagnac duck sausage to wild boar. Being an occasional customer I receive their email offers.
I just had to ask, who would pay $178 for a turkey? I mean, turkey unto itself is not up there with Kobe beef and Bluefin tuna as one of life’s essential delicacies. What’an equivalent Butterball cost? $40?
I’d expect this thing to play the accordion and entertain me.
“Enjoy the natural goodness and delicious flavor of a traditional Heritage Turkey at your holiday meal.”
via Thanksgiving Turkeys, Buy Fresh and Natural Turkey for Thanksgiving Dinner Online.
David:
We get local organic free-range turkeys at the local food co-op up in Viroqua, WI for just a few bucks more than you would pay for a butterball – though you do have to place your order in advance.
Here is my (2 year old) blog post about smoking these birds on the grill(s). It is rising in popularity as it does every year just prior to Thanksgiving:
http://humanvoice.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/grilled-smoked-turkey/
Give it a try – easy, no clean-up and delicious.
TO’B
They’re hand fed, Kobe beef cattle, dung beetles. The beetles are also massaged before they’re fed to each turkey.
When we lived in Paris I think we paid about $178 for a turkey (dinde) when we hosted an American Thanksgiving for our circle of ex-pats. That was in 1990 dollars when the exchange rate was about 6 francs (pre-Euro) to the dollar. I remember trying to explain to the French butcher why I wanted a whole turkey and feeling like I’d been taken when he quoted me le prix…I don’t remember how our gold-plated turkey tasted because Cecily had been born about 2 weeks before and she cried that horrible newborn cry through the entire meal. The next year we settled for boeuf. Nineteen years later I’m a vegetarian. Bon appetit!