How to Roast a Pastured Turkey

Pastured turkeys are a great choice but require some different cooking methods.

Reader Contribution by Tabitha Alterman
Updated on November 2, 2023
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by AdobeStock/Brent Hofacker

Impress family and friends this Thanksgiving with the great taste of a pasture-raised turkey. Be sure it turns out just right by following these 13 tips and tricks for how to roast a pastured turkey.

Thanksgiving is extra fun when two or three generations come together to prepare and enjoy a meal together. If we’re going to the trouble of coming together in this way for one meal, doesn’t it make sense to fill the table thoughtfully, with ingredients that inspire true gratefulness? Opting for a pastured turkey instead of an commercial turkey is one of the best ways to anchor your meal in gratitude for good food and good farmers.

Commercial Turkey vs Pastured Turkey

Commercial turkey can be bland and flaccid, pumped with watery solutions in an attempt to improve texture and add “flavor.” The meat comes from birds bred with breasts so big they can’t reproduce naturally, let alone fly. They are debeaked, deprived of outdoor access, fed an unnatural diet, and often can’t survive without controversial antibiotics. The crowded, inhumane, unsanitary conditions of industrial turkey farms have led to a host of food safety concerns. For example, a 2013 Consumer Reports analyzed industrial ground turkey products for enterococcus, E. coli, staphylococcus, salmonella, and campylobacter. Of the 257 samples tested from stores nationwide, 90 percent were contaminated.

Pastured turkey meat is richly flavored, lean, and nutritious. It comes from animals that don’t need hormones and antibiotics to survive or cruel debeaking to prevent them from harming each other. They are allowed ample access to sunshine, fresh air, and a nourishing diet of grasses, insects and worms.

Nutritional Benefits of Pastured Turkey

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