Kelly Turkeys

Food with Passion is not a massive fan of turkey meat, as it has always proved to be a dry and pretty bland bird in the past. And, of course, they usually come in such large sizes that your disappointment goes on for days whilst you use up the leftovers in soups, stews, curries and sandwiches or whatever else you can think of to use up the rest of the monstrous bird.

Either that or waste it by throwing it out to the bin.... but I can never condone that with so much starvation in the world ... that would attack my conscience.

We were therefore very excited to find a well-regarded producer of a Bronze turkey - Kelly Turkeys producing the Kelly Bronze. Kelly Turkeys have brought the old Bronze breed back into breeding stock and they employ the best possible animal husbandry to breed the birds for the table in an unhurried free-range way, meaning that the birds live for 2-3 times as long as mass-produced birds and live a happy life.

So.... could Kelly' Bronze's change our past perception of the bird that Britain either loves or hates?

When do Kelly's supply turkeys?

Kelly Turkeys only takes orders for Turkeys for delivery at either Thanksgiving or Christmas, and as I was looking at the site on 2nd December then the next opportunity was Christmas 2007.....so a Christmas Turkey it was.

The Web Ordering Process?

A very simple web order form completed the ordering process for us. There is an alternate telephone contact available. We would make a couple of observations about the process:

The Kelly Bronze Turkeys do come in various sizes, but don't leave your order too late, for once a size has gone, you will need to trade up to a bigger size. I would have liked a 4 kilo bird to feed 4 adults and 2 small children, but as the smaller sizes were gone, I needed to trade up to a bigger 6kg bronze turkey
Unlike other mail order sites where you only promise to pay when the order is despatched, your card is actually charged at the point of ordering and does not wait until despatch.

What does it cost?

Clearly this will vary by size of the bird actually required, but as an indication, the bird that we ordered (a 6kg specimen) cost £76 including delivery within an insulated styrofoam package containing cooking instructions and a Kelly branded meat thermometer to assist the cooking process.

The delivery arrangements?

From the point of ordering, I was told when the turkey would be delivered. Delivery was exactly as promised at that point of ordering....the Kelly bronze turkey was despatched on 20th December for next day delivery (using ANC on this occasion, though perhaps different couriers will be used nationwide) and a notice of despatch was sent via email to Food with Passion giving us access to the parcel tracking details

How well was it packaged? What was actually in the package?

No massive surprises here. A cardboard outer contained a sort of flat pack polystyrene insulated liner (relatively thin) containing the bird, a fairly large ice-pack, the cooking instructions and the "free" meat thermometer that we will discuss later in this article. Kelly's say that the bird will stay fresh in the unopened box for 4 days, though I cannot vouch for this as we wanted to open the box immediately in our kitchen. I think most people would want to inspect the contents upon receipt and there will be an immediate increase in the temperature of the air inside the liner....once opened, don't rely upon the 4 days freshness.

Once we opened it to the warmer air (or even with sitting the box in the warmer kitchen), the temperature inside started to rise and we needed to refresh the ice packs with our own until such times as we could refrigerate the bird properly. I would advise that the tests suggesting 4 days can only be relied upon in cases of delivery delay.

Food with Passion would have liked sturdier insulated boxes to be provided - the flat pack design did not make for a completely sealed polystyrene box and it was maybe only around 1-1.5cm thick. Other suppliers such as. Donald Russell use 1.5-2 inch thick completely enclosed insulated boxes which definitely protects the contents better ..... Food with Passion even recycle ours to use as coolboxes on trips away. You could not do this with Kelly's packaging

The bird was magnificent with a deep breast decorated with a sprig of rosemary. As a bonus, our bird was actually nearer to 7kg rather than the 6kg that we had ordered, reflecting the fact that birds don't come out exactly per order. The bird also came with the giblets in a plastic bag which we took out of the package and refrigerated for later soup making.

Food with Passion do find some objection to the notion of a "free" thermometer. I suspect that many people prepared to pay premium meat prices would actually have a meat thermometer to hand already. Not only that, but as these actually retail for a few pounds, we would be extremely annoyed to get these with every order as a repeat customer.

Food with Passion do recommend that everyone should have a meat thermometer to hand, but the customer should have some optionality around this and be able to decide whether to buy the bird without being forced to pay for the included thermometer.

Kelly Turkeys actually commented in a subsequent email following this article to suggest that they are thinking along similar lines on packaging and the supply of a meat thermometer. Therefore things may be different for 2008 orders.

The cooking process?

Very straightforward and extremely FAST compared to previous turkeys - a non-fan assisted oven is recommended and therefore for a change, Food with Passion ignored our fan-assisted oven on the range cooker and heated up the non-fan oven to the suggested 180C cooking temperature.

This bird requires little treatment before cooking - a peeled onion in the cavity with good seasoning over the turkey before placing breast-side down in your cooking tray for all but the very last 30 minutes of cooking, when it is turned breast-side up to finish off the cooking.

Sticking religiously to the provided instructions, Food with Passion turned the bird over one half-hour before the calculated finish time, and saw that the breast was ready to burst like a water-bomb, absolutely full to bursting with all the turkey juices that it had collected and retained and basted the breast meat as a consequence of being upside-down.

The finished product and the Taste Test?

Food with Passion found that the turkey was cooked to perfection much quicker than we might otherwise have anticipated; in the end it took only 2.5 hours in the oven to complete the cooking. The turkey certainly looked the part although it did not quite look like the perfect magazine specimen, though we readily admit that could have been because Food with Passion's oven trays were not large enough to allow the best air convection around the turkey to brown and crisp the skin evenly across the whole bird.

Kelly Turkeys do not recommend carving the birds at the table, they suggest that the bird should be carved in the kitchen after resting (anything up to one hour to allow the meat to relax is considered acceptable).

The carved meat should be returned to the juices that have collected in the roasting tray.....and there was loads of delicious juices....a pint or more with very little fats in it, signifying a very lean bird and a very healthy alternative to red meats. The meat can then be warmed up in the tray, either on the hob or by returning to a low oven

The Food with Passion family were undecided as to whether they also wanted a separate gravy or not, but recognising the advice given by Kelly's, the author elected to follow the preparation and best eating guidance from Kelly's and took the turkey with just the meat juices.

In the end, I have to be absolutely honest and say that even after tasting this premier turkey, I am still somewhat disappointed by the lack of flavour in turkey. Although I would say that this was the best turkey that I have ever tasted, I was not blown away or converted in any form.

Value overall?

Although the bird was expensive when compared to the price of standard supermarket turkeys, Food with Passion does think that the bird offered good value as there was a huge amount of meat on it and appreciates that there is a cost attached to allowing the birds to mature slowly compared to intensive and rapid farming.

Would I buy a Kelly Bronze Turkey again?

I would if I found myself in similar circumstance looking to cater for large numbers of people who like to see the appearance of a Christmas Turkey, because I appreciate the excellent husbandry offered by the Kelly family and I admit that the bird did taste better than any other turkey I have tasted in the past. I would definitely want my guests to have the best available.

However, I would probably have a second choice of meat available on the table...... I have decided that no turkey will ever win me over in a flavour contest.

An alternative bird to consider is Guinea Fowl which in Food with Passion's experience is very tasty alternative to chicken and turkey. You can read our review of the Donald Russell Guinea Fowl Capon.

Care to comment?

If you have an opinion on the review or of the eating qualities of this turkey, then why not comment in our forum. The discussion on this review is available here.