Recipes For Thanksgiving: Chefs' Dishes For The Wild Foods Of The First Thanksgiving

For their Thanksgiving issue, Field & Stream magazine asked several acclaimed chefs, including Thomas Keller, John Besh, and avid hunters Kerry Heffernan and Tim Love, to contribute their recipes celebrating the wild foods of the very first Thanksgiving, including America's most heralded game species: wild turkey, whitetail deer, and mallard ducks (read T. Edward Nickens' article, "A Brief History of Thanksgiving (and Why It's the 'Hunter's Holiday'"). These recipes work just as well with game purchased from your local butcher or other trusted purveyor, but if you are for the food on your Thanksgiving table, check out their guide how to hunt fall turkeys.

And for good measure, Field & Stream also asked Momofuku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi to share the recipe for her famous 'Crack Pie.'

Check out all the dishes and recipes below for riffs on the foods of the first Thanksgiving from these celebrated American chefs.

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Chef Kerry Heffernan’s Recipe for Thanksgiving Wild Turkey

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Get the recipe for Kerry Heffernan's Thanksgiving wild turkey here. See also Kerry Heffernan's recipes for Yukon Gold Potato Purée and Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Maple and Tarragon, and Purée of Rutabaga with Sage and Fried Onions. (Photo by Travis Rathbone)

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Get the recipe for Kerry Heffernan's Thanksgiving wild turkey here.

See also Kerry Heffernan's recipes for Yukon Gold Potato Purée and Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Maple and Tarragon, and Purée of Rutabaga with Sage and Fried Onions.

(Photo by Travis Rathbone)

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Comments

[bllnsinchnge]

09:51 PM on 11/22/2010

Nobody roasts whole wild turkeys, way to lean. They are most often ground into a sausage or made into turkey burger patties. This recipe was too low a heat for a lean meat anyway.

[Vickster]

12:33 AM on 11/23/2010

I've had a delicious wild turkey that was oven-roasted by a friend who is a professional chef. It can be done.

[Henk]

08:17 PM on 11/24/2010

Funny, I did one on the grill a last year, it turned out pretty well. Did a nice Apple Cide and dark beer brine. They have a lot more flavor then a bird that grows to weight in 10 to 12 weeks or whatever insanely short growing span they've bred into them.

[callmeslice23]

08:59 PM on 11/21/2010

That carved image is certainly NOT a wild turkey. There is not nearly that much "white" meat on a wild one.

That and they're extremely tough, hence why their populations have exploded. ( nobody hunts them and store quality is better ).

[Henk]

08:12 PM on 11/24/2010

Huh, I wonder why its so difficult to get a license to hunt them here in Minnesota if no one is hunting them?????

[c-tom]

07:50 PM on 11/21/2010

Nothing like hunting the wild Momofuku Milk Bar.