What does it mean when a turkey is white?

When the turkey gets flustered, the blood vessels contract, exposing more of the collagen bands. This changes the way that incoming light scatters and reflects off of the turkey’s skin, causing it to appear blue or white.

Is a white turkey rare?

According to DNR biologists, white turkeys are rare — but depending on what kind of white. It’s estimated about 1 in 100 wild turkeys are considered smoke gray, while true albino turkeys are one in 100,000.

Is wild turkey meat white or dark?

Meat is muscle. Domestic turkeys are too fat to fly, so they don’t use their breast muscles much, which is why breast meat is white. The breast of a wild turkey is entirely different, darker (and far tastier for those who are game).

Are white turkeys albino?

It has a condition that renders it mostly white. Researchers estimate one in 100,000 wild turkeys will have the condition. They are not albinos. All domestic turkeys are white and the wild turkey can carry a recessive gene that causes the mostly white coloration.

What is the purpose of a turkey snood?

According to some studies, the part atop a turkey’s beak, called a “snood,” helps hens determine which toms to mate with. The longer the snood, the better the genes. Wattles, which hang below turkeys’ chins, also come into play during the mating process.

What percentage of turkeys are white?

A 15 pound turkey usually has about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark meat.

How common is a white turkey?

Is wild turkey better than store bought?

Short answer: No. The wild turkey tastes different than the domestic turkey. According to Exotic Meats USA, “Wild turkey are smaller and have darker meat, richer, more intense flavor, and firmer texture than domestic turkey. “The breast, being smaller, tends to cook faster than legs or thighs.

Why do turkeys have white and dark meat?

In a turkey the active muscles such as the legs store a lot of oxygen and become dark, while less active muscles like the breast remain white. The Beltsville Small White turkey was bred to have lots of breast meat. The more myoglobin the muscles contain, the darker the muscle.

What kind of color does a wild turkey have?

“Probably the most common wild turkey color phase is the smoke phase,” Hatfield said. “Its mutation is based on the fact that it has no brown pigments within its feathers. Coloration varies, but white is typically the dominant tone with black and dark gray contrasting tones, especially on the back, wings and tail feathers.”

Can you cook a Turkey with white meat?

Most hunters just end up harvesting the white meat (breasts) of a bird and leaving pounds of otherwise perfectly good meat in the field because they don’t know how to cook it. There are so many different things that can hurt a wild turkey during the cooking process that leaves many hunters to not even try to whole roast a bird.

What’s the difference between a store bought Turkey and a wild turkey?

Here are a few differences between a store-bought bird and its free-running brother. Most hunters just end up harvesting the white meat (breasts) of a bird and leaving pounds of otherwise perfectly good meat in the field because they don’t know how to cook it.

Where do wild turkeys live in the wild?

Because wild turkeys don’t migrate, in snowier parts of the species’s habitat like the Northeast, Rockies, much of Canada, and the Midwest, it is very important for this bird to learn to select large conifer trees where they can fly onto the branches and shelter from blizzards.