On hunting vs. buying turkey: Why preferences may be generational

Let’s talk turkey. Can a turkey get its due in today’s world?

This is a legitimate worry. With the hundreds of food safety warnings issued about Thanksgiving, online turkey cooking hints and even a phone-in hotline for overwhelmed cooks, it’s a wonder anyone eats turkey, ever.

Note: I know nothing about preparations needed for a turkey "hunt" or the supposed satisfaction in securing a turkey in the wild.

Instead, we’ll get our ducks in a row and focus on safety precautions and steps a cook should consider in preparing the turkey for the oven.

My resources are the internet and two cookbooks from my mother.

The internet warns, “turkey and its juice can be contaminated with germs that can make you and your family sick. ... turkey can contain salmonella, clostridium perfringens, campylobacter and other germs.” Eaters beware.

In one cookbook, the "hostess" is alerted to myriad decisions to be made at the point of buying the bird in the first place. Reading through these and checking off the boxes is time-consuming.

Now, this is wild. The turkey is a symbol of hospitality, the cookbook says, “since peacocks and pheasants first graced formal feasts, the fowls have been appropriate sacrifices for festive occasions.”

“Make sure that guests will like the gamey flavor of the main course before building a dinner around wild duck, pheasant, squirrel or rabbit.”

In much-too-much detail, this cookbook explains shopping for poultry. “In selecting full-grown poultry look for a soft smooth skin with no blemishes, short legs and short sharp claws, flexible breastbone, plump breast, back and thighs well covered with fat.”

It says to “ask the butcher to remove the head, feet and entrails.”

This cookbook can teach you how to clean, truss, draw and cut up a turkey. Imagine the satisfaction one can get from preparing a bird for frying, fricassee, braising, smothering or broiling.

Bon appetit! The cook can set a beautiful table and serve the bird Italian style; steamed; stewed; a la king; El Capitan or Neptune with oysters, crab meat or shrimp.

It's easy to figure out the "Woman’s Home Companion Cookbook" is a throwback to cooking adventures of days gone by.

The updated "Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook," seventh printing, touts its recipes are perfected in test kitchens. Overall, this book seems like a more reasonable approach to cooking a turkey.

Nonetheless, it advises, the cook to “kill 6 to 12 hours before canning; bleed well; chill; cold pack’’ and so on. The book shares book details on how to prepare oven-fried, roast-stuffed, rotisserie or salad turkey. There’s a doneness test and guidelines on carving the bird and freezing turkey. This cookbook seems to suggest a hostess be thoroughly versed on everything about tom turkey before preparing it.

Wonder if any cookbooks speak to Generations X, Z and the new alphas? Today, I simply prefer my X or Z friends to do the cooking, get the accolades on Thanksgiving Day and assume the risk.

Andrea Chancellor has more than 20 years' experience in newspaper and magazine journalism, and 20 years in corporate public relations.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: What you need to know about hunting versus buying turkey