A Failed Culinary Experiment: Ground Turkey Spaghetti

[peeplj]

In an effort to try to cook with at least a nod towards current notions of healthy eating, my wife and I cooked up and tried spaghetti using ground turkey instead of ground beef.

The result: edible to a degree, but with a horrendous aftertaste. I don't believe we'll be trying ground turkey again.

Turkey may be healthier...definitely it will cause you to eat smaller portions as that raunchy aftertaste grows and grows. But I believe we'll stick with beef at this point.

--James

P.S. Now a big ole turkey, cooked right, either fried or baked and liberally basted with butter...that's good eating.

[Walden]

Yeah, with ground turkey it helps to overcook it to the point that the turkey taste is gone, if you are using it in place of hamburger meat.

[BillChin]

I eat most things, and I've tried some different toppings with pasta including:
tuna fish and ranch dressing (pretty good and very easy)
sausage and sauce (close to traditional)
anchovies (not for those with weak stomachs)
salsa instead of spaghetti sauce (good if you like salsa)
I've tried turkey and it is okay
+ Bill

[izzarina]

P.S. Now a big ole turkey, cooked right, either fried or baked and liberally basted with butter...that's good eating.

Someone had better warn cran not to read this thread

[brewerpaul]

Hmmmm-- we use ground turkey all the time in spaghetti sauce and love it. I do tend to cook it fairly well done and drain off the juice after cooking the meat. I also season my sauces pretty highly with lots of onion, garlic, herbs and cheese.
In fact we use ground turkey for just about everything: burgers, meatloaf, etc. No, it's not beef, but with a family history of heart disease, I can live with the difference.

[Dale]

We use a lot of ground turkey. My wife likes it. I don't. So it goes.

[jen f]

I once tried ground turkey to make tacos. Even with the intense flavors of the taco seasoning, there was still this very definite turkey taste coming through. I haven't tried it since.

Now a big ole turkey, cooked right, either fried or baked and liberally basted with butter...that's good eating.

How about smoked? David makes an awesome smoked turkey breast.

[chas]

The thing to do with ground turkey is koftas, Indian meatballs. I do a modified version; the real thing doesn't normally include eggs and breadcrumbs. Mix together a pound or two of ground turkey or chicken; an egg, a cup of breadcrumbs, a few tbsp of yogurt, and spices (turmeric, cayenne, fennel seeds, ginger, cinnamon, fennugreek; or just sub your favorite curry powder). Brown an onion in some oil, add some fresh ginger, garlic, spices (cumin, fennugreek, cardamom pods, paprika, etc.), then add yogurt a heaping tsp at a time and whisk till it's incorporated. Add about 2-3 tsp salt and a couple of cups water, then make a bunch of elongated meatballs and add them to the broth. Cook till the broth is cooked down, at least half an hour.

Serve with aromatic yellow rice. This is one of the best meals I make.

[Lambchop]

James, you have my sympathies. I totally agree with you--ground turkey is foul. Urgh. I'm not sure where that aftertaste comes from, either. Some brands are worse than others, too.

Last Wednesday, as you may recall, was Adminstrative Professionals Day. Our AP's birthday happened to be on Friday, as well, and someone retired on Thursday, so we had three days worth of shindig. The eating was good.

On Thursday, there was an aluminum roasting pan full of something that looked like turkey wings--roasted, I thought, and cut up with some kind of gravy poured over them, and a huge vat of white rice. Eww. Pieces of bones everywhere. An unusual-looking morass. I broke off what I thought might be meat with the serving utensil, carefully scraping off the gravy and skin, pushing aside the bones, and avoiding the rice. Eh. Piece of turkey.

On Friday, I cruised by the breakroom to see what might be new. Several cakes, a lot of pastry, and other assorted sweets. In the fridge, there was that turkey stuff still. Clearly, nobody had wanted it. There was a large mass of congealed meat sitting on rice. Solid. And there wasn't much else left. I'd gotten there too late. Nothing to do but try to excavate some meat off that turkey.

No utensils, either, so I carefully pried off a bit with my fingers, and was instantly discovered doing so. Someone gave me a fork and then everyone stood there waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting for me to get done and go back to my office . . . with these little pouty expressions. I sensed a little hostility, but wasn't really sure where it came from.

Took my three little bits of turkey and some rice back to my office and nuked them, expecting to find an ounce or two of edible meat in it after the congealed goo melted. Carefully, I began scraping everything off the meat. I was in a bit of a rush, though, and somehow managed to get some of that gravy in my mouth.

What a rush! I tell you, I have never eaten such heavenly stuff in my life. It wasn't just finger-lickin' good . . . it was bone-sucking good. I had really screwed up the day before when I scraped off the skin and the gravy. Seriously screwed up. (Probably also screwed up by passing on the collard greens that went with it!)

Everything just melted in my mouth. Literally. You hear that, but you don't really know what it means. Now, after that turkey, I know! I can't even describe the flavor. It was vaguely roast turkey, but mushroomy and smooth and perfectly seasoned. I can't describe the taste. Even the rice was to die for. You know those parts of turkey wings that nobody ever eats? You think you can't? They just melted away.

When I finished, there was a little pile of chewed-clean bone bits on a licked-clean plate. Seriously. Like something you'd see at an archaeological dig.

I was still ravenous, so I made a beeline back to the break room in the next building to have another go at that turkey.

It was all gone. Every bit. That had apparently been what everyone was waiting for and why they all had the pouty expressions--I had been hitting on their lunch.

The lady who made it has been out for a few days, but I'm demanding to know what it is and how to make it first thing tomorrow. Pray that she gives it to me!

[emmline]

I recommend crumbled Boca burger...or even chopped pecans.
Mostly though, I use Nate's Zesty Italian Meatless Meatballs.

[Walden]

Pecans in spaghetti sauce? That's a little much for me to contemplate.

[Wombat]

Wait a minute. I don't get it. Which of the many pasta sauces does turkey taste bad in? All of them?

[TelegramSam]

Ground deer is a good low-fat beef substitute, at least during hunting season. If you're into that sort of thing, anyway. You do have to add in a bit of fat of some sort (usually by mixing a small amount of beef in actually) to get it to brown, though, because it *is* that lean.

[Darwin]

I've pretty much lost my taste for turkey in any form.

There are other odd things that can be done with spaghetti. During my first tour in Japan, some friends and I were out driving around and we stopped at a small restaurant. We all ordered various Japanese dishes, except for one guy who decided that he wanted spaghetti. I tried to warn him that it might not be a good idea, but he didn't listen. The tomato-based sauce looked normal enough when it arrived, but his first bite went spewing back onto the plate. He just wasn't prepared for tuna in place of ground beef.

[Walden]

Wait a minute. I don't get it. Which of the many pasta sauces does turkey taste bad in? All of them?

Probably tomato-based sauces. Actually, I find it to taste fine in some spagetti sauces, but generally, my approach to foods is not to try and pretend one thing is another. I'd rather enjoy greens as greens and breads as breads and so forth. I'd rather eat beef as beef and poultry as poultry.