# TURKEY WHY IS THE MEAT ON SOME TURKEY LEGS RED ?



## keelenorth (Aug 12, 2003)

Hi I work in a collage cafeteria , It being Thanksgiving on Monday for us here in Canada the kitchen is having a turkey dinner, the turkeys they biught were all trust up in mnetting did not look like turkeys at all and after they were finished cooking and were carving the birds I noticed that the meat on the legs was more of a red color and not turkey like at all(Turned me right Off ) CAn anyone tell me why is meat is like that ?


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Myoglobin.

BDL


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

The bones of the turkey probably weren't fully hardened as they were slaughtered young. So the myoglobin leaches out into the meat during cooking. Same thing as with chicken.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

This is the new problem that was discussed a few weeks ago but in chicken. Excluding the under-cooking factor, the only other thing is like the chickens, the turkeys are being force fed and slaughtered very young and the bone structure has not been allowed to develop. The industry should,  but is not educating the public re. this and it posses a problem for us. The customer tells us it's raw when it isn't.

Like comparing a baby to an adult .Baby bones are softer and lighter color.  and not developed where adults are fully developed darker and more brittle. When I cut veal it is bright red near bone joints where adult cows are not as red.


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