The Kelly Bronze boasts an array of supporters, from Delia Smith to Gordon Ramsay, that fan the flames of its popularity and rightly so. Jamie Oliver is a great ambassador for the Kelly way of carving, too.
A visit to Kelly Turkey Farms in Essex is a reassuring one. The Kelly family has been rearing their remarkable and delectable strain of Bronze turkey in the traditional way for over 25 years. Founded by Derek and Mollie in 1971 and later joined by their son Paul – now Managing Director – the Kellys clearly know their turkeys. It didn’t take them too long to recognise that the British dining table could be better adorned by a better turkey than most were being offered, whether it’s at Christmas, Easter or any other time of year.
As is often heard, a happy, contented animal will invariably make for happy, contented eating. Kelly turkeys are all, without exception, free range – it was a lifestyle decision made for them by their owners way before most other producers chose this route. The birds here seem to have the run of the entire farm, roaming in the surrounding meadows and in the large expanses of woodland. At night, they retreat to open-sided barns to bed down in deep straw. They feed on cereals that, frankly, we humans enjoy: oats and barley, and the Kellys ensure the birds get the turkey equivalent of five-a-day. It’s enough to want to make you move there, it really is.
They grow slowly, maturing at a natural rate, putting on the weight and the necessary and healthy fat content with no artificial assistance for six months (about three months longer than an intensively reared standard white turkey). The tradition doesn’t stop there. Once the birds have met their maker, they are plucked by hand and hung, at low temperature, for 14 days - which is getting on for as long as any self-respecting beef farmer would hang his beasts.
The hanging is the final secret to the famed Kelly Bronze flavour. The time the turkey spends suspended, bald and ungutted, allows the natural enzymes do their benign best to the meat fibres and for some of the moisture to leave, thus intensifying the taste. And the fat deposits that only a naturally matured bird can brag about, ultimately add not only to the flavour, but to the basting process during cooking.
The Kellys’ love of their turkeys doesn’t stop at the oven door either. They haven’t spent a quarter of a century just raising the birds, they’ve also spent a lot of time making completely sure that every possible scrap of it is cooked, carved and presented in the best way possible. Indeed it was the late and hugely lamented Mollie Kelly who advocated the practise of roasting the bird breast down, to ensure that the fat bastes the breast and keeps it moist throughout the cooking process.
It’s worth taking note of the Kelly carving method. Never has so much meat been cut from one bird with such efficiency.
The Kelly Bronze boasts an array of supporters, from Delia Smith to Gordon Ramsay, that fan the flames of its popularity and rightly so. Jamie Oliver is a great ambassador for the Kelly way of carving, too.
And what’s more, you can order one of these well brought-up birds online at www.kellyturkeys.co.uk, and it’ll be delivered direct to you.