Turkey mania for Thanksgiving

Matt Unrau

“It all starts with having a good turkey,” says Mike Frey, owner of Clark Fork Custom Meats outside of Plains, and the turkeys that he sells that are widely popular around the area are Hutterite Turkeys.

Although Frey, who owns the Butcher’s Nook in Plains where many of the orders are taken, is Mennonite he says he started selling the turkeys after the Hutterites pitched him the idea and he sells more every year.

Over in the Butcher’s Nook Manager Chris Borntreger holds a clipboard with more than 60 orders for the coveted turkey. The orders come from all over the region including some from Superior and St. Regis in Mineral County, and Thompson Falls and Plains in Sanders. Frey says the turkeys that are only available over the Holiday season is a big hit since they are free-range bird with zero additives.

On top of the regular Hutterite Turkey, Frey offers an alternative that he dubs their specialty, smoked Hutterite Turkeys. “They (the Hutterites) have a very good product. We smoke a lot of them and they turn out excellent,” says Frey.

It’s a simple process to turn the turkeys into a cooked smoke flavored item. After receiving the turkeys from the Birch Creek Colony in the town of Valier near Shelby and Conrad, Frey unpackage the turkeys and remove their liver, neck and gizzard. After this they pump them with poultry cure and place them in the vaccumm tumbler, which tumbles them with juices. This is followed by a two-day soak for the birds, upon which they are finally ready for the smokehouse.

“It’s like a big convention oven with smoke flavor,” says Frey who wheels dozens of turkeys hanging from racks into the giant-sized oven where they cook for several hours. As for the flavor, Frey uses hickory chips to smoke the turkeys into a Thanksgiving feast. Although, his smokehouse does turn the turkey in a cooked product, Frey recommends that buyers bake their turkeys for another two hours at at 350 degrees in order to “help the meat fall off the bone.”

Although, turkeys are generally thought of as exclusively a Thanksgiving meal Clark Fork Custom Meats will be busy until the first of January filling out orders for turkeys and processing wild game from the hunting season. Starting with the Sanders County Fair it’s the busiest time of year for Frey who says his workers are putting in 50 to 60 hours a week with him putting even more time at the shop than that.

“You’re doing as much as you can and trying to jam as many hours into the day as you can,” says Frey.

Despite the work Frey and his family will at least have this weekend to taste the fruits of their labor as the get to dive into one of their smoked turkeys.

“We all enjoy them. We always end up eating several over the holidays,” says Frey. “I like fresh turkeys, but it’s hard to beat a smoked turkey.” As for recipes Frey prefers the traditional smoked turkey dinner, but relishes the leftovers that he can make into sandwhiches. He says that on Friday his family will usually go hunting and they like to pack out turkey sandwhiches for the day.