The Turkey Book: An Essential for Those Who Love America’s Favorite Gamebird and Those Who Don’t Know It Yet

The first person who killed a wild turkey thousands of years ago did so more than likely because that person wanted to eat that bird. Appreciating the many ways to use the feathers and bones, fascinating over the bird’s behavior, conserving the bird for future use, telling stories of the hunt, and learning more about oneself – it all stemmed from the desire to eat that bird.

Through a well-told narrative across various corners of the country,The Turkey Book illustrates the fascinating relationship between eating wild turkeys and everything else hunting them entails.

While food is the heart of The Turkey Book, Griffith is not afraid to veer off and showcase other areas of what it means to be a turkey hunter, from the pipe made out of a turkey leg, to how Griffiths and his friend managed the property before determining it was okay to hunt turkeys on it:

“First, we waged war on raccoons… Lastly, we simply never killed turkeys.”

Categorized by the species of tree we often sit upon when hunting turkeys, the book follows Griffith and his buddies on a single-spring season journey sitting upon the oaks of Texas, the Eastern Pines of southeastern Georgia, the Western Pines of Oregon and the northern hardwoods that speckle Connecticut.

The book artfully intertwines Griffiths' wild turkey accounts with over 100 wide-ranging recipes. For instance:

“We pull into the bunkhouse, unpack, settle in and head to the kitchen for a late lunch before scouting roosts and drinking cocktails from a high point above the lake. I am making fried turkey with the very last bit of frozen breast from the previous season as an offering, a way to remind us of our goals through consumption.”

What follows within a few page turns is a recipe for fried wild turkey and another recipe for Griffiths’ spicy El Camposanto, a margarita derivative made from the chiltepins (also called the turkey pepper, named for the bird’s fondness for eating them) that grow wildly adjacent to a roost site.

And yes, other recipes utilize the turkey pepper, including Griffiths’ turkey pepper vinegar, turkey pepper and tomato salsa, turkey pepper salt, and hot honey infused with heat from turkey peppers. This is The Turkey Book after all.

The Turkey Book also isn’t afraid to simply interject some interesting information among the stories and recipes, be it how to catch a crappie on a turkey-feather jig, effective and thoughtful methods for butchering a bird, a captivating picture or simply a good quote, be it from Ben Franklin or the punk band the Dead Kennedys.

Reading the turkey book is informative, engaging and will make you yearn for the delicacy that is wild turkey, no matter what cultural or regional influence inspires the way it is served, because they’re all good. The Turkey Book is a reminder about the importance of the life lessons we learn in the field and how we manifest those stories into something material, whether it is a recipe, practical knowledge, inspiration, a story or a book full of them.