Like the modern beef cattle and the chicken, the turkey is now a monster. If it could talk, one would expect it to barely audibly whisper "kill me", like in Aliens. This turkey, however, I may look into next year.
But the Spanish Black was miles above the white... ...even though we brined the white. Spanish Black is like eating pheasant. It's fucking delicious. The drumsticks actually have those groovy "not-bones" you get in muscle when you actually use it, like you see on game. We had a 12 lb turkey and a 11 lb turkey and 15 people over. And the turkey was gone by Friday afternoon. My dad's girlfriend ate four wings, right there at the table.
I cooked a turkey in college and injected it with blueberry chutney before hand. It was delicious but all the meat was a purply blue color. -a bit off puting. The brineing is a good call.
The cheap years suck. [edit] I've never had a "Spanish Black" or a California raised turkey but I've enjoyed some nice, humanely raised farm raised local Toms. -Fine stuff.