Buzz
Turkey sandwiches. Turkey soup. Roasted turkey. This year, Americans will devour around 245 million turkeys, with 46 million making their way to Thanksgiving feasts. What’s left behind often becomes tomorrow’s leftovers.
But there’s one part of the turkey that almost no one will serve: the tail.
Despite the nation’s love for devouring, carving, and cooking turkeys, we typically avoid the rich, fatty tail. According to Michael Carolan, sociology professor and associate dean for research at Colorado State University’s College for Liberal Arts, this may stem from how Americans have historically viewed turkeys. Before World War II, turkey was rarely consumed. When turkeys became more common, there was no demand for the tail since it had never been part of the meal.
"Turkey tails never really aligned with our growing obsession with white meat," Carolan explains to Mytour. "From a marketing and processing perspective, if consumers were simply going to toss the tail or wouldn’t miss it, suppliers saw an opportunity to profit further."
Indeed, the fact that Americans weren’t fond of turkey tails didn’t stop the poultry industry from making a move. In the 1950s, turkey tails were being shipped to Pacific Island buyers. Packed with protein and fat—a turkey tail is actually a gland producing oil for grooming—suppliers turned a discarded part into profit. Once introduced, it became a popular item.
"By 2007," Carolan notes, "the average Samoan was consuming over 44 pounds of turkey tails annually." Notably, Samoans have one of the highest obesity rates globally, with 75 percent affected. To combat this, turkey tail imports were banned from 2007 to 2013, a move later challenged as a violation of World Trade Organization rules.
With tradition blending with business, poultry suppliers have little incentive to shift domestic demand for turkey tails. Carolan recounts that while researching the missing delicacy, he searched high and low before finding a batch of tails at Whole Foods, soon to be thrown out. "You can’t expect people to embrace it if they can’t even find it!"
Unless the meat industry launches a significant effort to change American preferences, Thanksgiving will continue to feature turkeys missing one of their juicier parts.
