BY BILL ST. JOHN
Willie Bird fresh turkeys are a bird apart. Except when just hatched, they do not spend their lives in barns, so they live better lives and forage for much of their own nutritious (and flavor-building) fare.
"We've been raising turkeys since 1957," says Willie Benedetti, owner of Willie Bird Turkeys. "They've always been free-range, having a happy life, just roaming around.
"That makes for a better bird," he adds. "They exercise their muscles more that way, getting darker, more flavorful meat in their thighs. Their skin texture is better. And" — using a word that Mr. Benedetti would be wise to copyright, while sweeping his hand over his chest — "they get breastier."
You can order your fresh Willie Birds ranging from the 10-to-12-pound range to the 24-to-28-pound range. You can also order: (1) fully cooked Willie Birds (roasted or smoked), in the 10-to-13-pound range — just warm 'em and eat 'em; (2) our prepared Friendsgiving Kit for 4 to 6; (3) and you can order spatchcocking, where we remove almost all of the bones (wing bones and drumstick bones remain), which allows the turkey to lay flat and cook more evenly, and it carves WAY easier when spatchcocked; only fresh, whole turkeys can be spatchcocked, not cooked turkeys and not parts; (4) our market-made side dishes and pies, including stuffing, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin and pecan pies.
Order your Willie Bird using the buttons below the chart.
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Our Artisan Bread for November: Olive Fougasse
BY BILL ST. JOHN
The focal point of your Thanksgiving table will take on new meaning if you place there Marczyk Fine Foods' November Artisanal Bread of the Month: fougasse. The Latin word for the hearth of the home was "focus"—the home's center of attention—and the bread baked there, a thick flatbread, was the "panis focacius." You're hearing right if that sounds a lot like "focaccia" or, in French, "fougasse".
Bread as a focal point of the home, or here this Thanksgiving, of the table.
"Fougasse is something beautiful to add to such a festive table," says Marczyk's culinary director, Chef Jamey Fader. "It's bread as centerpiece; it shines on the rest of the table."
A fougasse resembles a focaccia scored to resemble a large, veined leaf, crisp of crust and soft of crumb. Marczyk's is studded with olives, in the French tradition. "We use kalamatas," says Fader. "They are winey, sour, tangy, a nice offset to the richness of the bread." Also in the French way, this fougasse is sprinkled with a modicum of herbes de Provence, for fougasse is a Provençal bread at hearth.
But the best facet of its shape, especially for a Thanksgiving table, is that it is meant not to be sliced so much as broken. "Tear off a piece," says Fader, "and pass it around."
"Breaking bread together," Fader reminds. That's fougasse.
Sandwich O’Clock is 10 minutes away
The above sandwich is our Turkey, Bacon & Avocado. It is a roadtrip-worthy sandwich that you can order right now and have it within 10 minutes. Add chips and a drink and save $2 off of your order.
Our BLT, which we call Notorious BLT, is perpetually punching above its weight class: How do we get so much flavor from five ingredients (including the bread)? It’s all about sourcing the perfect ingredients, from local tomatoes and lettuce, to Niman Ranch bacon, to bread we bake ourselves. You can order a Notorious BLT right now and have it in 10 minutes. Once again, add chips and a drink and save $2 off of your order.
Order any of our sandwiches using the buttons below; we’ll have it for you in 10 minutes.
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Marczyk Catering
What you see above is our Antipasto Platter, an amalgam of meats, cheeses, and additional delicacies such as artichoke hearts, dried tomatoes in olive oil, a selection of olives, and other lovelies that we may add. We slice all of the meats and cheeses to order and assemble each platter by hand. For our vegetable platters we cut whole heads of fresh broccoli and cauliflower, whole bell peppers and cucumbers, so you can truly enjoy their flavors. We challenge ourselves to source the most outstanding ingredients we can find. If you'd like to make an impression, aesthetically and gustatorily (such a strange word to mean “concerned with the sense of taste”), order one of our platters.
Need a gift card?
We sell physical gift cards in-store only, BUT we also have e-gift cards, so if you live in Kathmandu but your son, daughter, niece, nephew, or orangutan lives in or around Denver and likes to shop at Marczyk Fine Foods, you can have an e-gift card emailed or texted to them, or you can print it and send it via snail-mail. Just click on the button below to go to the e-gift card page. (Also, it doesn’t matter from which store you purchase an e-gift card; it all works out the same.)
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Are you wondering if we have guanciale, or what mustards we carry, or if we have real Parmigiano Reggiano? Just use these buttons to search our stores. If you still don’t find what you’re looking for, send us a message and we’ll let you know.
