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Thanksgiving dinner may be rooted in tradition, but as the holiday evolves, some trendy turkeys may be hitting tables this year.

Those who lack their mama's patience for doting over a slow-roasting oven for hours may prefer to dunk their bird in a vat of searing cooking oil for about 20 minutes. The result is a deep-fried turkey.

For three years, Mark Bucher, founder of BGR the Burger Joint, has invited the community to bring a fully thawed turkey to his Bethesda location to have it deep fried for free.

"We do it out of the goodness of our hearts. It's dangerous," Bucher said. "Frying a turkey is very dangerous."

Bucher uses the restaurant's two fryers and brings in two more for the event. Guests are invited to hang out inside the restaurant, which is closed for the holiday, while Bucher deep fries turkeys four at a time.

The word-of mouth gathering has grown significantly since it started, Bucher said. Last year he had about 50 people, and this year he is bracing for up to 100 people in what he said has become a community gathering.

Bucher thinks the deep-frying revolution has become more popular as people are looking to break away from tradition, but advises people not to try it at home unless they know what they are doing.

Hungry for heritage

But not everyone is jumping on the deep-frying bandwagon.

For Brian Patterson, L'Academie de Cuisine instructor and food reviewer for The Gazette, quality and classic techniques always trump the latest "gimmicks and shortcuts."

Smoking the turkey over a low fire or immersing it in a brine before roasting are two classic cooking methods that are back in vogue, Patterson said.

"We're seeing a movement more to what is classic and reaching back to our heritage, proper techniques, and what is best for the bird," Patterson said. "Any cook worth their salt should not think, ‘What is the trendiest, latest thing?' but what is the best thing to do for the bird."

How and where turkeys are raised is becoming more of an issue for some customers in Montgomery County, said Mike Heyser, owner of Heyser Farms in Silver Spring.

Heyser gets his 12- to 20-pound turkeys from an organic farm in Pennsylvania and sells them for about $3.50 a pound.

Customers are willing to pay a little more for a higher-quality turkey, he said.

Heyser has found that his customers care about freshness, and turkeys bought through his farm are ready to be served for dinner within two days of being slaughtered.

Posh breeds of turkeys known as "heritage turkeys" have become jewels of the organic turkey community, Heyser said. The 10 Bourbon Red heritage turkeys he had available on his farm this year sold quickly.

Heritage turkeys are the colorful iconic turkeys that were the staple breed used for Thanksgiving dinner, but have been pushed out of the market by mass-produced wide-breasted white turkeys, said Andrea Trabucco, an employee with Heritage Foods USA, a mail-order supplier of heritage turkeys. They ship across the country, and are sold out.

Breeds of Heritage Turkeys include the Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Spanish Black, White Holland and more, Trabucco said. They are more expensive and rare because few farms sell them, they don't grow as big, and they require more care.

Large, wide-breasted white turkeys still have mass appeal, said Butterball Turkey Talk expert Marty Van Ness.

An easy and trendy carving method Van Ness recommended is to remove the turkey breasts and then make cross-cuts so every piece has a little bit of skin on it.

Regionally, some families may utilize local foods to add a special glaze or flourish to accompany their Thanksgiving turkey, said Sherrie Rosenblatt a spokeswoman for National Turkey Federation, based in Washington, D.C.

Families in California and Florida may be more apt to use a citrus glaze, those in the Southwest have been known to add peppers or spices and families on the East Coast may incorporate pumpkin or maple syrup, Rosenblatt said.

The National Turkey Federation has found that trends come and go, but most families have their own special traditions.

"Thanksgiving is very much a traditional holiday and people tend to do what their moms and grandmas did," Rosenblatt said.

ccalamaio@gazette.net