The Battle for Thanksgiving Heats Up

Some say the holiday demands a turkey. Others argue that something a little wilder should command the center of the table. Two opinionated cooks throw down and offer up the country’s best sources for buying a turkey—or replacing it

Elizabeth G. Dunn and

Matthew Kronsberg

Updated Oct. 31, 2018 9:24 a.m. ET

THANKSGIVING CAN BE a massive cornucopia of angst. You arrive at the day with a full-blown case of PSTD (Pumpkin Spice Toxicity Disorder). During the meal you’re baited into political arguments in which victory is pyrrhic at best. Do we really need to pile on even one more element of agita?

Many people would say yes. Your turkey, they want you to believe, is inauthentic, insipid or just plain boring. They want you to think hard about replacing the bird Ben Franklin called a “true original Native of America…a Bird of Courage,”...