Illinois Thanksgiving 2025: Surprising Facts About Your Turkey

As my wife Amy and I were discussing our dinner plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving Day holiday, she suddenly looked at me and said "I feel like I should know this, but I don't...are the turkeys we have every year at Thanksgiving male or female turkeys?"

Being a man, I do sometimes suffer from something called "Male Answer Syndrome," or just "MAS." For those who don't know what MAS is, the best way to describe it is to call it a term that describes a situation where a man feels compelled to answer a question, even if he doesn’t know the answer, often confidently and at times, incorrectly.

Not this time, though. I fought off the MAS and just honestly told her that I don't know the answer to that question, and as a matter of fact, have never even thought about it once.

But, I promised to dig into it and get her (and you, if you care) an answer. So let's get to it.

So, Are We Dining On Male Or Female Turkeys At Our Thanksgiving Day Tables?

When you’re sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner in 3 weeks, chances are the turkey on your plate is going to be a female, or hen. 

According to the digging I did, most of the chefs who know about these things say that female turkeys are smaller, easier to cook, and have more consistent meat for roasting. Male turkeys, or toms, can get huge (50 to 70 pounds), and are usually reserved for very large gatherings or sold commercially frozen.

I also saw a couple of pieces that said you can tell the difference between the male and female turkey by the taste...which isn't quite the case.

Male turkeys have slightly darker meat and a touch more fat, making their meat a bit richer, while hens are milder and leaner. In most cases, your seasoning, stuffing, or brine will completely overpower any subtle differences. So whether your bird is a hen or a tom, nobody is really going to be able to tell.

Something Else You May Not Have Known Is That Illinois Is One Of Our Nation's Top Domestic Turkey Producing States

The top 5 domestic turkey producing states are:

1. Minnesota: The largest producer of turkeys in the US, contributing over 45% of the nation's total production
2. North Carolina
3. Arkansas
4. Missouri
5. Virginia

Illinois comes in anywhere from 6th place to 11th place overall in domestic turkey production, depending on the year. And let’s not forget the wild turkeys that are thriving here too, with over 100,000 calling the Land of Lincoln home. Northern Illinois is literally full of them, but they probably won’t make it to your dinner table.