Prasek's turkeys sold by Neiman Marcus
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Everyone in Wharton County knows you can find some of the best meats around at Prasek's Hillje Smokehouse.

And now the world will know it. Among the items found on the first page of this holiday season's Neiman Marcus mail-order catalog is a specialty herb-infused turkey specially prepared for the retail giant at Prasek's.

"It's an honor for us to not only make the turkeys for Neiman Marcus, but to be on the front page of the catalog," Mike Prasek Jr. said. "We prepared 500 turkeys for them this year."

This is the second year that Prasek's has prepared turkeys for the retail giant. Prasek said it took eight people approximately 12 hours to prepare the turkeys for this year's order.

"Last year, it took more time, but this year I think we've got the process down," he said. "The secret is in butter with the herb mixture we inject into the birds. You have to have it hot enough so you can inject it into birds without it being so hot that it burns the hands."

And when it comes to butter, the process uses a lot of it. Prasek estimated a pound of butter goes into the average bird.

"We start with the raw bird and then inject it, place it in a cooking bag and then vacuum seal it," he said. "It then goes into the ovens and cooks for eight hours and then is frozen. So after it goes into the bag, it's untouched until you carve it for serving.

"All you need to do then is re-heat it in the bag and you have a turkey with all the juices still in it. We guarantee a good, moist bird. The directions call for it to be heated with the breast down so it warms in its own juices."

Prasek said the Hillje processing company was hooked up with the retail giant by Billy Howell, a friend with contacts with Neiman's.

"He heard they were looking for someone who could do the work and Billy thought of us," Prasek said. "I think we had an advantage in that many of the large processing companies aren't interested in doing just 500 of anything. But we're big enough to fill an order like that."

The local company also has the expertise to do it better than originally planned.

"They sent us the herb mix they wanted to use," Prasek said.

"But we thought we could improve on it. We'd make a few changes and send it to them for a taste test and they'd send back their impression. We had a few exchanges like that before we settled on the current mix, which we consider to be about perfect. We're working on a version for local sales, but right now don't have enough room in our displays to keep many on hand."

While the company has been doing specialty products for area residents and visitors for years, doing specialty work for catalog companies is relatively new starting with the Neiman Marcus catalog. But it's an aspect of the business that is growing.

"We've been contacted by Cabela's, a hunting and fishing chain, about doing a stuffed quail," Prasek said.

"Billy Howell has put us in contact with several companies about potential specialty products. But having something being distributed by Neiman Marcus gives us a certain legitimacy. And we're getting contacts through word-of-mouth. The publicity alone of working with Neiman's would be well worth the investment even if we weren't making a profit from it."

But the bottom line for any business is making money and by injecting its special herb-butter mix into turkeys, Prasek's is also injecting money into the local economy. "This is money that comes into the community from the outside," Prasek said. "And that helps everyone. Our employees are spending that money at local stores and businesses which means everyone benefits." And more specialty orders also means more jobs.

"At this time last year we had 110 employees and now we're up to 135," Prasek said.

"There's a lot of pride in being able to create jobs so that people who grew up here have an opportunity to live and raise their families here and give their kids a chance to grow up in our community."