Ground turkey meat questions

[Serina81]

How many turkeys does it take to get ground turkey meat? Not a joke actually. I have a client who wants big orders of ground turkey meat so I'm excited. How do you process the turkey to get this product (as in what parts do you use, how do you remove the meat, etc.)? And how many pounds do you get per pound of turkey? I'm raising heritage/pasture raised birds.

Thanks!!!!

 

[Oregon Blues]

The commercial ground turkey is ground whole and then the bone chips are sieved out. Which is why I won't buy commercial ground turkey. It always tastes like it has sand in it.

You'd debone the meat and then put it through the grinder. Bones could be used to make an excellent broth and you might easily find a market for that, especially at Thanksgiving time, since broth is needed for stuffing.

As for how much meat, a lot is going to depend upon how good you are at deboning. One of the University sites probably has meat to bone ratios, but unless you are really good at deboning, you won't get all the meat.

Also, if I had a customer for ground turkey, he wouldn't necessarily be getting ground breast meat. Because I could sell the breasts as roasts and deli style sandwich meat. The ground meat would be mostly legs and thighs.

 

[jasonm11]

sounds like a labor intensive project.