Christmas is in the cooler!

[NevadaRon]

Christmas, my BBB hen, is now resting comfortably in the cooler! She dressed out at 22 lbs. This is my second go at a home raised turkey. Her "brother", Thanksgiving, weighed in at just over 36 lbs. This girl should be easier to handle - we had to cut him in half and cook each half separately!

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

Quote:

Nothing like naming them for the part . . .

 

[SmokinChick]

How old were they?
Love to try this next year.

 

[blue lotus]

Yum! Our Christmas is going to start hanging out in the brine tomorrow or Thursday.

 

[Kelsey2017]

Congrats! We only raised 3 for butcher this year, being new to turkeys but WOW! They are amazing, we did BR and they made nice 15lb roasting birds. I love Turkeys, they are really tasty and fun. WTG!

 

[blue lotus]

Our slate is going to be huge!! We put him in the cooler this afternoon, where he will rest until ready for the brine on Friday. I am already looking forward to that gravy. Mmmmmmm.....

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Good stuff, growing your own holiday bird is rewarding.

I put some extra Narraganset toms in the fridge last night. They were about 9 months old and dressed out at 15lb each +/- a pound. Sure much slower growing than the BB varieties and a PITA to pluck even with a plucker, I was not a pleasent plucker...

Can't wait to see how they stack up taste wise, Hams from this years hogs go on the smoker tomorrow morning. Everything for christmass dinner but the cranberries will be from the land we live on, life is good.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
I find turkeys very easy to pluck. I use my 80qt crawfish pot at 145 degs. Dunk the bird under the water until I can easily pull a primary wing feather. Pull it out and cool it quickly with the hose. Frethers roll off so easy.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Thats exactly what I did, but aimed for 150f in a 25gal trash can. The BBW I did for thanksgiving were easy to pluck about the same as white broiler chickens. But the heritage turkeys were a different story, lots of little black pin feathers and stubbs that needed pulling with needle nose pliers.

 

[Kelsey2017]

We did ours over the fire in a trash can. I had help to pluck but it went way faster then the broilers. I got started right off with stripping the wing tips and tail of the big feathers and my neighbor worked on the body. Took no more than 5 mins. Very few dark pins on the BR. We did two Toms that day that dressed out at 15#. They were born on 4/29 and butchered two days before Thanksgiving. That is salt and pepper in the picture not pinfeathers!