D-day for the big male Turkey

[elmacri]

I have chickens, ducks, geese and then last spring i thought i would buy two turkeys whilst in the farm shop.
The man said, black or white........."ermmmm one of each thanks" came my reply.
Knowing nothing about turkeys it didn´t even enter my brain that they would be different breeds etc.
So Christmas came and went and i didn´t kill them because amazingly we had a male and a female......What luck i thought !! we could breed them this Spring.

Well to cut a long story short i had a big white male was what the Spanish call a fattening turkey. They grow really quickly for farm production meat and a black female . So two totally different breeds. haha

This last week he has been trying to mount his lovely lady but being so big he was ripping her back quite badly. Also he wanted to mount the geese and ducks too.

Looking on line and asking locals it turns out that they can´t reproduce on their own and farmers have to collect seman and artificially inseminate the hens.

Cound´t really see myself doing that. haha.

So this morning i asked a Spanish friend to come along and help me. My Husband doesn´t like it so its usually left to me but being so big i needed help.


it took 2 hours to kill and clean and a further 3 hours for me to chop wash and freeze. It weighted in at a WHOPPING 30 kilos.
I have a feeling that we might be eating a lot of turkey over the next month.

I will buy turkeys again but i will kill them a lot earlier, this male was 9 months. Also as i still have the female i might try and get another black but hope its a male for her.

 

[booker81]

Nice job - though 66lbs of turkey is a LOT of turkey to deal with!

Hopefully you can find a new mate for your hen turkey - I can imagine her back was getting torn up from his mating attempts!

That's a BIG turkey - did you take any pictures?

 

[TedsFarms]

wow, that is huge. I can only imagine on how to cook it.

 

[Life is Good!]

Holy Moley that's a LOT of bird! Good grief, how on earth did you manage to pluck ALL those feathers?! I cannot imagine.

Roast turkey
Turkey stew
Turkey and dumplings
Sliced turkey for sandwiches
Turkey tettrazini
Turkey and cranberries
Turkey and walnut casserole

Hmmmm, those are a few that come to mind! But still, that's a LOT of turkey. Hope your hen isn't too lonely, and that she heals quickly!

 

[elmacri]

@ booker81 I didn´t take any pictures no. i only have pictures of when he was alive. Shame really as it really was the biggest turkey i have ever seen.

@ Life is Good! we didn´t pluck the Turkey as we knew he was so big that i wouldn´t be able to cook him whole. You would need some type of industrial oven to fit him in. We skinned and the feather come off with the skin that Way. Saying that though it still took a long time. The skin was very hard to separate and tough. The meat however was not tough. We had some for lunch yesterday before freezing the rest.
I am going to see if i can get another this week for the female as she is sad he has gone even though she has lots of animals around her.
in fact i´ll get two and hopefully one will be male.

 

[Oregon Blues]

My family wouldn't have any problem eating 30 kilos of turkey, but not all at once. But frozen in parts, so it can be cooked in pieces? Oh yes, bring it on.

I like to cook just a breast and use it cold for sandwich meat ( Turkey on sour dough with a sweet gherkin and lots of mayonnaise, drool). A thigh in the barbecue, yum! I love the wings roasted until they are crispy brown.