dispatching a *large* turkey [GRAPHIC PIC]

[patandchickens]

I just finished processing my 3 five month old BBB (using a setup very similar to Buster's -- I ran the rope over the beam at the doorway from their run to the pasture).

I let one turkey at a time out into the run, put a feedbag with a small hole in one corner over its head, used the feedbag to 'steer' him or her to the end of the run with the rope, then tied the feet and suspended the turkey. As Buster says, next to no struggles. Whacked 'em hard on the head with a hammer then slit the throat, held the bird still til the throes were over, then dry-plucked it there (only b/c nothing large enough to scald them in).

One person, three big turkeys, three hours. (Plus 45 minutes spent trying to figure out where on earth to PUT the carcasses afterwards -- I finally made room for 2 in the fridge, the other is in a cooler with lots of ice).

I will never, ever, EVER raise turkeys this big again; no more broad-breasted for me, and no more letting them go to 40-50 lbs "because they're so nice and friendly and it's not Fall yet".

SMALLER breeds. Oh, my aching back.

I parted out the tom, as he's too large for my fridge let alone oven -- his bone-in breast *alone* exceeds my kitchen scale's 15 lb capacity. I tried skinning him (except I plucked the breast so it could have the skin on) and cutting him up on the cleaning table -- big mistake, it took forever. Who knew turkeys were so hard to skin! Sheesh. I should have plucked him then cut him up. Live and learn.

I have to buy a more accurate bathroom scale tomorrow to weigh the birds before I can report cleaned weights

Thanks very much to Buster for posting his setup!

Pat

 

[Sam208]

nice bird


sam

 

[wilds of pa]

I can do 5 turkeys in a hour extra large or large.. time and experience makes things easy.. cut the bird right in half with a meat saw or make all boneless meat or one can package it breast, leg thigh etc just like in a super market, cook the carcass for good stock and make some BBQ turkey from the pickings..

When i butcher turkeys i use a big stump with two spikes in to hold the head still, small rope tied to the legs with a 3 foot piece of rebar in the ground so the bird doesn't flop all over, i grab the bird by the legs and whack them with a good sharp mini axe..its over in second flat..

Best thing is to scald the bird in simmering water, feathers come out fairly easy..been doing turkeys for about 27 years from wild birds to raised birds..

 

[Buster52]

Thanks for all the kind words, folks. I didn't mean for him to get this big. I just kept putting off the day till he did.

Jaku, I have no idea how to cook a bird this big, but that's not my department anyway. DW insists she can handle it just fine, and it does fit in our oven... barely.

He dressed out to 38.6 pounds, which at least SOUNDS better than 50.

Patandchickens, I'm glad you got it done. You have given me several ideas. His pal is due to go this weekend, and he clocks in at 42 pounds, so using your techniques along with the ones I used should make it much easier. Yes, I found out the hard way skinning a turkey is much much different from skinning a chicken. We will definitely be dry plucking this time. That's how the old timers did it, so we are going to give it a shot. As I was skinning it, that wrestling match brought me to grab a handful of feathers and they came right out. My thinking is if I jump right on it during the bleedout phase it shouldn't be too difficult.

Brunty Farms, this was very much a beginners mistake. As proud I am of doing this big bird and the sense of accomplishment that comes with that, I shouldn't have had to. My advice to people who want to butcher a bird this big...

DON'T!

If you have to you have to, but it can be avoided. Butcher it long before it gets even close to this size.

After the other BBW tom and the three hens I won't much have to worry about it, though. Heritage breeds from now on.

 

[maplesky7]

where do you get that plastic you put over the table?

I've never done a bird yet but am interested...so far I just take mine to a processor.

...and no turkeys yet but would looooove to have some....so heritage seems the way to go, huh?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
My husband (who refused to participate in any part of the process whatsoever at all, yet still has to be allowed to eat the turkey because I can't set a bad example for the kids, harrumph) wonders whether the difficulty of skinning is related to toms presumably having lots of well-exercised muscles attached to the feathers, to puff them up when the tom struts?

We will definitely be dry plucking this time. That's how the old timers did it, so we are going to give it a shot.

The only problems I had were a) the skin was pretty thin and rippable, moreso than the chickens that I've dry-plucked, so I had to go kind of slowly and carefully; and b) presumably I just caught them at a bad age but all three of mine were pinfeathery like a *porcupine*, and scalding would really have helped with them.

I did dunk the wings in hot water to get the flight feathers out.

My advice to people who want to butcher a bird this big...
DON'T! If you have to you have to, but it can be avoided. Butcher it long before it gets even close to this size. After the other BBW tom and the three hens I won't much have to worry about it, though. Heritage breeds from now on.

Hear, hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Pat​

 

[possumqueen]

sure wish I had known all this when I had turkeys!

buster52, you are brilliant!

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
The plastic is just a 2 mil drop cloth from Home Depot paint department. I'm growing heritage because they can breed without my help and I want to be as self sufficient as possible.

But they are limited in their size. Most of them won't get over 30 or 35 pounds no matter how long you keep them, at least from what I have read. Someone in the turkey forum said these broad breasted beasts keep growing up to 100 pounds! That may have been exaggerating, but not by much. This boy was just a little over 5 months old.

So, if you get these things, make sure you butcher early, like in 3 or 4 months.

 

[longranger]

Just a thought but if you have a big smoker a huge bird may work out perfectly if you do can cleanly separate the breast from the rest of the bird. The white meat cooks and then dries out much faster than the dark meat. This would allow you to take the breast out when it was ready and the rest of the bird later. Could even use different brines optimized for white and dark meat. Sort of not worth it with the heritage birds with much smaller breasts.

Great information and pics on the way to butcher these huge broad breasted turks.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Awwe, shucks! You are way too kind.