OK, so I processed my first turkey that I raised here at home. I was doing the evisceration and I noticed how large the gizzard was . . . man, that thing is bigger than my fist! Anyway, I cut the gizzard open and found a 3 inch nail embedded in it. Where the nail was poking through the gizzard meat, the meat was actually rotting . . . or at least it was a small section of black muck that stunk. I don't know where it got the nail as I usually have very clean pens. Do you think I should throw out the entire gizzard or just cut away the bad part?
I would say throw it out. I had a guy process my turkeys for me and he told me that bad gizzards are common because of the things they pick up to eat. One of mine actually had a bad liver for some reason and he threw that out too.
Well I took everyones advice and threw out the gizzard but boy was the turkey good! I tried a simple brine recipe and it was the best I have ever had. It's amazing. My wife also bought a store turkey . . . one of those broad breasted bronze boys that are raised in just a few months. He had a lot of meat but also a lot of fat! His wish bone was only half the size of the wish bone from my farm raised turkey and mine had no fat that I could find anywhere! I'm sticking with my farm raised birds from now on. Michael
