finishing my turkeys

[MikeG]

It was a gift for my cousin...and he deep-fried it. For what its worth, he said it was the best he ever had.

 

[the simple life]

Quote:
Really, I had not heard this. I had planned on having fresh turkey this Thanksgiving without freezing it, just ordered it from a local place. Now I am wondering about this, where did you here of having to freeze turkey first?

 

[longranger]

The main infection worry with eating turkey is Salmonella intestinal infection. Parasites from poultry are all going to be killed by cooking. The only reason to freeze is if you are going to butcher more than 4 or 5 days before cooking.

 

[rmelvin23]

THe deed is done. Well halfway. My brave husband killed one turkey like he was country folk, instead of all city boy. I could not have been any more impressed. It all went well until the scalding can kept turning the fryer base off. We had to dry pluck because the scalding did not happen. Technology screwed us. My husband got alittle carried away with the plucking and ripped a huge hunk of feathers and skin off. We thought that we would be more careful, but it was hard without scalding them first. After a few more skin tears we decided to make the best of it and just field processed it. We cut off the breasts and legs. In our dissapointment and excitement we forgot about the wings. After that my husband continued to "process the bird". He cut the vent out and gutted it, took out the neck stuff, etc. He made the carcass look just like it was supposed to. So on Monday we will be processing turkey 2. We are confident in our abilities and will build a fire for the scalding tank so that there will be no hangups. I would like to tell anyone out there that it is not that bad! We are total city folk and this is the first animal my husband has ever killed. I thought it would make me sick and not want to eat it, but I had no problem. THe only weird part, aside from the killing and draining, was that when we cut off the meat, it was warm and kinda creapy. THanks for everyone's help. I'll let you know how number 2 goes.

 

[boxermom]

We thought about using our camp stove to scald the bird, but ended up heating the water in 3 stock pots on the stove. I had a big tub/tote (the round kind with the rope handles). I had it in the garden wagon so I could move it to where we were processing. I poured the hot water in that and there was plenty of room to dunk the bird. Worked very well. 150deg is hot, but not too hot for plastic. We learned alot w/ our first turks.

 

[hoosiergal]

I processed my big turkey yesterday with the help of a neighborman and it was not bad at all. Like doing a chicken only bigger as I think she weighted about 25-28 lbs. I used a big was washtub and lit a fire under it, strung the turkey up by it's legs and cut the juglar. The water was the right temp and feathers came off so easy. She is now in the fridge awaiting to be frozen for a few days. This is my first home grown heritage bird and can't wait to taste it.

 

[Grampa with chickens]

Man, you all have me looking hard at my turkey pen.

I can't spare any this year as they are my breeders for next year. I will grow out some poults next spring for next years Thanksgiving though. I need to practice with the scald as I have just been skinning my chickens. That is my next step to learn.

 

[chickenannie]

I think it's important to put the bird in VERY cold ice water for a several hours after butchering, correct? (Must have lots of ice) My butcher said putting the bird in the frigerator after butchering does not chill it nearly fast enough to keep the potentially harmful pesties away. (This is for the one who said the bird is in their fridge waiting to be frozen. )

 

[kcravey]

Quote:
We have just been skinning also. I am insistent we have to scald/pluck the turkies/quail because it is Thanksgiving and what is a turkey and quail without the skin???
My DH is telling me it is going to take FOREVERRRRR to pluck them , but Ive been telling him about you guys saying it is sooooo easy if you scald them right. We gotta get this scalding down!

How are you measuring the temp of the water? Im thinking we will do a camp fire.... still need to find something big enough to hold the water. I have a HUGE stock pot, wonder if that would work? Then I need something to hold that over the fire... our grill from our bbq?

 

[ChanceRider]

Quote:
We have just been skinning also. I am insistent we have to scald/pluck the turkies/quail because it is Thanksgiving and what is a turkey and quail without the skin???
My DH is telling me it is going to take FOREVERRRRR to pluck them , but Ive been telling him about you guys saying it is sooooo easy if you scald them right. We gotta get this scalding down!

How are you measuring the temp of the water? Im thinking we will do a camp fire.... still need to find something big enough to hold the water. I have a HUGE stock pot, wonder if that would work? Then I need something to hold that over the fire... our grill from our bbq?

DH has processed wild turkeys before, dry picking them because we didn't know any better. Last week we processed a neighbor's turkey and it was a breeze! Used a brand new metal garbage can for the scalding pot. I didn't want the weight of the filled garbage can directly on my turkey fryer burner, so I stacked two cinder blocks on each side of the burner and topped that with a metal oven rack to hold the garbage can. Measured the water temp with the long thermometer that came with the turkey fryer. Everything worked great! Plucking was done in a matter of minutes. They've frozen that bird and will have it for Thanksgiving. We'll be doing about 6 more turkeys this weekend along with maybe 13 Cornish.

Good luck!