How long do you age your turkeys?

[silkiechicken]

So my 18 week old toms are 32lbs each right now, and for the past two months not allowed to have shoulder rides or be carried around on the arm. Both are total sweeties but their destiny is near. I plan on butchering them at 21/22 weeks old, and am anticipating live weight to be darn near 40 lbs at their current growth rate.

I found a metal trash can which I'll be using to scald them in since I don't think they'll fit into a 5 gallon bucket. Now how I plan on heating up 30 gallons of water is going to be interesting.

My questions are:

1) How would you heat up 30 gallons of water? (I can make fires no problem)

2) What temp do you scald your turkeys at? I was thinking at the chicken temp of about 140-160... but perhaps dry plucking might work?

3) How long do you age your turkeys for? One week? 10 Days?

Thanks!

 

[Leslie In North Pole]

Quote:
1) As the boiling temp of water is 220, I usually boil a couple of large pots of water (pressure cookers/canners full) and fill the rest of the container with hottest tap water and double check the temp.

2) 150

3) 48 hours

 

[MissPrissy]

When we do the turkeys for Thanksgiving I dispatch on Sunday night or Monday morning and put them in the fridge with a little brine and leave them there until I am ready to start cooking on Thursday morning for Turkey day dinner.

Also - you can't tell me about a 32lb turkey and not show some photos, young lady. Snap, snap. Hop to it. We wanna see these beasts.

 

[newbiecaroline]

Great thread!
Hope you don't mind me asking but how do you wrap turkeys for the freezer?
M.Prissy what brine and how much? I assume this is covered in the fridge?
I hope to slow our BBB at 20 - 25lbs.
I agree about the pics lol

 

[Jenlyn9483]

This is good info..What kind of turkeys are these? I assume white giants..since they have reached that size already..I have a trio of these that are almost 12 weeks old that I will need to process..This would be my first time processing turkeys..soooo...EXPERTS..Pile of the info and Tips!

 

[MissPrissy]

You can buy heavy duty freezer bags for turkeys at MM.

I just eye ball it. Put the turkey in a giant container cover with water and pour in some salt. Refrigerate until cooking day. I always bring the turkey back up to room temp before starting with my cooking preparations.

 

[silkiechicken]

They are BB bronze toms. I would have taken pics immediately, but my camera is about 300 miles south! I'll go see if I can't steal my brothers camera today and get a few!

 

[silkiechicken]

Alright, got a pic that my brother had taken when the turkeys were 30 lbs. Would have taken one today... but it's raining and they look like a giant wet fluffed out mop. LOL

The silkies like to stand between their legs and use the turkeys as a roost, but one of these days, those silkies are going to learn that a turkey sitting down is not a good thing.

They started out so small too.

 

[MissPrissy]

They look great!! Do they strut very often for you?

 

[silkiechicken]

For some reason, only one of them struts about half the time for me, while if anyone else in the house comes around or there are strangers, both will puff up, snort and strut like mad. It's like they get a perma-strut when anyone other than me shows up.