Processing big birds

[maplebendfarmmn]

My biggest bird so far has dressed out at 32#. But I can do it and I'm only 140# myself. As long as I get them flipped I can do pretty well.

 

[AA Maple]

My biggest bird so far has dressed out at 32#. But I can do it and I'm only 140# myself. As long as I get them flipped I can do pretty well.

Well my hat's off to you.. In future I'll try to process at closer to 16 week mark to keep them manageable.

If you don't mind my asking how did cooking a big bird like that go for you? Any tips? I only found 1 thread on here where people discussed cooking really big turkeys and almost everybody was sawing them in half.

 

[AA Maple]

The "small" one just barely squeezed into a feed bag for containment yesterday so I had to dispatch the big one with a bullet to the back of the head.

The big one dressed out at just about 50 pounds even. I gave the wing and leg to the friend who helped me butcher put one breast in the freezer, and gave the 26 pound half to my dad. The leg + thigh of that thing looked like a leg of lamb.

Note to self, buy turkeys August 1 for manageable size birds for Thanksgiving.

For reference I'm 6' tall and around 200 pounds.

 

[maplebendfarmmn]

Well my hat's off to you.. In future I'll try to process at closer to 16 week mark to keep them manageable.

If you don't mind my asking how did cooking a big bird like that go for you? Any tips? I only found 1 thread on here where people discussed cooking really big turkeys and almost everybody was sawing them in half.

We did a low temp method. I think I started it at 425F then dropped down and cooked for almost a day. Found it on pinterest. I'll look for the post and try to link it. It took some advanced planning but the turkey turned out amazing.

 

[AA Maple]

As an update, we did a 40 ish pounder stuffed in about 8 and a half hours. Started it at 4am and we ate at 1. Trussed up and we did keep foil over the breast for the first 6 hours basting frequently.

Fantastic flavor, tender and juicy. Enough for 14 adults, turkey sandwiches the next day, turkey pies for dinner Friday night, and some for everyone to take home who wanted.

I'm really happy with my first time turkey experience.

 

[Molpet]

where did you get a pan big enough to hold the monster? Nice looking birds

 

[AA Maple]

where did you get a pan big enough to hold the monster? Nice looking birds

Should have mentioned.

We bought the biggest throw-away foil pan at the supermarket and built out the edges (like a cone) with foil to catch what dripped from the sides. To remove the bird we simply took out the entire rack from the oven with the thin foil tray on it.

I'm super happy with the whole turkey experience. I only wish my neighbor didn't hate turkeys so much so they could have had more yard time, but at about the 4 month mark they began wandering too far from home and terrorizing him so they had to be pretty well on lockdown with no unsupervised ranging time.

 

[Molpet]

I guess that cutting it up was the way to go with the biggest one ... and what I'll do if I raise some that size ..thanks


maybe offer the neighbor some meat LOL

 

[AA Maple]

I guess that cutting it up was the way to go with the biggest one ... and what I'll do if I raise some that size ..thanks


maybe offer the neighbor some meat LOL

Neighbor really hates everything about turkeys. I think he eats ham for Thanksgiving on general principal. He doesn't mind the laying hens in his yard at all though.

 

[teria]

so much good information. I plan to get a turkey or two end of July so they are ready for butchering for Thanksgiving. I know the heritage breeds take about a year to mature, but, they are said to taste better than the meat birds. I'm hoping the meat birds will be at least tastier than something store bought. Either way, now that we've done the whole butchering a turkey thing, we feel more prepared to do it again.