Thanksgiving Turkey Processing

[debir1966]

Not sure yet if we will do one of them for Christmas. We do have another hen to process, she will not be done until my meat chicks are ready to process and they are growing very very slow (compared to how fast my first batch grew this summer. Same food, but the weather is alot colder and I honestly think that is affecting their growth rate. We butchered the first meat chickens at 10 1/2 weeks. Our current batch will be 9 weeks old on Wednesday and they are not even half the size they need to be yet).

Anyway, we will do the last turkey hen when we process the meat chickens, hopefully this will be before Christmas! However, we do not usually have turkey for Christmas - normally we have turkey for Thanksgiving and ham or prime rib for Christmas, but since we have 3 already in the freezer and one more to process, we may go ahead and do a turkey for Christmas also.

If we do, I am going to roast the turkey instead of frying it. Honestly, we were not impressed with the fried turkey... this could be because we didn't brine it... it was plenty juicy enough, and very flavorful, but it was... tougher.. not tough, but not as tender as we thought it would be. Since I have no comparison (my very first time eating fried turkey), I want to roast our next one to see if it comes out tougher as well.

If it does, my husband wants to pen our next batch of turkeys because he thinks that letting them free range may have toughened them up. I think it should not have - I am hoping it was just the cooking method!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I know this is a bit late, but we processed our 7 month old Broad Breasted Bronze the weekend before Thanksgiving. Here he was that morning. I was sorry to see him go...he had a great personality.


Live weight was around 54lbs and he dressed out at 42lbs. We brined him in an apple juice/salt/spice/and orange brine for 12 hours before cooking. I had inches to spare in my oven.



Here is my oldest son's fiance posing with the bird after it came out of the oven. In all fairness she is only 5 foot tall, but you get the idea.



The meat was very good, much better than store bought, but not quite as good as the Beltsville we had eaten.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I know this is a bit late, but we processed our 7 month old Broad Breasted Bronze the weekend before Thanksgiving. Here he was that morning. I was sorry to see him go...he had a great personality.


Live weight was around 54lbs and he dressed out at 42lbs. I had inches to spare in my oven.



Here is my oldest son's fiance posing with the bird after it came out of the oven. In all fairness she is only 5 foot tall, but you get the idea.

OMG !!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY???????!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW !!!!!!! What was he eating for 7 months? I"M SPEECHLESS!!!!!!!!!!

And it's never too late to talk turkey.

There has to be some kind of turkey category that he can fit in so that he can win something!! HE IS A WINNER!!!!

THAT IS GREAT !!!!!! CONGRATS !!!!!!!!!!

ETA: How long did it take to cook him?

 

[katsdar]

X2 OMG
I want to raise turkeys for next year's holiday I'm sure I will have questions for you

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I feed all my turkeys Gamebird Pellets (18% ration) cut by 1/4 with a grain mix (wheat, crimped oats, millet) and I add several handfuls of black oil sunflower seeds. Also, they have daily access to pasture and I also give them weekly "treats" in the form of several hundred meal worms.

Now this was a broad breasted bronze, which can turn into a monster if you let them go this long (7 months). He was the same age as the Beltsville turkeys he is pictured with in the first photo.He loved hanging out by the duck pond with the geese when he went out each day.

Once I figured out that my husband was going to drag his behind in butchering him, I moved the turkey food out of their paddock area so they HAD to walk to get to their food. Even with this, his legs were nearly as big around as my wrists. He no longer walked, but rather waddled where he was going for the last month or two of his life. Had we not butchered him, I would guess his legs would have given out soon.

My Beltsville toms are only in the mid-20 pound range live weight. Butcher ratio was 72% of live weight on this guy. Heck, his neck alone weighed 1.4 pounds and was not included in the 42 lbs

I cooked him for 10 hours at 275 and then the final 3 hours at 325. The last temperature readings taken was 180 degrees in 6 locations on the bird (breast, thigh, and two random thick looking spots).

We had 7 people for dinner and sent leftovers home for our oldest son and his fiance. Believe it or not, we are just about out of turkey leftovers. We had turkey salad and lime turkey fajitas the past couple nights: I think a batch of turkey chili will finish the leftovers off tomorrow. My husband wants to raise the Broad Breasted turkey again next year. We'll see.....

 

[kuntrygirl]

I feed all my turkeys Gamebird Pellets (18% ration) cut by 1/4 with a grain mix (wheat, crimped oats, millet) and I add several handfuls of black oil sunflower seeds. Also, they have daily access to pasture and I also give them weekly "treats" in the form of several hundred meal worms.

Now this was a broad breasted bronze, which can turn into a monster if you let them go this long (7 months). He was the same age as the Beltsville turkeys he is pictured with in the first photo.He loved hanging out by the duck pond with the geese when he went out each day.

Once I figured out that my husband was going to drag his behind in butchering him, I moved the turkey food out of their paddock area so they HAD to walk to get to their food. Even with this, his legs were nearly as big around as my wrists. He no longer walked, but rather waddled where he was going for the last month or two of his life. Had we not butchered him, I would guess his legs would have given out soon.

My Beltsville toms are only in the mid-20 pound range live weight. Butcher ratio was 72% of live weight on this guy. Heck, his neck alone weighed 1.4 pounds and was not included in the 42 lbs

I cooked him for 10 hours at 275 and then the final 3 hours at 325. The last temperature readings taken was 180 degrees in 6 locations on the bird (breast, thigh, and two random thick looking spots).

We had 7 people for dinner and sent leftovers home for our oldest son and his fiance. Believe it or not, we are just about out of turkey leftovers. We had turkey salad and lime turkey fajitas the past couple nights: I think a batch of turkey chili will finish the leftovers off tomorrow. My husband wants to raise the Broad Breasted turkey again next year. We'll see.....

Amazing story. Simply amazing! You should have called the local newspaper or someone over to your house to do a story on this big guy. I think that is a big "TO DO" to me.

I will have to write that list of feed items down.

 

[yinepu]

Nice bird!
Lol.. did you use a forklift to get him in and out of the oven?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Nice bird!
Lol.. did you use a forklift to get him in and out of the oven?

And a backhoe.

 

[katsdar]

I want to know how who held it still while the deed was done, or rather who sat on it.

 

[kacklinkelly]

Holy cow!! That turkey weighed more than my 6 year old grandson