Thanksgiving Turkey Processing

[Jared77]

Id get that bird in a cooler of ice asap and let it rest as long as you can before you have to cook it. Even then if your cooking with an internal thermometer maybe you lower the oven temp a bit so it takes longer to get up to the safe to serve temperature.

Just a thought

 

[ray2310]

How old were they?

24 weeks

 

[VT-510]

Hi All....
I just finished harvesting my pigs and put a bunch of skin in the freezer along with the usual bits. I am about to harvest and process my 3 Narragansetts on Monday and was thinking about wrapping one of them in this fine pork skin before baking. I have found NO info about this on the web. Does anyone have any experience3 with this?
Also, I was thinking about doing them in on Monday (not cooking them until Thursday morning) Should I do them in on Sunday?
They have become very free range and am a bit worried about toughness from all of the running and flapping they've been doing.
Thanks...

 

[ScottnLydia]

Hi All....
I just finished harvesting my pigs and put a bunch of skin in the freezer along with the usual bits. I am about to harvest and process my 3 Narragansetts on Monday and was thinking about wrapping one of them in this fine pork skin before baking. I have found NO info about this on the web. Does anyone have any experience3 with this?
Also, I was thinking about doing them in on Monday (not cooking them until Thursday morning) Should I do them in on Sunday?
They have become very free range and am a bit worried about toughness from all of the running and flapping they've been doing.
Thanks...

Hey VT, you know, I'm a huge fan of pork skin myself, but I've just never understood why people want to cover turkeys with anything! It just changes that wonderful 'turkey' flavor that is just so good! My wife and I talk about this a lot, and we think it may come from the (erroneous) belief that turkey is dry and bland. If it is overcooked and underseasoned, it can be, so DON'T DO THAT!!!

You can brine your bird the night before in a solution of 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar to a gallon of water. Make several gallons of this solution, enough to cover the bird and submerge him for at least 6 hours, kept cold, up to overnight. This adds considerable moisture, as well as flavor.

Get a good, instant read meat thermometer. Start the bird breast down and cook at 325 for about 15 minutes a pound. About an hour to an hour and a half before it's done, flip it over to breast side up. This slows down the white meat cooking and gets those thighs done quicker. Overdone white meat is dry and mealy.

About 30 minutes BEFORE IT'S DUE TO BE DONE, start checking the temperature in the thickest part of the breast and the thigh. You want the breast around 170, and the thigh around 180 to 185. When it comes out of the oven, brush it with melted butter, and let it rest (again with the resting) for at least 30 minutes before carving. It will taste like the best turkey you've ever had. Not herbs, or bacon, but real turkey!

I don't know how old your birds are, but age is more of a determining factor on toughness than exercise on turkeys. My birds were about 7 1/2 months old, ran and flew EVERYWHERE! They are perfect and tender.

I would definately process them on Sunday, though, and let them rest 'til T-day! I like to rest a turkey for 5 days, sometimes 6 for an older bird, 'cuz sometimes I find they are still a little stiff with only 2 or 3 days. Of course, anybody that has read any of my posts knows that I'm a big fan of long rest periods, even for myself!

Good luck, and Happy Thanksgiving!

~S

 

[VT-510]

Hey there, thanks for that reply and I am in total agreement (in practice and otherwise) with your statements. I wanted to try the skinned bird just to try something different, and the fact that I am cooking two, an 18 pounder and about a 14 pounder and thought that I might experiment on the smaller bird. Growing my own birds, however, is a first for me. Thanks for the good guidance.
My friend is processing his chickens tomorrow as it would happen so Sunday it will be, he's borrowing my 240K BTU propane stove, so I am going to go up to his place and take advantage of the de-featherer and the rest of the set up.
I have butchered a fair amount of chickens, but never a turkey, anything special to take note of?

 

[ScottnLydia]

Lydia just said "They're bigger!" She's in a funny mood tonight.

I can't really think of anything that's very much different from doing a chicken aside from size. I use bailing twine and make 2 loops, one on either end, to slip over their feet. They tighten under the weight and hold the bird securely, if you don't have a Big Bird cone.

Get a good scald @ app.145 degrees and the feathers ought to come out real easy. Oh, leave lots of skin at the throat (crop) area to cover the crop opening up when roasting! I usually cut it around the neck at the beard stump (the bump that the beard grows out of). This usually will give enough skin to cover that area. If you have trouble removing the crop and need a bigger opening, cut the sides, not up. This will preserve that solid flap of skin.

I understand your desire to experiment with cooking methods. Over the years (oh, so many years) I have heard so many recipes guaranteeing a moist turkey. Including, but not limited to;

Wrap in cheesecloth and cover with Crisco
Wrap in bacon (tastes like bacon)
Stuff butter under the skin
Stuff pureed bacon under the skin (again, tastes like bacon)
Cover with mayonaise and cook in a paper bag
Cook at 400 degrees
Cook at 225 degrees
Deep fry
Smoke

All of them have their devotees who swear by them. I'm sure they are all quite good too. I, however, don't want my turkey to taste like bacon or smoke so I avoid those methods, but that's just me. I think that the others are an attempt to keep moisture in the bird, and as I said before, on that we agree. Just watch the temperature. Likely when you process your birds they'll have a nice fat cap under the skin already. That's what we call "self basting".

Let us know how they turn out, and Bon Apetit!

~S

 

[Elke Beck]

Hi VT,

What you are describing is called barding. It works well, but it does give the turkey a porky flavor. Yummy, rich, porkiness.

 

[VT-510]

"Barding", excellent. Thanks to you both so much for the thoughtful replies.

 

[debir1966]

Well, we did 4 out of the 5 Broad-Breasted Whites. Two toms and two hens. My Dad had a good idea and we took some old feed bags and cut a corner off and put that over the turkeys and stuck their heads through the hole we made. Then we tied their legs with the open end of the bag. This kept them from flapping and bruising and running around and worked very well.

Like with our chickens, we got our scalding water a little too warm. We did try and keep it at 150 but it kept creeping up on us and we just couldn't seem to get it regulated. I didn't get many pictures - we were in a hurry to just get done. It poured the day before and all night but thankfully was just overcast today and about 40 degrees. It would have been down-right pleasant if it had not been for the somewhat brisk wind.

We started about 10:30 a.m. and finished by 1:30 p.m., so 3 hours for 4 birds, not too bad for 3 of us (myself, my husband and our teenage son).

Broad-Breasted White, free-ranged, fed 20% protien non-GMO food, no medications from day 1. Hatch date June 27th from Ideal Poultry, 20 1/2 weeks today. Dressed the hens weighed 13.5 pounds and toms weighed 20 pounds, that is with giblets (liver, heart, gizzard and trimmed neck - we weighed them after they were packaged).


Turkey in a feed bag, sans head.


My husband cleaning the first tom.


The second tom in the kitchen sink. I didn't get any pics of the hens.

We saved the last hen so she could grow a little more. We still have the cornish meat chickens to process in December and we will process her then as well.

 

[debir1966]

On a side note : every one of them had quite a bit of fluid around their heart. We don't know if the amount was normal or not, but it seemed more than it should to us. They all seemed healthy, not too fat, though there was quite a bit of fat around the gizzard, but the hearts all looked great (not enlarged or weakened).

Also, their breasts seemed less plump than store-bought turkeys... this could be from free-ranging and getting quite a bit of excersize, and it could also be that I had read they fill store bought chicken and turkey with water... either way, I can't wait to see how they taste and how tender/tough/texture they are!

If you all don't mind, you have to come back after Thanksgiving and give us a report!

P.S.
I am pleased with the size of the turkeys. My husband didn't think they weighed as much as they do and he wanted to actually only process 1 today. Even after they had been plucked he thought they weighed less - he guessed the hens at 8 or 9 pounds and the toms at 14 or 15. He was quite surprised when we put them on a scale!

Next year I am getting the turkeys earlier than the end of June. I don't want to wait until the weekend before Thanksgiving to have to process - I would like it to be done a while beforehand! We are getting 15 miscellaneous breed heritage turkeys, most of which will go to freezer camp. I am really debating on getting 5 more Broad Breasted Whites also because I am concerned that the heritage turkeys will not be very big (big enough) before Thanksgiving, though I keep argueing with myself because we want to raise sustainable livestock. On the other hand, I am not sure I want 12-14 turkeys in my freezer!