Turkey for the Christmas table (don't read if you are sensitive about this)

[surfingdevil]

Hi everyone
We are new to keeping turkeys and purchased two in the summer to raise for Christmas. We, today, have dispatched one of them, as he was enormous. I have plucked and cleaned him up and now a friend of mine has suggested we hang the bird for a few days before freezing it. HOWEVER.... I am sure you will laugh at my mistake....BUT I have cut off the birds feet and now can't hang him!! Any suggestions please will be more than welcome. Thnx

 

[sourland]

Allowing him to chill and 'age' in the refrigerator will suffice. Enjoy your home grown Christmas dinner.

 

[res]

We used to raise about 30 turkeys a year. We butchered them ourselves and sold them locally for holiday dinners. Our clientele was the same people, over and over, every year for about 20 years.... So we must have been doing something right!

We never hung them after they were processed. They went straight into the fridge or freezer. Most people picked them up the day they were processed, but we also worked in conjunction with our neighbors (we raised the poultry and they raised the beef and pork). They converted a 2-car section of their garage into a meat processing plant complete with a massive walk-in freezer and refridgerator. That was the only way we could store that many processed birds... Some were so big that they had to be cut in half to fit in the oven....

We staggered the kill/process dates of the chickens/turkeys/beef and pork so there was room in the freezer... Also had to leave room for Dad's elk, antelope, moose, and deer.

 

[surfingdevil]

Wow amazing. I am so glad that it isn't too important to hang. I will tell hubby now as he is devising something to hang the turkey from. The turkey is about 18kg. He was a whopper! He will fit in the oven but only just and we may have to cut the wings off to get him in comfortably. So funny. It's great to raise our own meat. I hope it tastes good.
Thank you for your help.