Turkey questions

[lnm03]

Oh one more question.......If I butcher him Saturday (11/21), will he be ok in the Fridge till next Satuday (11/28)? or do I need to freeze him

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We will be processing ours on Sat for Thursday. Make sure the bird is covered or it will dry out on top. We age anywhere from 5 to 7 days.

Steve

 

[lnm03]

So since I dont have a bag large enough for the turkey in would I be able to to wrap it in seran wrap? or what should I do with it?

 

[ChanceRider]

Because one of my neighbor's turkeys had begun to have trouble walking, we processed it last week. We used a brand new 30 gallon metal trash can, which was placed over my turkey fryer propane burner. To keep the weight off the actual burner stand, I used 4 cinder blocks, 2 stacked on each side of the burner, and topped that with a metal oven rack. The burner fit between the blocks and the oven rack was just at the top of the burner. Worked like a charm. Our biggest problem was hefting this big guy into the water and swishing it around. Since the turkey's legs were still tied, we ran a lawn rake pole between the legs with DH and I each taking a side. To get the temp right we used the thermometer that came with the turkey fryer. Since this guy weighed in at about 35 lbs processed it was waaay to large to scald in the fryer pot.

I always let processed birds "rest" in ice water for a day so we did this with the turk as well. For this we used a large, brand new plastic garbage can. Put the turk in, dumped in the ice and added water. We processed 15 chickens this past weekend and used the trash cans for them as well.

We'll be processing about 6 more turkeys this Sunday and since they'll all be sold "fresh" not frozen, we're just using medium sized trash bags to wrap them in. When I process the rest of the birds in a few weeks I'll be using shrink wrapped bags as those birds will be frozen.

This will be my first Thanksgiving eating one of my own birds... I can't wait! I've heard such great reviews of the Bourbon Reds and Midget Whites. C'mon Thanksgiving! Just haven't decided if I want to cook the turk in the oven, deep fry it, or smoke it. Decisions, decisions.

 

[lnm03]

Quote:
If your turkey is too large to fit in the fryer pot what will you use to deep fry it? We have never had "fresh" turkey and we have also never deep fried turkey and that is our goal this year... So if I have the same situation you do where it wont fit in the fryer pot how do I deep fry it?

sorry if that is a stupid question but I havent quite figured out what to use if we cant use the fryer pot.

 

[ChanceRider]

Leslie, no question is a stupid question! Aside from how to cook a turkey, everything I've learned about these wonderful birds I've learned right here on BYC. The 35 turkey we processed the other day was my neighbor's... it was a standard bronze. This coming weekend we'll be processing my neighbor's other standard bronze AND about 6 of my own turkeys. I raise Midget Whites and Bourbon Reds which are considerably smaller than the bronze. Since my turks are just about 28 weeks old, they should, emphasis on "should" fit into my turkey fryer.

If you've never had deep fried turkey before you're in for a real treat! We've done a couple of wild turkeys that way and they were great. Be careful when adding your turkey to the hot oil... you don't want to have too much oil in the fryer when you add the turk or the oil might overflow, which can cause a fire. The directions that came with your fryer probably tell how to figure out how much oil to use... it's pretty easy.

Hope your processing goes well and that you have a great Thanksgiving!
~Eve

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

The most important thing on cooking your turkey is don't overcook it. Seems there is a fine line from being cooked just right to drying out.

Steve

 

[NurseNettie]

Quote:
Big, clean (new) trash bags work great! I bought a 50- pack of turkey freezer bags from McMurray earlier this year for freezing- we used garbage bags for storage/aging/moving them around until we got them in the freezer.

 

[lnm03]

Turkey is done!!!! All went well!!! Use rope to hang. Our turkey deep fryer was barely big enough to scald but we made it work. Dressed at 23lbs. Ought to be a good turkey dinner!! Thank you for all the good advice!!!!