Turkey scald or dry pluck?

[Azriel]

Do you scald turkeys for plucking? I will be butchering my 1st ever turkey in about a week, and want to do it right. Is it pretty much like doing a chicken just bigger?

 

[PatS]

We scalded ours last year. And yes, just like a chicken, only we needed a REALLY bid scalding pot. You can fit both hands inside a turkey!

 

[Renee']

Yup, just like a chicken!

 

[Tracydr]

You could try pithing. I pithed two chickens this weekend and was able to dry pluck them fairly easily.

 

[Fowl_Odor002]

My grandpa showed us how to dry pluck a turkey once. But you have to do it while the turkey is still warm. If you let it cool down you are going to need to scald it.

 

[Azriel]

Oh, I don't think I could do pithing, I would just be to afraid I would do it wrong.

 

[SycolinWoodsChickens]

We scald ours that we kept whole. Skinned the ones that we were cutting up. Our were so big we had to pour hot water into a huge garden tub (like you use to harvest veg or haul stuff around the yard).

 

[bwmichaud]

I don't have a pot big enough to scald a turkey so I also heat water to boiling and dump it into a clean garbage can. I make sure the water is hotter than what I need and then add cold water to get the exact temp.

 

[hitnspit]

After we bleedout we will dry pluck the big flight feathers and the tail feathers. There is a huge market out there for them if you can keep them in a complete set. I have not sold any yet but looking at the web i will keep them just incase i find the right person...They have many uses......jim