What Went Wrong???

[ScottnLydia]

I butchered a Midget White turkey last week and cooked it for company. This was the first 'heritage' bird we have cooked. It was HORRIBLE!!! The dark meat tasted like an 8 year old billy goat in the rut and twice as tough.

The white meat was passable, but not great. I'd been hearing so much about how great tasting heritage turkeys were, and how midget whites were among the best, what went wrong?

The bird was a little over a year old, I know that contributes to the toughness, but I've eaten Broad Breasted Bronzes that old that would melt in your mouth they were so tender!

I know how to process, chill quickly, and rest for 3 to 4 days. I've been doing other breeds of turkey and chickens for years.

Has anyone else had this result with Midget Whites? Or other heritage breeds? Could it have been the feed? Should I just s*#@ can the whole sustainability idea and quit breeding, just get the BB Bronzes yearly from now on?

~S

 

[chicken pickin]

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope not all heritage birds are yuck. We have Bourbon Reds we are raising for breeding so we can have meat for years to come. Silly us never ate a heritage turkey before just trusted all the possitive feedback we have gotten on how delisious they are. We are raising BBWs for this years T-day and Xmas and the bourbon reds for next year and years after. I have been nervous that I wouldnt like the way they taste. AGH and this makes me more nervous. I suppose its all trial and error and also depends on your taste I suppose. I hope someone else can chime in and maybe add their 2cents on maybe why yours wasnt so tastey. Hopefully the Bourbon Reds suit my families taste. If not Im with you and back to the BBWs.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

How did you cook it? Anytime we butcher older birds we cook them in what I call a wet method, soups, stews, or sauces. Dry baking an older bird just doesn't cut. Don't give up.

 

[emptynesterMom]

I haven't had MW but Boubon Reds and White Hollands were soooo much better than store bought turkeys. After I butcher then, I rest them for 4-5 days in the fridge and brine them for the last 24 hours before slow roasting with butter and herbs under the skin.
What are you feeding your birds? I free range in pasture and woodlands, and have a commercial feed available though they don't eat very much. I also throw out a few handfuls of scratch twice a day. They cruise through the garden and help keep the pests down and help themselves to the occasional tomatoe. They go dumpster diving in the compost pile and love any kind of melon. The last couple of months before T day, I give them BOSS with their scratch. I wonder if their diet affects the taste?

 

[ScottnLydia]

Thanks for the responses! First, he was about a year and 3 or 4 months old. I know I had that against me. Second, we aged him 5 days in the fridge and brined him before cooking. Finally, we cooked him in parts over a wet bed of chopped veg (onions, carrots and celery with chicken stock) in a low (275) oven.

As to feed, they are allowed to free range and are fed a commercial gamebird 24% ration.

As an update, yesterday we processed one of the jakes we hatched on Easter. I know he is young, he was only about 8 pounds, but we need to know if they are any better if they are younger! We will be cooking him on Tuesday. I'll let you know how that one turns out.

~S

 

[SIMZ]

I'm waiting to hear how it goes! We have big plans for raising heritage turkeys next year - MW's as a matter of fact! You might save us some time and $$.

 

[emptynesterMom]

Good luck with this one. Hope he is yummy!!

 

[beanmcnulty]

We cooked our first BR turkey a few months back and it was great, not much different from store bought in texture really. He was 7 months old when butchered and rested for 3 days before frozen. I used a recipe specifically for heritage turkey, a slightly lower oven temp, a foil tent over breast, butter under the skin and herbs/fruit in cavity. I have a good feeling how you cook is the most important thing. I have found that heritage turkey seems to be a lot less different in meat composition vs commercial breeds than heritage chickens are vs CX, there is a lot bigger difference I think there.

 

[ScottnLydia]

O.K. Dinner is over and here is the verdict. The 4 1/2 month old Midget White weighed an estimated 8 pounds dressed and was tender and delicious! Since I had no place to keep a brining bucket cool I used my ham needle ( for injecting curing solution into hams) and shot the bird up with brine last evening. Today we roasted it at 350 for what turned out to be 1 hour 40 minutes, checking the temp in the thigh often. We checked the internet for 'heritage turkey recipes' and the consensus seemed to be that they cook faster.

After reading something somewhere else, I saw the term "boar taint". While I had never considered it with poultry before, perhaps that could explain the 'old goat' flavor in the older bird? I know the conventional advice for heritage turkeys is to process at 8 months so that they have some meat on their bones, but at 4 1/2 months this guy was fine! Not enough for a family of 8 maybe, but 3 meals or so for the 2 of us.

Based on this, I think the rest of these guys will be eaten or in the freezer by Thanksgiving.

~S

 

[chicken pickin]

Im glad to hear your 2nd try on this younger bird was better. So based on what people say we shouldnt let our turkeys go beyond a year if we are eating them? That is good to know because we may get rid of one of our Toms come spring if they dont all behave. I think we ended up with a bad Tom:Hen ratio of 3:2 I hope those boys behave lol.