I'm going to be new to turkey hunting...this spring. Trying to get my gear together and do as much research as I can on the topic. While talking to my sweetie she asked me, "what do you do with a turkey once you get it"...meaning how do you clean it, dress it, undress it, field dress it, skin it, pluck it, whatever you do to them? I talked to the only guy around here that turkey hunts and he says that they normally just "breast them out" as that is the only part of the bird with enough meat. I'm not one to waste what I harvest and want some other input please.
Thanks in advance.
Craig
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I too cut out the breast of the bird and throw the rest of it away. It is just my wife and I to eat it. The drumsticks on the wild turkey is a lot different than on farm raised birds. They are much tougher and don't taste as good as the breast.
I will typically breast them out too. But if you don't mind you can use the legs and thighs to make some really good meaty gravy to put on the tators! Unfortunetly the above is true. Turkey Legs aren't very good relative to a store bought turkey.
If I was going to keep the whole turkey to make soup and gravy I would just skin it.
Good Luck
Tom
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I have come to understand that I really enjoy learning things the hard way.
i have pluckedem andi've breasted themout, i save the legs for soup...and then i send my wings to JW, lol.......if you fry it whole..all you have to do is boil a big tub of water, dip him, not too long, no more than a minute should be alright, then you pluck the feathers out, take a piece of newspaper set it on fire and brush the lil itty bitty feathers that are left behind, but becareful, you dont want to burn the skin...then cut his head off, his beard and tails if you want them, then take his insides out.....
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I like to fillet the breast out and cut it up in nuggets.....batter and deep fry in peanut oil.....and actually, if you will take the time, the dark meat(legs, thighs, wingsetc.) are pretty tastey like this also.....this way is quick and you don't have to fool with the innerds....... it also saves you the headache of boiling water and spending the next 2 hours plucking.
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All your gonna get is what they give ya.
I breast them out as well. After I clean it good, I filet the breast and then use a batter called Drakes. Then off to the deep fryer. To be honest its like Long John silvers excet turkey instead of chicken or fish. Awesome. Try it its good.
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I cut straight slit in the center of breast skin just big enough to get my hand and kife in to bone out the breast. That way if I decide to mount the bird I don't have a lot of extra sewing to do and I can leave in freezer till I get ready tomountwithout having to worry about breast getting freezer brunt.
I breast them out and soup the legs, like others do. The rest of the meat, cartilage, and bones that I don't use personally use go for baiting the coyotes I hunt. A couple of days out in the Cali sun and that extra unwanted stuff turns kinda ripe. I use pretty much all the feathers. They make great vanes for my wood arrows.
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I am reminded everyday that life is too precious by my best friend, Lt. Ken Ballard, who lost his life while serving in Iraq. He fought for our freedom, to do what we do, and how we do it. Hunt till you drop!
Breast them out and save the legs, or sometimes i draw them out and pluck them. If you want the whole breast intact, which i sometimes do, just open the skin and take it all the way down to the wing bones and leg joints, then cut the whole thing out. Otherwise its just running a knife down the sternum on both sides and take the two pieces out seperatly.
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Taste the cold, feel the music.
DRESSING THE BIRD
