What is the best way to clean/pluck a turkey?

[ebohatch]

[]I am new to turkey hunting, I have hunted deer tfor over 30 years.
We have 58 acres in NW Illinois with a lot of wild turkey (and deer of course). I just got our land owner liscenses from the state.
What is the best way to clean/pluck a turkey. Is there somewhere I can glean this info.

[MOTurkeyTamer]

Hi ebohatch!
Here is a post that was put up recently on the subject of cleaning a turkey.
How to clean a turkey
Good luck!

[ebohatch]

Thanks, that is a great post.

But where can I get info on plucking the turkey, I wish to cook the whole bird.

[Young Buck 76]

the camp cook forums here have some good stuff check it out

[Tree climber]

if you want to leave the skin , so you can fry the whole bird.

you get a larget bucket,(big enough to hold the whole bird.put the bird in the bucket,fill with water).remove the bird. heat the water almost to a boil(not quite to a boil) take bird by legs and push down into water for a few seconds( 30 to 45,maybe 60).pull out and pull on a large feather,if it comes out easy,then you pluck that part of the bird.then turn over and hold by the head and do same till all the feathers are gone.

if the feathers doesn't pull out real easy,just put back into hot water for a few more min.

this is called scholding the bird.you will have a clean and featherless bird.
good luck.

[Strut&Rut]

Scalding works very well.

However, if you definitely want to skin the bird, start as soon as possible. The best time to pluck is when the bird's internal temperature is still high, before rigor sets in.

Often you can pluck the entire bird except the wings---they pluck the worst---by doing nothing other than pulling feathers...

[djkiller]

yes I use scalding to de-feather a bird. I cut the tail feathers and the wings off for mounts. if your not going to mount the hole bird.

[pointerDixie214]

thanks so much, that helped a ton! well, hopefully it will anyways, now i just have to get one to try it on!!!!

[Fullback24]

I used to pluck my turkeys....Not anymore......If you want to deep fry the entire bird, yeah, plucking them is the best way to go......What I've been lately is skinning the turkey, removing the breast and filleting it up into strips, remove the legs, filleting that up...basically, just skinning the bird and picking the meat off.....cutting it into nuggets and deep frying it....the dark meat looks bad, but it's just as tastey as the white breast meat....and takes considerabley less time....

[tnichols]

I don't know but I prefer to leave the skin on.....just seems to mr to give the bird better flavor