Turkey Care

[Mayfly]

So I am trying to educate myself on Turkey hunting and I have about a million questions........so here I go.

Turkey Care.

How does the majority care for theirs birds after they have been shot? Do you clean them like a pheasant or do you leave the skin on?

And if you leave the skin on what is the best way?

How about some recipes while we are at it. Do cook like you cook you Thanksgiving turkey? Drop it in the deep fryer?

Thanks in advance!

 

[UncleDave]

You got me.  I see them often in Coon Rapids.  Damn near ran one over on Hwy 10 a while back.  Either way, I see them sizzling on a grill.  Numm, numm.   

[JackpineRob]

Turkey Care 101

These are very large birds and will spoil quickly in warm weather.  I will sometimes gut them out if I'm not going to get it cleaned fairly quickly.

A large cooler with ice is a good idea.  I have transported whole birds back from the Black Hills in a cooler - they were gutted beforehand.

The decision as to whether to skin or pluck them depends on how you plan to cook the bird.  I like to roast mine, so I simply pluck them.  We shot a jake one time that we decided to have for supper that night (camping out) so I skun and cut the bird in sections and fried him up. 

If you decide to pluck your bird, you don't need to wax them like you would a duck.  They pluck pretty clean.

If you are going to do a wild turkey in the oven, be aware that they can dry out/get tough.  The best way I have found to deal with that is using the oven bags and extra liquid such as apple juice.

When you get your bird, you probably want to save the beard and the tail.  Cut them off, clean as much meat off as you can, and then coat the inside of the skin with plenty of borax.  You can pick up borax in the laundry detergent section of the store.

I spread the tail out on a big chunk of cardboard and use pins to fan the thing out so it looks nice.  The beard is pinned next to the tail so I don't lose it.  You can mount it to a board/mounting plate once the thing has dried for a few months.

If you bag a nice bird and don't know what to do, give me a call and I'll take it off your hands, so you don't need to worry about it.
;-)

[Harold]

Good Stuff Jackpine!!

[Spinach]

We pluck and roast ours too.

[Ice_Hole]

Good info Jackpine.

I don't like to pluck, so I fillet out the beast and take out the legs.  That ends up being 98% of the meat anyway.  The only issue with this, is that you'er limited on ways to cook it.  However, marinade and grill seems to turn out well with this method. 

Also, for the tail fan, you can duct tape it down instead of pins.  The duct tape doesn't stick to the feathers.

[Model12]

Another way, breast them out and cube the breast meat. Roll cubes in corn starch and fry/brown in wok or pan. Then put onions, green onions, pineapple in wok with sweet & sour sauce or you can buy the already made sweet & sour and keep turning while you heat it.
Not much on the legs as they're as tough and stringy as a shredded blue tarp.

[Munk]

We always pluck our birds, (helps having the extra fat from the skin when cooking to prevent from drying out). I also use the cooking bag method but use a can of beer instead of water or juice. As far as preserving them after the kill, we gut and pluck within an hour or so of the kill, we then ice them down in a large cooler. We have in the past, when we are going to be hunting for a couple days yet, found a butcher shop that froze the bird for us for a small fee.