Cooking wild turkey

[Ron LaClair]

It's that time of year again so lets hear,.. how do you cook your bird?

 

[tenngun]

Rubbed down with butter, then I mix up a powder of sage, garlic pepper and a little cumin. Rub all over. Put in a shallow pan. Add chicken broth and dry white wine and cover pretty tight with foil. Bake at 275 for about 40 min per pound. When done remove the foil and turn on the broiler till top browned.
Or
Cut the meat from the bone. Slice in to strips and put in to a Dutch oven cover with chicken broth and bring to a boil. Boil abou ten -fifteen min then remove meat. Pour off the broth and add oil to the pot. Fry some sliced onion and mushrooms, then remove. Return the meat and brown. Return the veggies then about 1/2 a cup of the broth, and white wine. Stir all together. Pour in cream and reduce till thick, serve over toast or noddles or rice.

 

[NeilMacleod]

Marinated in herbs and spices (Spicy Orange Jam)for a day then slow cook. Served with fried pumpkin and potato.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

I have only just started hunting Turkey, only killed one. And I plucked it.

All the Turkey hunters I know said I was nuts plucking, they all skin their's.

I let a two try my plucked & roasted Turkey.
:yakyak: no talk about plucking being a waste of time. They both admitted it was one of the best wild turkeys they had ever tasted. And that was the day after I cooked it. It was much better the first day.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Marinade in milk overnight.

Bread it.

Pan fry in hot olive oil.

 

[Phil Coffins]

First step is to shoot a jake then field dress and cool it. Pluck it and let the wife cook it like any other turkey. I don’t know what she does but they are as good as any holiday turkey I’ve ever had.

 

[Ames]

Clean it. Use the breasts for one meal, use the rest 50/50 with pork for sausage, use the carcass for soup.

 

[crockett]

Fillet out the breast, cut across grain- thin. Fry in bacon fat- don't over fry. Cook with swamp cabbage fried in bacon fat and grits.

 

[Ames]

What time is dinner? :bow:

 

[Vaino]

A friend of my son shot a wild turkey and to celebrate his "kill", invited a few people to my son's house and used my son's smoker. My son really jnows how to smoke all kinds of meat and said that 130degrees was the correct temp. Well, the "owner" of the bird disagreed and insisted on 180 degrees.

The turkey at 180 degrees was pitch black on the outside {skin} and extremely dry on the inside......it was inedible and we ended up eating brats off the grill. The owner of the bird blamed the smoker. The temp was checked w/ my digital meat thermometer which is extremely accurate.

Having never eaten a wild turkey, how do they compare to the domestic variety?.......Fred

 

[Phil Coffins]

Fred, a wild turkey is as good as any! The trick is if you cook a big OLD bird it won’t be great. Over cooking any meat makes for a poor feed. All meat well prepared will be good.

 

[tenngun]

I would say the flavor is stonger, although there is no doubt it’s turkey. It’s like tasting tame rabbit and wild,or tame strawberries and wild.
The older bird needs be cooked low and slow. Rubbing them down with lard or butter or covering it with bacon is good in a smoker. A pan of water or beer bubbling along in the smoker helps.
I’ve never been a trophy hunter. I alway shoot the first thing I can get a good shot on. I have ended up with birds that were too old to see next spring and babies on their first adult spring.

 

[Black Hand]

Well, the "owner" of the bird disagreed and insisted on 180 degrees.

The "owner" is an idiot...

Wild Turkey is more red meat than white with a mild flavor.