Happy Turkey Day
For the past two chicken processing days, my former high school equestrian coach and semi-neighbor joined me in the operation. We had ran into each other at our local horse auction back in September and, when she asked what I was doing the next weekend, I laughed and told her “processing chickens.” She immediately jumped in asking that if she came and helped, could she bring a few older birds and extra roosters to process?
My answer?
Absolutely!
I once read in a sustainable meat bird forum on Facebook about how truly sustainable operations and those who raise chickens themselves, must be able to process birds - even if it’s just a few rooster grow outs or old layers - a year. I thought that this concept was really interesting because it took me back to the pioneer days of when people would raise their own laying hens. A little reminiscent of one of my favorite compliments from Pride & Prejudice where Mrs. Bennet says something to the tune of “keep a good pen of hens.”
As a part of our growing meat bird processing alliance, I went over to her farm with my plucker, scalding pot and propane tanks in tow - maybe the real reason I was invited, but I was curious! Setting up our processing location, I was caught extremely off guard when what should walk up but a TALL white tom. Curious and a kind eye, he was so different from the nearly one thousand chickens I have raised. A peculiar creature, he was stoic and intelligent - much like the hundreds of wild turkeys I see around our farm in hordes.
This large bird whom I have so much respect for from such a short encounter, inspired me to really dig deep into all things turkey for this blog post today.
Learning About Turkey Day
The blog Mental Floss shares that we eat turkey on Thanksgiving not necessarily because the pilgrims did back at that 1621 celebration in Plymouth, however Edward Winslow, a colonist and primary author of the time, said in his first-hand account of the first Thanksgiving meal that they “gathered wild fowl for the meat.” That could have meant ducks or geese but wild turkeys were in the area.
Turkeys are uniquely North American and are present in all of the lower 48 states. The historical U.S. greats like Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln all have great turkey related quotes from them all surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday but it wasn’t until Lincoln was President in 1863 that he declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.
And it seems that turkey was the perfect pastured protein to consume at this Holy Day! As someone who raises meat chickens, I took some time in my ranching journal today post turkey processing to really think about “why turkey?” Outside of the occasional turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich, I never truly eat turkey as a stand alone. Impressive in size, the largest tender chickens I have ever raised were cornish crosses circa winter 2020-2021 that lived their entire life in a shed eating mostly meat bird feed. Those chickens came in at a whopping 8 pounds on the top end but that has nothing on the 26 and 28 pound turkeys that I processed today.
One turkey could feed my immediate family, my fiancé with a voracious appetite, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, my other aunt and uncle, my cousins and their spouses, and any other little mouths to feed. It would probably take 3-4 of my chickens to do that same amount. With the average household only having one oven, there’s no way we could even cook that much chicken and have it all done at the same time. The mobility of air fryers may be a game changer in this thought process if we had people bring theirs to the house to cook, but it’s an interesting concept.
Additionally, laying eggs isn’t something we necessarily get from turkeys as they lay differently than chickens. While a domestic turkey can lay eggs year around, they’ll only lay, at most, two per week for a total of a hundred a year. I did do some research and while we can eat turkey eggs with some people likening them to duck eggs, they really aren’t efficient layers. Just to raise these two toms since March, my friend suggested they ate about 50 pounds of feed themselves. Her husband also added in that they were much pickier than chickens, hating to get their “bald heads wet,” hiding from the rain in the barn, and refusing to be outside during extreme weather of any kind. Plus, what comes out of the other end was SHOCKINGLY larger than that of any chicken I have ever seen so that barn was pretty messy after 8 months!
Notes From Processing Turkeys
They didn’t fit in our chicken kill cones - obviously.
Once upon a tragic processing day time, I had a good friend bring over six cornish crosses that she had her kids raise as a part of their 2020 homeschooling project. I had chicks the same age, but I didn’t process that my foraging cornish would be MUCH smaller in size at 10 weeks than her in-a-yard-pen-eating-meat-feed cornish. They were literally the size of turkeys with their hanging weight being 17 pounds ( yes, they were tough to eat). We learned that day that birds of that size don’t fit into chicken kill cones so we used a 5 gallon bucked with a hole drilled out in the bottom.They didn’t fit in our scalding pot or plucker.
This one I wasn’t quite sure about, my mom was confidant that they would, and while we did get them in - it was a close fit. We ended up having to scald the feet separately to clean them rather than submerging the whole bird at once. Width wise we were fine, close but fine - it was the length of their necks that made it hard. Make sure the person handling the birds have good upper body strength because they were HEAVY and you won’t be able to test the feet to see when they are done. You have to know what you’re looking for feather wise. As for the plucker - there was no way they were fitting so thank heavens it was easy to pluck by hand!You didn’t have to scald them as long.
While we normally plunge the chickens for about 90 seconds, these were about 60 seconds at the 145 degree water. Not a big deal, just make sure to keep an eye on them and not over heat the body.Cleaning was more of a carving.
I couldn’t help but find it ironic that in cleaning the bird itself, it was much more like carving than a chicken. With the chickens, I usually make two quick cuts on the tail and then a down cut to remove the tail, pooper and the gaseous sac near the tail. For the turkeys, I actually had to cut around the tail and then carve out to get first the gall bladder and then the rest of the entrails out. From there, I was able to pull out the gall bladder which was larger than my fist. Followed by a quick grab of the livers which were one liver per hand! It was quite impressive to be honest. The heart was also about 5 times the size of a chicken! The lungs were easier to grab but the crop quickly humbled me. It was extremely hard to get out as it was full, and I had to use the point of a sharp knife to peel it out. I highly recommend using a sharp replaceable blade knife or paring knife for this part.
Much to my fiancé’s inevitable dismayed, I am really interested in raising turkeys myself in the future so I would LOVE to hear from those of you that have done so! You can comment below or send me a message on Instagram at the button below!