Butchering a turkey- How do I get turkey bacon?

[kirras]

I am looking into getting turkeys, but when it comes time to process I want to be able to get some turkey bacon. How would I do that? I've processed chickens and ducks, but never a turkey. I've searched the internet, but can't find anything on it. Thanks!

 

[pipemum]

You can't really make turkey bacon. It's fake. It's reprocessed turkey molded into something we recognize, kinda, as bacon.

eta: it's not "fake" meat, but it's not a product you can get off the animal.

 

[DonnerSurvivor]

Just a thought as I have never tried this but you could possibly take the fat and trimmings grind them up and put them through one of those jerky squeeze tubes (kinda looks like a caulk gun but it makes jerky strips out of ground meat). Add some salt and fry it up it cant be much worse than the turkey bacon from the grocery store.

 

[petrel]

The previous post is right. It takes various types of chemestry and machinery to re-process turkey into that fake stuff.

As close as the average household could probably get is to either smoke the turkey, or make it into smoked jerky. Both extend shelf life, both make it taste smokey and salty. That is pretty close.

 

[kirras]

Thanks everyone. I understand it's not a pig and you can't just cut off a chunk and call it bacon. I was mainly wondering if anyone here has tried it and I wanted to try it myself. We don't eat pork, but love turkey bacon. The uncured delicious stuff from places like whole foods, not the thin stuff full of nitrates you get at the grocery store.

 

[Elke Beck]

There are recipes for duck proscuitto, so I wonder about curing turkey breast. I may play with thi with any extra turkeys I have this year. It would not be like bacon, but I think I could probably make something like ham.

 

[kirras]

That sounds like it may be good!

 

[SmokinChick]

I have a recipe for "cured" turkey. But it has pink cure in it. The turkey brines in it for 2 days. Makes more of a "ham" flavor. Then it gets smokes for 5 hrs. Very good but has nitrates and nitrites so I won't bother.
Not really sure what turkey bacon has in it? If it is not cured it is weird.
Good luck