Kinda dumb ques...? Home grown turkey vs wild turkey??

[LittleDarlings]

Do turkeys you raise & process, smell or taste different than wild turkeys? One of my best friend's DH got a wild turkey and after processing it they refuse to EVER eat ANY turkey again! Well I <3 turkey and was considering getting a couple next spring, but now she has me worried that I might not like it after I process it!

Thanks in advance for the answers of wisdom I have to come to expect from BYC

 

[Recon]

They refuse to ever eat any turkey again... Because they were grossed out by the process? Or are you saying they refuse to eat anything but wild turkey? I know plenty of people who don't eat chicken/fish/beef or whatever after they worked in the processing industry for that type of animal.... I also know plenty of people who spent a bunch of time hunting wild turkeys and felt disappointed by the taste. A wild turkey is going to be who-knows-how-old.... and that I think is a huge factor.

My neighbor has tried to raise turkeys about three times and he can never do the deed when it comes time to put them in the freezer. I think the turkeys take so long to grow that he gets attached. He calls me and I do it for him. And I still eat turkey!

If you process your own chickens, I don't see why you would have problem with turkey. Justa bigger job in my mind, like a goose. Still delicious when I'm done!

 

[bwmichaud]

I personally don't think that wild turkey tastes very good and I don't know anyone personally who really loves it. We all eat it if we get one but it really isn't that great. I raise a few turkeys yearly for myself and they are spectacular. I've only had Narragansett, Bourbon Red and the Broad-Breasted Bronze and Whites. There is absolutely no comparison to the wild turkeys. A nice young turkey that you raise in your back yard is far and away better. In many areas, during certain seasons, they only allow you to kill toms or turkeys with visible beards. I feel that eating these toms is like eating an old rooster which, when roasted like most people cook turkey, is really not that tasty.

 

[al6517]

Wild vs home raised is not the issue, the issue is when you proccess your own birds you get to drain the blood or bleed it out. A wild turkey get's shot and all the blood is still in the muscle, so when they cleaned it and then cooked it the meat was full of blood and they probably didn't age it either.

I hunt often and I hunt with a bunch of different people sometimes, most of them couldn't clean their kill to save their life and then when brought home to the DW she doesn't have a clue on even how to cook very well anyway so it's a lose/lose for most of them. That is one reason I never accept wild game from friends when they have some to give away after a hunt, they normaly just screw the whole process up and the meat is wasted.

What should have happened is the turkey should have been butchered properly without cutting it to smitherines, and the meat needed to be what we call a bleed rinse or brine rinse, it involves soaking the turkey in very cold lightly salted water, changing with fresh water everytime the water shows a pink hue to it, indicating blood. Do this as often as needed until the water remains clear, then you know the meat is now free of any muscle blood. You can now wrap and age the bird for 3-4 days in refridgerated conditions before cooking or freezing.

The bird will taste as good as any supermarket bird and maybe just a tad bit tough, but hey it was a wild old Tom turkey. providing you know how to cook and don't goof up that step, it's all pretty easy it just takes some thought and preperation, and that's where most people mess up, they leave their heads in a different place.

 

[LittleDarlings]

They refuse to ever eat any turkey again... Because they were grossed out by the process?

They refuse to eat ANY turkey! She said the smell was horrible as they scalded/plucked it and the little bit of meat she tried just wasn't good. She grew up around chickens being processed and didn't have a problem with them. I know she hasn't tried one that was raised "in the backyard". I don't think they processed it right, either. So I was just wondering if it might have been because he was wild, since I never tried wild turkey before.

The bird will taste as good as any supermarket bird and maybe just a tad bit tough, but hey it was a wild old Tom turkey. providing you know how to cook and don't goof up that step, it's all pretty easy it just takes some thought and preperation, and that's where most people mess up, they leave their heads in a different place.

Well, cooking is one of the few things I AM good at! I love food WAYYYY too much to not know what to do with it! LOL

Thanks for all the info! One of my sons is looking forward to hunting this season, and if he DOES get a tukey, I now have a better idea of what to do with it!

bwm: Thanks for the insight! I might just try my hand at a turkey or 2 next year!

Recon: What a good neighbor!

 

[booker81]

Everything Al said!

I don't raise turkey (yet), but we avidly hunt them. I love the meat - it requires much more care and attention, but it can be delicious ( like I posted in my blog before .

Plucking and roasting one up right away? No thank you.

Home and wild are almost two different critters. You'd be mighty hard pressed to get a wild turkey to have the taste and texture of a Butterball.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

I hunt often and I hunt with a bunch of different people sometimes, most of them couldn't clean their kill to save their life and then when brought home to the DW she doesn't have a clue on even how to cook very well anyway so it's a lose/lose for most of them. That is one reason I never accept wild game from friends when they have some to give away after a hunt, they normaly just screw the whole process up and the meat is wasted.

Alot of good points.

Many things give wild game a bad name.

Trophy hunting where older animals are harvested is going to provide tougher and stronger tasting meat.
Chase type hunting where animals are stressed and meat is full of lactic acid prior to kill.
Messy kills where digestive fluids or blood get into the meat, kills that are not quick and improper bleading.
Poor butchering, not cleaning bone chips or marrow from meat and lack of attention to trimming.
Sketchy conditions or practices for aging meat.
Lack in cooking skills.

Around our house venison is liked just as well if not better than beef. It was not always that way though until we really learned what it took to produce quality wild game for the table.

As far as the taste of wild meat vs store vs free ranged they will all taste different, in my mind it is not that one is bad, better or worse, just different. Favoring tender mild flavored store bought meat is a product of most people being conditioned on it and the associated emulsified meat byproducts.​

 

[PotterWatch]

I haven't ever had wild turkey so I can't speak to that part, but if you can grow your own Thanksgiving turkey, I say go for it! Processing a turkey isn't any different than processing a chicken except that it is much easier to clean out the cavity since they are so much bigger, and it can be a little tough to find a pot big enough for scalding.

 

[LittleDarlings]

Around our house venison is liked just as well if not better than beef. It was not always that way though until we really learned what it took to produce quality wild game for the table.

My dad and brothers hunted all the time when we lived in Wyoming, so we had venison, buffalo, elk and whatever else they could shoot. I'm currently not a big fan of wild game meat. I still prefer moo-cow. My brothers ARE NOT cooks...they hunt it and clean and do not care how it got to the table. I'm hoping that with my son hunting that I will have more say over how it's COOKED. Any tips are greatly appreciated and can be sent PM if you would prefer.

 

[wyoDreamer]

The best wild turkey I had was actually split into two different meals. We skinned it instead of trying to pluck it.

The breast was cut off the bird, sliced across the grain of the meat into 1/2 inch thick slices and thrown into a crock pot with cream of mushroom soup and sliced onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on low for 4 hours. Serve over egg noodles. It was fantastic!

The rest of the carcass (wings, and legs included) was made into turkey and dumplings.