Wild Gourmet - Processing Turkey

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Naturally Healthy Game, Fish and Fowl Recipes for Everyday Chefs

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Processing Turkey When processing birds, even those that I pluck and plan on serving whole, I always separate the chest from the back and legs of the bird. These are two very different types of meat and they require different cooking temperatures and durations to be done well. The light protein of the breasts should only be cooked to an internal temperature of 155°F for 15 seconds and no more. The rest of the dark protein should be roasted long enough to reach the crucial 170°F for one to two hours, which breaks down the tougher connective tissues found in the meat. When roasting whole birds, I will fill the cavity with stuffing as normal and set the breast plate on top. That way I can take the breasts out to rest and avoid overcooking, while the rest of the bird finishes. To avoid drying out birds that have no skin, I recommend that you soak cheesecloth in rendered fat and lay this over the bird while roasting.

Wild Turkey Processing Tool Kit—bone saw, game shears, and boning knife. Wild turkey is generally harvested when temperatures are warm, ice packs will help cool your meat without the liquid mess from melting ice.

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1. Remove legs with game shears or bone saw, just above the knee joint. 2. Holding the wing out, grab all of the larger flight feathers, pulling them close to the end of the wing. This will reveal the joint where we will remove the wing. 3. Remove each wing at this joint by cutting through with the game shears.

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Processing Turkey 4

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4. Remove the beard by plucking nearby feathers, pinching the beard and a half inch of extra skin on all sides, pull away from chest and cut under the skin and beard with the boning knife. 5. Using the cut from the beard removal, pull the neck down and out the hole. 6. Cut through the neck, just below area most affected by the kill shot. Cut off skin and head once neck has been severed. 7. Pluck feather from breasts and sternum. Pulling feathers towards the head of the turkey. 8. Remove feathers from 2 to 3 inches surrounding the sternum. 9. Slice through skin, starting at the base of the sternum. 10. Cutting through all the way to the neck.

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Processing Turkey 11

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11. Above the top of the sternum in gobblers is a red and yellow viscous fatty substance known as the breast sponge. Remove all the sponge tissue. It is easier if the turkey has been thoroughly chilled. Also remove the crop, an extension of the esophagus used to store large quantities of food for future digestion. 12. Use the boning knife to remove the breast sponge from the breasts. 13. Continue to remove the skin by pulling away from sternum. 14. Pull skin over the breast plate and neck.

15. Pull through each wing. 16. Pull through each leg. 17. Keep peeling skin away from flesh, working towards the backbone.

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18. Push back the skin of the tail. 19. Cut the skin at the base of the tail, leaving plenty of feathers for a tail mount if desired. 20. Remove

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any breast sponge still remaining. 21. Pull back skin and feather of the tail. 22. Cut through tail bone with boning knife or game shears. 23. Cut through breast meat right where it attaches to the sternum. 24. Follow this cut right up to the end of the wishbone. 25. The breast is now free of the sternum, leaving the tender still attached.

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See Chef Dan Nelson’s Hickory Cider Glazed Wild Turkey recipe on page 109.

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26. Cut close to the sternum and behind the tender. 27.

Clip the tendon that connects the tender to the bone and remove. 28. Cut the tendons that attach the breast to the shoulder joint. 29. Cut free the breast by cutting the attached flesh at the backbone. 30-33. Repeat steps 26 through 29 to remove the other breast. 34. Cut through the flesh and connective tissue of the rear leg, following the tailbone and backbone. 35. Be sure to cut around the upper thigh—the most delicious dark meat on a game bird. 36. Use game shears to cut through hip bone and remove the leg. 37. The triangular piece of the upper thigh can be removed if desired. 38. One turkey yields one carcass for stock, two breasts, two tenders and two legs.

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Processing Turkey / Gizzard 1

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1. Make a half circle cut around the outer edge of the gizzard. 2. Cutting through all flesh and the tough inner skin of the gizzard called the koilin lining. 3. Revealing the partially ground food and stones on the inside of the gizzard. 4. Fold open the gizzard and discard the food paste in a trash can. 5. Rinse thoroughly under running water. 6. Place gizzard on a clean cutting board. Cut through the other half circle of the gizzard. 7. Cut through the thin silverskin connecting the remaining quarters of the gizzard. 8. Remove any extra fatty and vascular tissue. 9. Place the koilin layer on the cutting board and slip the boning knife between that layer and the flesh. 10. Make a small cut separating the koilin layer from the flesh, filleting the koilin layer from the flesh. 11. Yields four clean pyramids of gizzard.

At right, turkey liver (A) and heart (B).

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