# Wild Turkey Cleaning and Meat Prep



## svk (Apr 20, 2017)

Anyone here hunt turkeys? Will be my first time out on Sunday. Once you put one in the bag, do you just breast it out or pick the whole thing like a domestic bird?

Secondly I have heard the wild meat is more gamey than domestic. Any tips or recipes for cooking it?

Thanks!


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## tla100 (Apr 22, 2017)

Gut it, get turkey fryer pot with water hot. Throw turkey in water and that helps release feathers. Pluck, rinse and repeat. Burn off the hairs. We usually inject them with butter marinade. Hard to beat in the turkey fryer with peanut oil. Takes some babysitting, but it is good. Have tried smoking them too.


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## tla100 (Apr 22, 2017)

Gut it, get turkey fryer pot with water hot. Throw turkey in water and that helps release feathers. Pluck, rinse and repeat. Burn off the hairs. We usually inject them with butter marinade. Hard to beat in the turkey fryer with peanut oil. Takes some babysitting, but it is good. Have tried smoking them too.


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## muddstopper (Apr 22, 2017)

The trick to plucking a bird is to not over heat the water. Temps between 140-144f will help the feathers release easily. If you over heat the water, it will set the feathers, making them difficult to pluck. I have never gutted a bird before plucking. To do so opens up the body cavity to bacterial contamination. Pluck, rinse then gut. unless you plan on letting the dead bird sit around for a while before cleaning. If that is the case, then gut as soon as possible. My experience is with chickens, cant say I have ever cleaned a turkey. With chickens we usually already have the water hot, catch the chicken, chop off its head, let it flop and bleed out, dunk and pluck, take a newspaper, set it on fire and wave it over the carcass to burn off the little pin feathers, then gut and process.


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## Johnnybar (Apr 22, 2017)

Open skin up down centerline of breast, fillet breasts and take legs/thighs and you got 95% of the meat. If you want the classic Thanksgiving stuffed turkey, then the guys have already helped with that. We cut breast into strips, bread, batter or crumb and deep fry.


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## gary courtney (Apr 22, 2017)

breast them and cover with bacon and put them in smoker is what we do.


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