Thanksgiving Turkey - wild or not?

[bburtner@moran]

Any loungers out there enjoy "wild" turkey" insted of the store bought birds?

 

[rumblefish]

Me!!!
My favorite game bird!
Too bad I don't get them very often.

 

[duggap]

From the "for what it's worth" department, here in Chattanooga we have plenty of wild turkey and plenty of hunters. All most every year we look for a wild turkey. The bird is just two steps above a domesticated bird. Just ask anyone who has ate one.

 

[LocktownDog]

Yeah. But they're not easy to find out here in the high desert. So this year we're "settling" for duck, specifically widgeon. YUM!

 

[vintage_jayhawk]

A couple years ago my brother managed to shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. The only problem was my mom couldn't find all the buckshot before she cooked it, so we had to chew carefully! It was better than any store bought turkey I've ever had, plus it was about twice the size!

 

[cooncatbob]

They're almost a pest here in Sacramento, but they frown upon you blasting them.
I've often thought of clubbing 1.lol

 

[Atticus Finch]

There's tons of wild turkeys here. No kidding...there are flocks of them in the fields around my house.

But turkey season in North Carolina doesn't begin until April...so I'll be eating a Harris Teeter bird this year, as usual.

AF

 

[dhermann1]

My nephew bagged one several years ago. My brother told me you can't cook them the same as a domesticated bird, all together in a roasting pan. Is this true? Anyone have any pics or recipes for a roast wild turkey? I would assume they have much more flavor.

 

[Wally_Hood]

A couple years ago my brother managed to shoot a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. The only problem was my mom couldn't find all the buckshot before she cooked it, so we had to chew carefully! It was better than any store bought turkey I've ever had, plus it was about twice the size!

My father-in-law hunts turkeys on his property. I asked him the same sort of question, re: How do you get the shot out of the bird before you cook it?
He chuckled and said "I aim for the head."

 

[rumblefish]

My nephew bagged one several years ago. My brother told me you can't cook them the same as a domesticated bird, all together in a roasting pan. Is this true? Anyone have any pics or recipes for a roast wild turkey? I would assume they have much more flavor.

As long as they haven't been skinned you can roast them just the same. The breast meat on a wild turkey is quite a bit darker and not as full and round as the domestic raised birds' are. The taste is different, not necessarily stronger, but fuller. You can hardly call it gamy though. When hunting turkey you're not looking to center the bird in the shot pattern, so there usually isn't a whole lot of damage the entire bird, just the neck up. If it does wind up getting peppered by the shot and needs to be skinned, I wrap the breast in sliced salt pork or bacon and roast it, then make a cream gravy. With the skinned wings, legs, thighs, and back I make a fricassee.

Wild ducks and geese, especially if hunted over salt water, are a different story.

 

[High Pockets]

Having been an avid hunter for most of my life I've had the opportunity to sample countless wild game dishes,.....when I was younger I enjoyed most of them and shared them with family members and many of my friends.
But as I got older I began to realize that,.........well,.....it really wasn't all as appetizing as I had once thought. Now, in my mid-fifties I offer my game to other hunters, favoring instead a soft Butterball turkey to a wild bird and a nice tender charcoaled Ribeye to even the best of venison.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[dhermann1]

BTW, here's an article from the good old Christian Science Monitor (a fine New England institution, I might add) dated 2002, that sort of sheds a little light on what we think of as our ancient Thanksgiving tradition. I posted it here, instead of the Happy Thanksgiving thread, so as not to be called a Thanksgiving Grinch.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/o..../www.csmonitor.com/2002/1127/p13s02-lign.html

 

[Lone_Ranger]

Doesn't wild turkey come in a bottle?

I'd like to try it. Always had the farm raised type. Though we try to do goose for Christmas. And venison quite often.

If anyone has recipes for goose, and venison, send me a PM. I've been trying to find a copy of Nugent's game cook book. Still looking for a copy.