What do you do with him once you've killed him?

Do you use the whole bird or just the breast? Do you always save all the fans/spurs or maybe just save a pic? Do you freeze the meat or do they get eaten immediately? Do you age the meat at all or not?

I just breast them out. I started out saving beards and spurs now I just throw them away.

I breast them out. Basically like a giant dove or duck is how you clean him. I usually freeze mine. Definitely don't need to eat them immediately. I always take the fan, spurs and beard

I tie em to the roof of my little Honda Accord and drive em all around the county

He means after that...

Ima try an cover the whole wall

Everybody is different so it depends on what you prefer. I cut the breast out, sometime I'll skin out the legs and thighs for my dad and he boils them and make some cornbread dressing. I don't care much for the spurs, I'll cut them off but they are all in a coffee can at the trailer at camp. The beards I'll take the shotgun shell I killed him with and cut the plastic hull off down the the brass then knock the cap out and run a loop of paracord through it and hot glue the beard in the brass and hang it up. I'll usually give the fan away.

I breast them out , put in freezer . I keep all beards, spurs and fans . Open up the fan and tack it on a piece of plywood and pack borax on any meat . After the fan sets for a few months i put fan-beard - spurs on a plaque .

I eat the meat. Save the fan and beard.

I am amazed that so many just take the breast. Sure, I have always done that with doves... but a turkey? sounds like a huge waste. Drumsticks on a dove are tiny. On a turkey? That's one of the best parts! And big! Sounds to me like just cutting the backstraps out of a deer.

A had a 30' by 12' room literally full of mounts, fans, spurs and beards. Now I'm moving and don't a have big enough space. Going to have to Hager creative ideas

Guess I done saving fans.

The legs require special attention to be editable. I boil them first (maybe hour or more) then pick/strip the meat away from the tendons. Then you can use it in stew/soup with vegetable, etc.

If you think you are just going to marinate them and grill them up you better have teeth like "The Predator":)

Little time in a crock pot with lemon juice and chicken broth will make them legs very editable. They'll get so editable there won't be any left the next day

I breast them out. I save every spur off of every bird and string them up. The beards usually wind up in bags in the basement. I will take a fan off one usually once a year or so to use as decoys or stake fans.

I sometimes keep all the meat if I have time. Legs, wings and thighs get cooked in a crockpot with onions, chicken broth and spices.




This generates a good bit of meat that can be used for casseroles, wild turkey salads, etc.

Wild Turkey Salad:


Wild Turkey Casserole:


For the breast, regardless of whether I intend to fry it or grill it, I brine it. You'll really up the taste and texture of fried breast and certainly grilled by doing this. I use a simple brine:

8 cups water
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar (Brown or white)

I split it up and do 4 cups water in one pot, and heat to dissolve the 1/2 cup salt. In the other pot, 4 cups of water and the sugar and heat until dissolved. While it's still hot, I throw some orange peel and rosemary in too. Once cool, I combine the two mixtures into a large bowl, then I lay the turkey breasts in. I cover it and put it in the refrigerator for 12hrs. I then wash the meat off a little, and pat dry.


If I am going to fry them, they're ready now:


If I am going to grill them, I really like a herb and garlic marinade, that I let the breasts sit in for another 12 hrs. I baste the turkey a little with the same marinade as it's grilling.



As for the inedible parts, I used to keep wing feathers, fan, beard and spurs. Now I keep just beard and spurs unless I have a request or need for the fan.

I breast 'em out, and keep the legs, beard & fan for my mounts I DIY make

breast, legs, fan, beard, and spurs

Here is a blog post I did on how much meat you are throwing away and what recipe I like the best for the dark meat.

https://greatdaysoutdoors.com/2017/03/honey-sriracha-turkey-jerky/

I cut off the feet and beard and add them to my display at the end of the season. I don't save fans anymore.

To clean him, I hang him by the head and skin him, then cut off the thighs, taking the legs with them and all of the back meat I can get. Then fillet each side of the breast out.

Cleaned this way, I have 2 gallon bags of breast meat and one bag holds all the dark meat.

thats a good idea PCP. Do you just peel the whole hide off of him in one lick?

So nobody plucks them leaving the skin on the way you would a chicken? Is this just because it's so tedious or because the skin isn't any good? On fried chicken the skin is my favorite part.

I make a cut all the way around at the base of the neck and then make a cut all the way down his back. I use loping shears to cut thru the drumstick bone just below the meat. That makes it fit the gallon bag better.

Before that I use the loping shears to cut the wing bone at the first joint. After he is skinned, I cut out the wing bone. That makes it possible to start the fillet of the breast at the strip of white meat that extends to the center of the back. It's hard to get a clean fillet if you don't remove the wing bones.

Smells, long years ago we used to scald them in a dishpan of hot water and then pluck them. That's nice if you are gonna bake him, but not really needed if you are gonna cut the breast into strips anyway. And it's a whole lot more trouble.

What I was really wondering was if anyone deep fried the whole turkey the way some people do store bought turkeys but without the burning down of the house part. I'd think you would want the skin on for that but I don't know. I've never fried a whole turkey of any sort.

I do them basically like PCP and normally give it a away. I'll keep a breast or two to fry, but my wife and I are not big turkey eaters. So I usually give to someone who will enjoy. I keep all spurs and beards. I'll keep a wing when I need one to use to do a fly down or dusting sound, etc. Haven't kept a fan in years.

Buddy and I did this last year. The results were, well...

The breast was awesome, and the skin was too. The legs were basically inedible, far too tough. If I fry another one it will just be a skin-on breast/back on the bone. Pluck the top half and skin the bottom half.

These days I usually take the breast, legs and thighs boneless. Legs and thighs are great when braised/pulled.

AUTrout, got a link to that casserole? Looks awesome.

I don't. I think I used some sort of chicken and mushroom casserole I found on the internet and added turkey instead of chicken.