I figured that the turkeys would be just like butchering a really large chicken. Right?
Not Quite...
Mechanically, procedurally, anatomically yeah. But there is a bit of a difference when you are dealing with a struggling 50 pounds of pissed off turkey fighting for it's life. I couldn't have done it without help from my friend Matt. I actually did the first turkey (Salad by name) myself. She had some kind of leg injury about a week and a half back and wasn't too much trouble. I learned a hard lesson though when I got to the plucking and gutting portion. Her injury had gone septic. The skin and tissue around the injury area was dark green. She had to be disposed of. I was pretty upset about what I considered to be a tragic waste until my wife sent me this:
I’m not upset that we waited to process her. I don’t feel like she’s going to waste. We loved her very much. And it’s the same thing as with any of our other animals. She was loved very much, she got sick and we put her to sleep. She had a very good life while she was here. And we enjoyed her company very much.
My wife is so cool.
The next bird to go was the other Hen (Dinner). She went quietly as well. I used a black sock as a hood to keep them calm. I got the idea from the episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe works on an Ostrich farm. I really think it helped. She was beautiful, and huge. They were 22 weeks of age.
Finally we tackled our Tom (Tom-go figure). He was a beast of a turkey. We had to get creative to keep his spurs from gutting us (no pun intended). Matt had the idea of using a moving blanket with a hole cut out for his head to go through. Worked like a charm. He finished out at 40 pounds.
Again, what a day.
