This is the best turkey we ever had! We been doing this for five years now! Food TV, Good Eats, "Romancing the Bird"

Link

Does have some short tv adds, about 3 minutes worth all together.
Wire

That's a good one wire! Now you are talkin my language.

I love that Alton Brown and the Good Eats series. I was just thinking during yesterday's episode on trout that all I want for Christmas is the full 10 year collection of Good Eats on DVD.

This year I'm going to snare my own turkey from the gaggle which forages across my property several times a week. I'll just wring its neck and butcher it on the back porch early thanksgiving day morning. Now that'll be some good eats.

Do it a day before and brine it.(we brine 12 hours) I have been told wild turkey is tough. Good luck.

At Costco they have his new book, I saw it today.

My wife likes the Barefoot Contessa, with all that butter!

Alton Brown removed that Martha Stewart bit with his sister. This was a remake. That was the glue gun and wreath bit.

Report back on the wild bird, if it is tough or not.

WIRE

Reservations, a few suggestions?

I grain feed a wild turkey for a few weeks before I shoot it. Otherwise it will taste and smell gross.

The longer on the feed the better.

If you can get it in a pen better yet. cracked corn and chicken scratch mix works good.

Cut the head off and let it bleed out well.

Pour scalding hot water over it before trying to pick the feathers.

Good luck!

I've been practicing herding them around the prop for a year or so. I'm gonna herd them into a temporary pen real easy like and select the fattest one and let the others go.

I'll clean out his system with the mixture you suggested. Seems like I should do it within a day or two if I want the tastey bird.

Maybe it's too late. Should I wait for next year and feed him for a month instead?

I know there a place to the right going up Calistoga Rd. where they did have turkeys about ten in a pen. Some were white, some look wild. This about seven miles up.(THE SECOND GRADE)Have NOT been on that road very much this year to look. They do fly res. not far.
DO THEY NEED A RUNNING START TO FLY?

WIRE

I would bet you have enough time. 2 1/2 weeks should clean out the system nicely.

Bleeding the bird out and taking a high pressure garden hose to wash out the chest cavity is important.

You will know if the bird will be gamey after you wash it out and smell it.

I think it's great you are taking this on.

I'm just prepping myself for the total collapse and the greatest depression coming in the next several years. A little survival training, if you know what I mean. Gotta deaden my humanity to slaughtering an animal. I heard it gets easier the more you do it. I'm fixin to tag along with my hunting buddies and learn how to gut and strip a deer down. Get my face all in the cavity to scrap off the goodies inside. I think it's like getting sea sick, puke up once and you never get sea sick again.

Guarantee my family will never go hungry.

Country boy can survive.

I understand. I raise beef cattle and Mrs. Conservative raises a nice garden.

I think it may be a bit harder for me when I butcher an animal I have raised. I may have a greater aprreciation.

We enjoy seeing our family eat well and have pride in the fact we put it on the table with our hands.

Pigs have a great return of value,They will eat the table scraps and almost any free feed. The pen is minimal.

If you have the pasture, a calf raised to maturity keeps the family feed for about a year and a half. I feed corn and oats the last 4 months or so, but my cost is still only about $2.00 /lb. steaks and all.

I don't know if it gets easier, but it helps me to have the mindset that this is food for the table, like every other animal that goes on the table.

I learned to dress chickens from an old 4H book. The turkeys are the same.
The effort will be in the pen and plucking the feathers. A simple "T" post and wire pen will do just fine.

You will do great and your work will be a reward to your family.