MidTennFisher
Well-Known Member
Big shoutout to my wife - she worked hard on this thing while I got stuck working through this past weekend.
She brined it for about 36 hours and roasted it in the oven breast down. We did it this way because so much skin had to be removed around the breast to get rid of that nasty, fatty breast sponge and the crop. It worked out really well, the breast meat was plenty moist and flavorful. She stuffed the cavity with more herbs, onion, carrots, and garlic. The issue was something is up with our meat thermometer. It never registered 165 even after cooking that dang bird for 10+ hours at a low temp. I finally called it done and started carving, that meat was as done as it could possibly be but still showed 151 degrees. I've seen that thermometer read over 170 before in pork chops so I'm not sure what the deal was.
Anyway, the meat was a little drier than it should have been because she inadvertently cooked it longer than necessary. Not her fault, she was trying to be safe. We've eaten plenty of it already. It was late at night when it was finally out of the oven and we both had to work the next day so I didn't have time to fool with all the work to get the dark meat off the wings, thighs, and legs, so we decided to throw it all in a stock pot with the carcass and make a big batch of wild turkey stock. It simmered for 24 hours.
The stock was very flavorful and we have several mason jars in the freezer. Every scrap of dark meat fell off beautifully but it was a little bland to our surprise. Not near as flavorful as it was the night we cooked it, I did try a few bites. Not to worry, we shredded it up and made dark meat turkey salad with a recipe we like to make chicken salad with. Mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, halved grapes, s/p, and chopped pecans. it was way better than any time we made it with chicken!
I didn't want to go into too much detail here with recipes for brine, roasting, or the salad but if you want that info feel free to PM me.
It didn't work out perfectly, but we did use every scrap of meat on that bird which is exactly why I plucked it whole so I guess it did workout perfectly!
She brined it for about 36 hours and roasted it in the oven breast down. We did it this way because so much skin had to be removed around the breast to get rid of that nasty, fatty breast sponge and the crop. It worked out really well, the breast meat was plenty moist and flavorful. She stuffed the cavity with more herbs, onion, carrots, and garlic. The issue was something is up with our meat thermometer. It never registered 165 even after cooking that dang bird for 10+ hours at a low temp. I finally called it done and started carving, that meat was as done as it could possibly be but still showed 151 degrees. I've seen that thermometer read over 170 before in pork chops so I'm not sure what the deal was.
Anyway, the meat was a little drier than it should have been because she inadvertently cooked it longer than necessary. Not her fault, she was trying to be safe. We've eaten plenty of it already. It was late at night when it was finally out of the oven and we both had to work the next day so I didn't have time to fool with all the work to get the dark meat off the wings, thighs, and legs, so we decided to throw it all in a stock pot with the carcass and make a big batch of wild turkey stock. It simmered for 24 hours.
The stock was very flavorful and we have several mason jars in the freezer. Every scrap of dark meat fell off beautifully but it was a little bland to our surprise. Not near as flavorful as it was the night we cooked it, I did try a few bites. Not to worry, we shredded it up and made dark meat turkey salad with a recipe we like to make chicken salad with. Mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, halved grapes, s/p, and chopped pecans. it was way better than any time we made it with chicken!
I didn't want to go into too much detail here with recipes for brine, roasting, or the salad but if you want that info feel free to PM me.
It didn't work out perfectly, but we did use every scrap of meat on that bird which is exactly why I plucked it whole so I guess it did workout perfectly!
