Saturday, November 29, 2008

The abattoir

He is now in the fridge. In pieces. He wouldn't even fit in the freaking sink whole! Seriously...I think that turkey still weighed at least 38 pounds by the time he was plucked and gutted. I don't have a pan big enough to cook him in whole and he was definitely not going to fit in my oven! So, pieces he became. I now have two turkey breasts that probably weigh more than 5# each, two drumsticks that rival those gigantic roasted things you get at Ren Faires, a couple of Tupperware tubs packed with dark meat and a 15 gallon pot of vegetables and turkey stock simmering on the stove. I even managed to harvest that last of my fresh herbs to toss in the pot. Mmmm...smells delicious! I'll freeze most of it into gallon-sized freezer bags and use it for soups this winter.

We did not butcher the other two turkeys. With as much meat as I know I'm going to have when I cook this guy we just won't have any room in the freezer for two more! And like I told my hubs...it kind of defeats the purpose of raising birds for fresh meat if you're just gonna toss 'em in the freezer. We'll butcher the other two as we want to eat them.

I'm going to braise the meat cuts instead of roasting them to keep them tender and flavorful.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sooo, was he nummy? And did the kids nibble on him?

Jenn said...

He was absolutely numilicious! Wild gobbled him up, but Unruly wouldn't even LOOK at the meat. It was a challenge to get it all cooked properly, but I managed. :P

We managed to feed 9 people for Thanksgiving, I made two HUGE turkey pot pies (froze one) with enough of the filling mix left to make at least one more pot pie, I made 4 gallons of turkey stock and froze it for soups this winter, I froze about 4 pounds of meat for future use and Robert and I have been taking turkey to work for lunch for many days now, as well as having turkey leftovers for dinner EVERY DAY.

We're turkey-ed out!

Kathy said...

Very cool. Turkey pie sounds delish! He was a marvelous looking guy alive too. How are the goat kids? Are you going to breed them to have fresh kid meat and milk? We are still working on getting the chicken coop and chickens for the grandson to provide us with fresh eggs.

Nancy R said...

Wow, that's a lot of turkey!

Jenn said...

Kathy...nooo! We're not going to eat the goats, not even the kids. I've thought about it and I just can't wrap my head around eating goat. We'll find a nice Mexican family to sell the unwanted kids to. We've been seeking a decent buck to breed our girls to and I've yet to find a nice Nubian buck any closer than 2 hours away. They do need to be bred and SOON.
No coop yet? Get busy! hehe! Do you know what kind of chicks you guys are going to get? I can make some recommendations of my favorite breeds. :P

Nancy R...TONS of meat! That one turkey is going to keep my family fed for the rest of the year! And then some.