The Turkey Saga

We usually like to raise a couple turkeys for Thanksgiving. We like to have one to put in the smoker and one to deep fry, and then we'll have lots of leftover turkey for the freezer. For some reason we don't have good luck raising turkeys. We got 9 poults this summer in hopes of maybe selling some and keeping some to hatch eggs from, but they all died except for this one!

Katy named him Toaster Strudel and he was actually pretty nice, since he was the only one and didn't have any hens to impress. He was so big though!

Tuesday afternoon Joanna helped me load him into the small dog kennel and I took him off to the butcher.

When I went back to pick it up I couldn't believe how big it was! For some reason I was in denial about how big he was and kept telling Katy he was "mostly feathers." Well, that wasn't true! The butcher was laughing while he loaded it for me because neither his wife or I could lift it (a wet, slippery, heavy bird is hard to pick up without an apron!) and it didn't even fit in the cooler I had taken 😂 

We got it home though and weighed it and it was 33.5lbs! I admit I was a little overwhelmed and didn't know where to start with it to get it brining.

The last couple years I dry brined our turkeys and that has worked so well and made for some very delicious, juicy meat. I should have timed myself but it felt like it took me forever to get the turkey spatchcocked and then halved. Alma kept coming to check on me and give me encouragement 😆

To dry brine you use 2 tbsp of kosher salt gor every 10lbs of bird, plus your seasoning. Then you put it on a rack in a pan so there is air circulation.

We ended up having to smoke both halves for 6 hours at 275°. 

I think it was the juiciest most flavorful bird we've ever done! And it made for lots of laughs around the table while telling the story of our giant turkey 😄

Another funny thing was that I had to go buy a turkey from the store since Ricky insisted we still have one to fry. The smallest one I could find there was 16.5lbs and it almost seemed like a chicken after dealing with our homegrown bird.

the day after thanksgiving, Alma cut all the meat up and I vacuum sealed it into 2 cup portions for the freezer. We ended up with 13 bags to freeze 😊