Friday, November 23, 2012

How to prepare turkey from scratch

Here is the smallest turkey we picked out of the pen.
Ready to hang her up.
Ready to go.
Shay practicing on the chopping block to get the hatchet just right with the right swing.
A good clean blow.
No one wanted the head.
Todd posing with the head.
Already plucked and ready to gut.  Dane poses with the prized turkey feet and says "Look I am a Tyranasaurous Rex!"
Todd serves as a high councilor in a different ward and one of the families asked Todd if we would be interested in buying one of their farm turkeys for our Thanksgiving.  We decided to let the boys experience the whole process of getting the turkey ready to eat.  We arrived at their farm and picked out the smallest turkey and Shay practiced with the hatchet on a wood block and with one "whack" the turkey was ready to pluck.  I was proud of Shay because he wasn't really interested in this part but decided to gird up his loins and do the business.  Dane hid behind the barn the first time but then there were 2 other turkeys to do and he watched that process.  The Miller Family had a huge pot boiling on a propane fire and we dipped the turkey and plucked it and watched as he showed us how to gut it and we were surprised that our turkey weighed 27 1/2 pounds after cleaning and gutting. We had lots of fun trying to get all of the pin feathers and getting it beautiful for roasting.

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