Spring Archery Turkey Hunt

[processhead]

My hunting buddy and I doubled-down on toms this morning. He made an early shot on his bird but made a bad hit and thought he had lost it as it ran off.
45 minutes later I got a shot at another tom from a different blind and it thankfully went down quickly.
Later while we were searching for his wounded tom on the ground, I happened to glance up in a tree and saw a turkey perched about 30 feet in the air.
I flagged down my buddy and he could see it had a wounded leg. He was able to get a second arrow into the tom and successfully brought him down.
We had noticed a coyote near by about the time I shot my bird. It kind of made sense that wounded tom wanted get up off the ground and avoid the coyote.

[glen]

processhead Turkey sausage?

[processhead]

glen said in Spring Archery Turkey Hunt:

processhead Turkey sausage?

I am rather fond of cured smoked turkey breast.

[YooperDog]

processhead congrats to both. There isn’t much to harvest other than the breasts on the wild birds. But they do provide a tasty meal.

[processhead]

YooperDog said in Spring Archery Turkey Hunt:

processhead congrats to both. There isn’t much to harvest other than the breasts on the wild birds. But they do provide a tasty meal.

My brother has experimented with preparing wild turkey. He claims an excellent turkey salad spread can be made after cooking the thighs and legs in a pressure cooker and then deboning and removing the tendons that run throughout the thighs and legs.

After shredding all the cooked meat, he adds seasoning and mixes with mayonaisse.

[Jonathon]

Nicely done, do you do anything with NWTF?

[processhead]

Jonathon said in Spring Archery Turkey Hunt:

Nicely done, do you do anything with NWTF?

Thanks.
No, I haven’t really done anything with them.

[cdavis]

processhead beautiful mature birds. Congrats to you both.

[processhead]

Today I began smoking the turkey breast from last Saturdays harvest. The pictures I posted earlier were from a bird I had smoked previously.

Here are some pictures of the breast right out of the curing bucket .

This time I stuffed them in a large fibrous casing instead of a stockinette. The casing gives it a more tubular shape that should give nicer slicing qualities.

[kyle]

processhead looks good. Our seasons in Wi starts this week, (mine starts may 5) We always make jerky out of our wild turkeys. Even the leg meat turns out great. When we hunt them in the fall, we make jerky for deer camp and the Turkey jerky is usually gone before the venison jerky. We use the same recipe, but has a complete different taste.

[RJ Adventures]

kyle do you slice and make whole muscle or grind and reconstructed jerky? Recipe???

[kyle]

RJ Adventures sliced whole muscle. Pretty basic recipe.
For 2 1/2# of meat
1/2 C soy sauce
2 T Worcestershire sauce
3/4 T garlic salt
1/2 T onion salt
1/2 T black pepper (more or less depending on your taste)
1 t. liquid smoke
1 T crushed red pepper flake
I just let it soak for at least 12 hours and then use a dehydrator.

[lkrfletcher]

Well done - It’s gonna be great!

[processhead]

Shotgun season opened here on Saturday. No gun hunting allowed where I was Saturday morning so I was bow hunting again. Another Tom stepped in front of my arrow.

[gChart]

Nicely done processhead! Just this morning I got my first bird in a few years. I was also planning on curing and smoking mine. I might try a butchers tie as I don’t have any netting. Mind sharing your recipe?

[lkrfletcher]

Wish we had more abundant turkey here.

[processhead]

gChart said in Spring Archery Turkey Hunt:

Nicely done processhead! Just this morning I got my first bird in a few years. I was also planning on curing and smoking mine. I might try a butchers tie as I don’t have any netting. Mind sharing your recipe?

Nice Tom, gChart!

I have been just using Morton Tender Quick in a cover brine and stitch pumping the boneless breast meat.

After four days, I rinse well and soak for an hour in fresh water to pull some of the residual salt out. Usually just net and smoke after that.

I really need to try some of the Walton cures and give them a try.

[gChart]

Thanks! If it hadn’t been so long since I’ve harvested a turkey (too many unsuccessful trips… harvest totals seem down and I don’t have much time to dedicate to scouting anymore), I would have pre-ordered some of Walton’s turkey cure to try out. Maybe another time. And I have used Morton Tender Quick in the past, but I haven’t seen that in stores around here for many years. So after referencing a few other recipes and a cure calculator, here’s what I’m trying:

• 2 boneless, skinless turkey breasts (3 lb 5 oz of meat)
• 2 quarts cold water
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 tsp cure #1 (Sure Cure)

I’ll probably brine for 4-5 days, and then soak in fresh water for an hour like you’re saying. I’ll tie 'em up and smoke them. I’ll check back in with my results.

[processhead]

gChart Your brine looks about right.
Be sure to inject the meat or you will get incomplete curing on the inside.

[gChart]

processhead I was intending on doing that, but now that you mention it… I missed doing that. Going back and injecting it now. Thanks for the tip/reminder!