[bucketman]

Hi all
Not been on here for a while. But will have to get back into it.(tourist season and all that) So the first thing one of the guys who come in has got us a turkey. He has about 20 but we have one ear marked for us. So as our sort of lessons on how this stuff is done. We me and Les are going to be shown how to kill and gut them. The guy will do some of his to show us  then it will be our turn. He did say he would do the deed but we think we should know how.
This is good as it has a couple of get out clauses
1 we can walk away before is our turkeys turn
2 If we do it then feel bad we can sort of swap it for one of the other's
3 dont turn up and let the guy get on with his job
The one thing we were just talking about was when we might get the phone call to go up to his. IE for the bird to be oven fresh xmas morning.
Any ideas not just on the timing but the whole plan
rob

[Marches Farmer]

You could always do the deed in advance and freeze the bird.

[bigchicken]

I think it is important that folks who rear animals should be part of the whole process of the animals life and death, in my opinion it is showing the ultimate respect for the animal. So good on you if you get involved. Most people now a days are completely divorced from reality when it comes to the process of killing and butchering animals for meat. How many in the modern world could for example kill, skin, gut and cook a rabbit ?

[bucketman]

Yes we could freeze it. But the whole free range bit is Like Fresh and Free Range the guy said go up any time for ours but am with the wife get it fresh.
Killing things right from being a boy fishing with my dad I have done the deed with fish. But never some thing warm blooded Now we have sort of got out of the city and moved to the country. We want to sort of do it properly not some city kids on a hol. Once we have done it might never do it again. We might even bottle it and walk away.
But if we want to live here then think we should at least try. Could be wrong often am

[Hevxxx99]

Turkeys are usually hung for about 10 days, so you'll probably get a call around 14th.

Good luck! In my experience, turkeys flap a lot as they die, so be prepared and don't worry: they ARE dead!  It is a fairly guresome process really and makes you all the more aware of what you're eating, but IMHO that is exactly as it should be.

I remember I friend of mine told me about an occassion when she visited her hairdresser shortly before Christmas and told her about us killing the turkey for her Christmas dinner and the hairdresser was genuinely shocked that turkey came from an animal!!

[bucketman]

Well its done. Not long got back. It wasn't like I had seen it on Youtube but just took his (the game keeper) lead and done what he said. The turkey did flap round a lot but he said don't worry its dead. We then plucked it the hot water way and gutted it. It's hanging in his larder now for a week. Said to him I did not feel to bad, as I had not reared them. He said thats for next year will do the whole thing get a few as chick's and take it from there
On a side note we are suppose to going out stacking in the next few days so will see if I have the bottle to shoot some thing

[Sbom]

You've gutted it already?  They usually hang with guts in as they start to go off faster once gutted.....

[bucketman]

Yep he said gut it now will it be ok till xmas???

[Hevxxx99]

Keep it in the fridge and I'm sure it'll be fine.

It is usual to leave the guts in whilst they are hanging, but I'm sure if kept in the fridge it'll last at least a couple of weeks.

[Sbom]

I've just finished plucking around 2000 turkey's and we start dressing on Thursday.....these then go straight into a cold store.....

Think I'd be tempted to pop it in the freezer....

[Fleecewife]

I'm assuming your gamekeeper's larder is a cold store, so it will be fine.

There's such a difference between fresh turkey  and frozen that you will want to keep it fresh if at all possible.  We had a big turkey business when I was growing up, and always sold a couple of hundred fresh (the rest were dealt with in the factory and sold frozen).  We had them hanging in a large cool barn, set out with racks to hang them from, like in an abattoir.  We always hoped for really cold weather for the week or so they were hanging in there, but I can only once remember there being any problem with it being a bit warm.  We couldn't kill them too close to Christmas as we had a gang of women who came in to pluck them and although they were fast it still took time to do them all.  I'm wracking my brain to remember if they were gutted or not, but I think that most were sold with the guts still in and heads on, apart from special orders from little old ladies who didn't know how to gut them  or were squeamish 

We'll be looking forward to hearing how it  tastes on Christmas day 



ps - the poor old turkey icon doesn't get many chances to come out, so I'm giving him an airing 

[bucketman]

Well we hed our Turkey and it was the best I have tasted The guy who reared it says it was down to his work the cook is also trying to take the credit. But I think it was the way it was dispatched.