Hanging a turkey

[Doc Holliday]

As the time draws near for me to procure the festive lunch, I usually find myself going to a local-ish auction house that sells Turkeys (plucked but not drawn) and buy a couple. I've usually hung them for a 2 - 3 days before drawing but I have been doing a bit of research this morning as to how long you can actually hang them for. One site recommends at least a week, possibly 10 days. Although I like the idea of letting it hang I'm a little cautious as one bird we had last year had a particularly strong flavour which was a little too much for palate. It was fine on the day and just tasted like a good flavoured turkey but it was the days following that I noticed it tasting stronger than usual. Not off just strong, almost gamey. I did wonder if it was because maybe we had ended up with a stag as it was about 20lb. We usually go for about a 12lb bird (Mrs H wanted to push the boat out a bit as we had her son and daughter-in-law over). This year we're reverting to the 12lb-ers. Anyway, I digress. I was wondering which of you get your birds undrawn and how long you hang them for. Also, whether anyone else has had a strong tasting bird and whether it was a stag or a long hung hen.

[neil w]

Why not wring It's neck. Instead of hanging It.

[Walker570]

Way back when , in the 1950s we bred about 100 turkeys to sell on our milk round. They were almost all sold in the feather and would hang in our two large garage buildings for two weeks before Christmas. Just closed the double doors at night to keep the foxes out. These birds would be dropped off on Christmas Eve or the day before and we never had a complaint but a re order for next year. They went out hanging around the inside of our Ford 10 van along with rabbits and hares, the rabbits snared and paunched the night before. The hares had probably hung with the turkeys for a week or ten days. No such thing as cold rooms back then but to my knowledge we had no fatalities.

Your choice but if the weather stays above 34 - 35f and you don't have access to a cold room, then get the feathers off, dress the bird and put it in the freezer. Freezing in my experience tenderises meat. I hang my pheasants/partridge for three or four days and then in the freezer in the feather.

[colin lad]

we rear our own turkeys for our farm shop and kill about 1,000 of them for Christmas we normally start killing and plucking 1st week December though this year was a little later we started on Dec 5th another farm shop that rear their own like us always start to slaughter and pluck on 28th November regardless, so long as you keep them refrigerated after killing then they will keep a good few week's, our's get drawn week before Christmas

 

Colin

[norfolk dumpling]

Many years ago an aunt of mine - village postie - was given a 56lb beast which she accepted as she was feeding the masses. Whilst the actual weight may have been exaggerated I recall aunt removing the legs and parsons nose so it would go in the Aga. The legs were cooked separately in her electric cooker. It was huge when my dad carved it and whilst I can't recall flavour we all had a plateful. I wish I had seen it in the feather - probably bigger than me as I was under 10. Said aunt always had a big turkey given to her by the farmers she delivered to and she was usually p****d for about two week through gratitude of her 'round' - to see her wobbling about on her post bike was very funny.