Fresh Turkey For Dinner

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certified106

certified106

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Oct 22, 2010
1,472
Athens, Ohio
It's been a long rough winter.......So to shake it off I went Turkey hunting
I got this 19lb gobbler less than 24 hours ago and cooked up the breasts using some oak chunks on the kamado tonight.
I have had a bit of trouble with these bad boys getting dry before so I mixed up some Creole Butter and inject the breast before throwing them on. After Injecting them I dusted one with some yardbird rub and one with some Fin and Feather rub.
I chopped up a fresh spinach and lettuce salad from the garden topped off with fresh grated parmesean and olive garden dressing. The meal was simple but delicious and in my book it just doesn't get much better than fresh food.

[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner

[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner

You can see the creole seasoning mix
[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner

[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner

[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner
 
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Looks good.
 
I cooked up a bird my BIL got over the weekend. Chunked up the breasts into about 1.5"x1.5" cubes, dusted with salt/pepper/garlic powder and wrapped them with a strip of bacon and grilled them on direct heat. Goooo-ood.
 
Best score this Spring!
Congrats ! :)
 
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Brine that baby on the bone for 2 or 3 days then smoke it. Mine turns out terrific.
 
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Man I bet that is gonna taste great Cert!

Ray
 
Nice gobbler, Certified!! That cooked breast looks phenominal! I can almost taste it from here!
I've always said if you cook the wild turkey the right way, it tastes MUCH better than farm raised. I always cook my wild turkeys whole, I jack them full of Tony Chacheries Butter Creole marinade, or a concoction of apple juice, butter, and garlic. I set the roaster to 225, put the turkey in for at LEAST 12 hours......absolutely amazing. Nice and moist, falls off the bone.

Anyway, I'm hoping to bag one myself here soon. Season came in two weeks ago and I haven't been able to make it out in the woods yet. My grandma (whom I was VERY close to) passed away last week and the funeral was Saturday morning. This morning, I just couldn't drag myself out of bed, due to burnin' the candle at both ends all week......
 
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Scotty Overkill said:
Nice gobbler, Certified!! That cooked breast looks phenominal! I can almost taste it from here!
I've always said if you cook the wild turkey the right way, it tastes MUCH better than farm raised. I always cook my wild turkeys whole, I jack them full of Tony Chacheries Butter Creole marinade, or a concoction of apple juice, butter, and garlic. I set the roaster to 225, put the turkey in for at LEAST 12 hours......absolutely amazing. Nice and moist, falls off the bone.

Anyway, I'm hoping to bag one myself here soon. Season came in two weeks ago and I haven't been able to make it out in the woods yet. My grandma (whom I was VERY close to) passed away last week and the funeral was Saturday morning. This morning, I just couldn't drag myself out of bed, due to burnin' the candle at both ends all week......
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Scott very sorry to hear of your grandmother's passing.. I too was very close to my grandparents but they are all gone now..

Ray
 
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raybonz said:
Scott very sorry to hear of your grandmother's passing.. I too was very close to my grandparents but they are all gone now..

Ray
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Thank you, my friend! She was a great woman. Tough as nails, yet one of the most loving people I've ever known.
Not to derail this thread, but one of those little memories She'd get up early Saturday morning, and she'd cook bacon or sausage in the cast iron skillet. Then she'd fry the tater's up in that bacon grease, and put a couple of eggs, diced up onions and garlic in there....mmmmmm.

Everytime I make those taters, it reminds me of her.....made them the other night for supper. I'll miss her dearly.
 
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I just spooked a big wild turkey hen off her nest in my back yard the other day. She was sittin on about 10 big eggs.Went back 2 days later to check and the whole family was gone,no egg shells or nothin. Is it possible she MOVED the entire nest of eggs? If a fox got em or they hatched there would at least be shells or something. NOT?
 
If she did move the eggs, it wouldn't be too far off from the original nest. Best not to disturb her, if you can avoid it.
 
Scotty Overkill said:
If she did move the eggs, it wouldn't be too far off from the original nest. Best not to disturb her, if you can avoid it.
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Thats what i thought,so i didnt bother to look. Its loaded with wild turkeys around here,i see a flock every time i go for a walk down the old rail trail behind my place,guess they dont have a lot of predators in this area.Lots of deer too, and occasional black bear.
 
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Seasoned Oak said:
Thats what i thought,so i didnt bother to look. Its loaded with wild turkeys around here,i see a flock every time i go for a walk down the old rail trail behind my place,guess they dont have a lot of predators in this area.Lots of deer too, and occasional black bear.
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The turkey population has BOOMED in the past several years in PA, mostly due to the lack of real winters. Winters usually thin the turkeys out big time. Turkeys get down in the deep snow to try and feed, and become easy targets for predators. In deep snow, the turkey cannot get a running start to get into the air.....

Seeing a lot more bears here, too. But the deer are still kinda thin in this area. I'm hoping this new CWD outbreak doesn't get embedded into the population. But I fear it's gonna be really ugly for the white tailed deer in the near future here.

http://wearecentralpa.com/fulltext?nxd_id=441892
 
I hit a big doe not a few hundred yards from my driveway. She crossed the road well in front of me so i didnt risk slammin on the brakes too hard and just as i got close to her she doubled back right into my path,needless to say im glad i was in my Silverado K2500 HD Truck. Truck is about 6" higher than stock so not a scratch on the truck but that doe didnt suffer ,it was lights out that quick.
 
mudbug250 said:
Brine that baby on the bone for 2 or 3 days then smoke it. Mine turns out terrific.
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I have done that and it tastes great. I gotta say the injection worked good to!
 
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Scotty Overkill said:
If she did move the eggs, it wouldn't be too far off from the original nest. Best not to disturb her, if you can avoid it.
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I would guess they got eaten.... the coyotes are tearing up our turkeys..... I actually had a coyote come in on me when I was hunting two days ago
 
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certified106 said:
I would guess they got eaten.... the coyotes are tearing up our turkeys..... I actually had a coyote come in on me when I was hunting two days ago
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That'd be my guess too, but I have heard of them moving their eggs away from a disturbed nest. The lack of damaged eggs at the original nest SeasonedOak mentioned let me to say they were moved.

I've had coyotes come in when calling before too. But the best one was when I had three different bobcats come in to my calling one fall, all on the same hunt!!

One of them was a biggun, too! Coyotes, if they get close enough, get lead poisoning.....::-)
 
I shoot turkeys regularly (with a cam).
Here they are in the front yard having a pow-wow to decide if we represent a threat. They decided we were OK....

If the apocalypse ever hits, I'll be all over them. You can't look at these turkeys without thinking "damn, if I was a pilgrim I'd think the Lord put them here for me". If they had these in Jamestown, they wouldn't have had to eat each other.
[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner
 
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The predators here seem to feast on the turkeys pretty well. We notice the families building up pretty large - 10-20, and then as we watch, the flock gets smaller and smaller until we see maybe one of them! I know we have coyotes, but I think the sly fox gets most of them.

Think about it. How many of you have ever hit a fox with your car? We have LOTS of them here, but you never see them! They are smart animals!

Here's mommie teaching the little one to be vigilant.
[Hearth.com] Fresh Turkey For Dinner
 
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What is yardbird rub and Fin and Feather rub? I would like to start grilling turkey this summer so any pointers would be welcome.
 
If turkeys are anything like chickens they will eat the shells after the chicks hatch.
 
Nice certified. I'm a bit put off as only one has been taken off our place so far. But the hunting has not gone well for many this year because usually there are still acorns and witch hazel seeds to be had for the birds and last fall we had no nuts at all from oaks or witch hazel. So I think they have to wander a bit more for food.
 
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