Wild Turkey roast reccomendations

December 25, 2016 8:06 AM

This year I went fancy and got a 'wild turkey' from a local farm, described as having "a more refined taste and contain less fat than the domestic turkeys". After googling I'm not sure what to do with it. Search results for wild turkeys say it can be dry, tough, gamey and should be treated differently, but those are from hunters and my bird may not be that wild.

It's a small bird, just 6lbs, so there's no huge rush it getting it in the oven. I have about 4 hours to figure out what to do with it. Any recommendations?
(I'm considering just covering it in bacon)

posted by platypus of the universe to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Is there a way to clarify (maybe from their website) if this is a wild bird, or a heritage bird? That is going to help decide your best strategy and will help people here give the best guidance.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:17 AM on December 25, 2016

Serious Eats' podcast Special Sauce tackled this around thanksgiving. I think this is the episode. They give a good breakdown of how to cook such a bird. If memory serves correct, you'll want to brine it at minimum.

Personally, i would break it down and sous vide the sucker, but your equipment may not allow for such. This would be a fantastic excuse to get yourself a sous vide rug though. My results with all things bird have made our circulator an essential kitchen item that rarely gets out away.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:20 AM on December 25, 2016

Best answer: Rub salt all over it, inside and out, and leave it unwrapped in the fridge until you need to start cooking it. You can add other spices to the salt if you like, too; this year, I did pepper and dried orange peel and garlic powder, but, really, any flavorings you like (or none!) is fine. (This is called dry brining, and is WAY easier to deal with than a wet brine, and, imo, just as tasty, if not tastier. You can dry brine a bird for up to two days, but 4 hours will give you a good start, especially for such a small one.)

When you roast it, roast it breast side down until the last half hour, and then flip it (carefully!) just to brown the breast at the end.

You can combine this with wrapping it in bacon for the roasting phase, which sounds yum!

Report back on what you did and how it came out?
posted by spindrifter at 8:34 AM on December 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

Best answer: The thing about heritage and wild birds is that the gulf between dark and light meat is much wider than on a commercial bird. The easiest way to handle appropriate fineness is to break it down and start cooking the dark meat first.

If you can get hold of it Cooks Illustrated has a nice procedure for a heritage breed.
posted by janell at 10:05 AM on December 25, 2016

I don't know about your wild bird, but I've cooked two or three heritage turkeys and every single one turned out dry, tough, and chewy. Particularly the dark meat. However you cook it pay extra attention to cooking time and consider cooking the light and dark meat separately.
posted by Nelson at 10:09 AM on December 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think it's going to be a gamble whatever you do, so I'd suggest breaking it down into parts so at least it's more maneuverable once you've got it cooking.

Fat contributes a lot to juiciness and flavor, so you'll need to add your own. I don't know that bacon would be the best choice - if you have any rendered duck or chicken fat that would be awesome, you can also use butter and rub it all over and under the skin. You can flavor this fat any way you want - my mom traditionally does paprika, salt and pepper and that's it, and her turkey is always perfect (how does she do it??) but I've had yummy wine butter basted turkey and thought about doing just a turkey breast for myself that way this year.

Maybe you'd have good results doing something like a braise? Lots of liquid to start and then finishing pieces on the stove or under the broiler to get crispy skin.
posted by Mizu at 11:18 AM on December 25, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks all! It's been dry brined for about 3 hours. I've broken the turkey apart to cook as per Cooks Illustrated to with the dark and light meat separate and I'll be covering it with butter and seasonings. I'll report back when done!
(if nothing else, we have 3 desserts for just 2 people so if the turkey is a failure we'll drown our sorrows in pie)
posted by platypus of the universe at 12:50 PM on December 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Conclusion: Success!
Amazingly moist very turkey flavored turkey. Also the Cooks Illustrated gravy that goes along with the heritage turkey recipe is amazing.

Resources used:
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/8107-gravy-for-roast-heritage-turkey

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/8106-roast-heritage-turkey

(you need a log in but they have a free trial. After these results I'm considering it worth the ~$3/month)
posted by platypus of the universe at 4:00 PM on December 25, 2016 [7 favorites]