OK not really, but it was a feast on Valentine's day and we did feast on Tom. So I roasted tom in a pretty standard way, a little salt and a little butter/olive oil over the top to baste while cooking and stuffed with chopped onions. Final weight for tom was about 13 lbs and it took about 2.5 hours to cook at around 325 deg. A few things about tom that where a little different from your normal store turkey;
Length: tom was quite a bit longer than a store turkey and a bit narrower. Not a big deal but I had to change my carving technique as the breast was almost 12 inches long.
Fat: tom had a large fat deposit on the upper part of his breast near where the neck is. A very large fatty area, after cooking it was almost 2 inches thick and went from one wing to the other and about 5-6 inches up the breast from the neck. This will go in the pig bucket with the rest of the stripped carcass. Happy piggies tonight!
Flavor: tom was amazingly rich in flavor but not gamy. I was only able to eat one drumstick and Rosie was unable to eat more than a small-ish serving of white meat. The flavor was so wonderful that turkey will continue to be a meat source on our farm for all time.
Texture: I was expecting tom to be much like our chickens, excellent flavor but a little tougher. I was wrong on the latter count. The meat was tender but firm with an excellent texture, I don't think I have ever eaten fowl with such a good texture. Also the meat was very moist (in part from the fat layer I am sure) with none of the dryness some have come to expect from a roast turkey.
The other parts of our feast where mashed potatoes with turkey gravy (made from the turkey neck) sauteed asparagus, Rosie made biscuits and home made ice cream for afters. So in all our first yard turkey was a grand success and we will certinly be having more holliday turkeys in the future. Now I am off to have some leftovers.
Ahh Sounds great, makes me wish I had room to keep Turkey and Chicken for meat.
ReplyDeleteGlad he was tasty. Look at the picture above and then think of the medieval / renaissance paintings and such depicting food. Look at the angle of the leg on the bird, think of what we normally see these days, and then look at those pictures. Much more like historical pictures than what we're used to. I'd say it had to do with the good, clean living the turkey did before you ate him! *LOL* Now, to just find turkeys that aren't as ornery...
ReplyDeleteDennis, you might be able to. Many cities and counties have ordinances that allow for some chickens(rarely do they allow roosters). Even if you have a small patio or walkway, you can build a small chicken coop that can allow you to raise your own meat/egg birds.
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