Just curious to see if most Turkey Hunters on here use all of the turkey they kill, or only the breast.
In my local area, there is a tendency to "Keep the breast and trash the rest".
There is no doubt that turkey breast, cut into chunks, floured and pan-fried, is one of the best foods on the planet. This opinion comes from harvesting my share of turkeys over the last 30 or so years.
What a lot of people don't know is that the rest of the bird also makes for some delicious eating. The rest of the bird we refer to as "The Running Gears", i.e., legs, thighs, wings, etc.
It takes a bit of work, but is certainly worth the effort. To utilize the "running gears", they need to be cared for the same as the breast. I skin every bird I kill, instead of trying to pick them. Just remove all feathers, bloodshot spots, etc., wash and put in refrigerator.
The cooking part uses a pressure cooker. I pressure the running gears for 45-60 minutes at the lowest setting on my cooker (5 PSI). After the meat cools, I remove it from the cooker, and start stripping it from the bones. The legs require the most work, but the leaders/tendons/sinews slip out of the meat, easily. The thighs and wings are no problem, at all. The meat is then cubed, and from a good-sized gobbler, you will have 4-5 pounds of cooked meat. Be sure to save the broth from the cooker.
Now, my wife enters the picture. She makes her homemade biscuit dough, flours the cutting board, then rolls the dough out on it. After slicing the dough into strips, she cuts it into pieces about 1 1/2 inches long, and drops it into the boiling broth. As the dumplings cook, she keeps adding more until she has a big pot full of dumplings. When the dumplings are done, the cubed meat is added and the whole thing is allowed to simmer for about 30 minutes.
WOW!!! It is unbelievable how good this is!!! When we prepare this meal, it usually includes asking several family members to join us, and no one turns us down. A friend was visiting a couple of years ago, and happened to be here as the Turkey and Dumplings were finished cooking. We invited him to eat with us, and watched him choke down his 3rd bowl!! Now, he is a believer in not throwing away the running gears.
As I said earlier, it takes some work, but the reward is a meal you won't forget.
In my local area, there is a tendency to "Keep the breast and trash the rest".
There is no doubt that turkey breast, cut into chunks, floured and pan-fried, is one of the best foods on the planet. This opinion comes from harvesting my share of turkeys over the last 30 or so years.
What a lot of people don't know is that the rest of the bird also makes for some delicious eating. The rest of the bird we refer to as "The Running Gears", i.e., legs, thighs, wings, etc.
It takes a bit of work, but is certainly worth the effort. To utilize the "running gears", they need to be cared for the same as the breast. I skin every bird I kill, instead of trying to pick them. Just remove all feathers, bloodshot spots, etc., wash and put in refrigerator.
The cooking part uses a pressure cooker. I pressure the running gears for 45-60 minutes at the lowest setting on my cooker (5 PSI). After the meat cools, I remove it from the cooker, and start stripping it from the bones. The legs require the most work, but the leaders/tendons/sinews slip out of the meat, easily. The thighs and wings are no problem, at all. The meat is then cubed, and from a good-sized gobbler, you will have 4-5 pounds of cooked meat. Be sure to save the broth from the cooker.
Now, my wife enters the picture. She makes her homemade biscuit dough, flours the cutting board, then rolls the dough out on it. After slicing the dough into strips, she cuts it into pieces about 1 1/2 inches long, and drops it into the boiling broth. As the dumplings cook, she keeps adding more until she has a big pot full of dumplings. When the dumplings are done, the cubed meat is added and the whole thing is allowed to simmer for about 30 minutes.
WOW!!! It is unbelievable how good this is!!! When we prepare this meal, it usually includes asking several family members to join us, and no one turns us down. A friend was visiting a couple of years ago, and happened to be here as the Turkey and Dumplings were finished cooking. We invited him to eat with us, and watched him choke down his 3rd bowl!! Now, he is a believer in not throwing away the running gears.
As I said earlier, it takes some work, but the reward is a meal you won't forget.
