Does anyone have suggestions on roasting/cooking a wild turkey without drying out? Tried extra butter, baking bag, and basting often. Any help is appreciated thanks

-- Cynthia Hemenway (chemenway@hotmail.com), September 24, 2000

Answers

Try draping strips of bacon over the carcass while it is cooking.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 24, 2000.

Cynthia we deep fry them both wild and home grown. bought a turkey cooker from bass pro. boy are they good . we inject them with garlic butter and yum yum . next time im going to try to make soap with the used oil. as it takes quite a bit.Bob in s.e.ks.

-- Bob Condry (bobco@hit.net), September 24, 2000.

Cynthia, I put mine in my "Cajun Microwave" after using a dry herb rub on the bird. Also put a little molasses in the water in the moisture tray. Use hickory or mesquite in the firepit, it'll turn out delicious.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 24, 2000.

Oh...I was hoping this was one of those reconstitution recipes for Wild Turkey liquor...you know, just add water to a dry mix and stir!!! Oh well...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), September 24, 2000.

Cynthia-

Roast it upside down. Ever notice that while the breast meat dries out, the dark meat usually stays moist? Gravity works while you cook. We discovered this by accident one year when our teenagers mistakenly cooked the bird upside down. It works!!

-- Codie (saddlebronc@msn.com), September 25, 2000.

Powdered Wild Turkey Whiskey???? Sounds like something in a "New Army" MRE .

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 25, 2000.

Tough meat like wild turkey reguires long slow cooking. You could try a crock pot or a clay pot. They are both famous for making meat tender. I usually marinate ours also. Good luck!

-- Jane Gauch (sewbears4u@hotmail.com), September 25, 2000.

we bone out our wild turkey and I usually cut into strips dip them in egg flour and fry like chicken strips we also do thie with grouse its the only way I have found to keep it from drying out smoking it was ok but not as useful for meals.

-- ronda (thejohnsons_doty@hotmail.com), September 25, 2000.

Cynthia---this is that old vegetarain with a recipe for TURKEY!!!! I wasn't always a vegetarain!! ha---I use to cook a wild turkey in a brown-in-bag with breast side down & bake it slow/ in a low heat oven & in this brown-in-bag. Depends on the size of the turkey how many can of cream of mushroom soup you add. I mix a can of canned milk with each can of soup that I put with the turkey---it will be so tender it falls off the bone!!!! And then how many cans of soup & milk/ determines /how much cream gravey you have with this tender turkey. Fix lots of mashed pototoes & the creamed turkey gravey is ready to spoon on the potatoes. I also cook quail, prarie chicken, etc. the same way--Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), September 25, 2000.

Cynthia, Sonda is so right! Those brown-in-bags turn wild turkey into a tender morsel. We usually cook 2 birds for Thanksgiving, a wild and a domestic. I cook the wild one in the bag, with 2 quartered apples and a quartered onion. Needless to say, the only leftovers we have are from the domestic! The wild bird is just a pile of bones!

However, if my yankee mother or father were answering this post, their response would be "Whadda ya mean - turkey is SUPPOSED to be dry - that's why ya have gravy!!!" We're working on changing their view on this, but after 7 years of moist turkey, we don't hold much hope! (LOL). (Come to think of it, my folks do indulge in the wild bird more frequently than the domestic at the Thanksgiving table! Hhhmmmmm....

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), September 26, 2000.

Thanks for the "upside down bird" idea, makes sense.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 29, 2000.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. Hopefully my husband and nephews will each get one so I can try all of them. Thanks again.Cynthia

-- Cynthia (cynthiahemenway@hotmail.com), October 01, 2000.

Most Americans are New World Order Turkeys. They believe whatever they hear on television and twice as much as they read in the mainstream newspapers. The are braindead sheep that will verbally pass on information they hear from others building on whatever pile of verbal crap they hear and pass it on to others as willing as they to build upon an eternal dung heap. The best way to discuss cooking wild and domestic turkeys is to discuss how a person can best cook themselves. With an already fried brain maybe the best way to cook yourself is to slowly roast yourself over an open pit of cow manure.

-- Jsck Benson (kcaj_south@yahoo.com), August 03, 2001.