Butcher and Remove the Pin Feathers of a Turkey
The process for defeathering and butchering a turkey is relatively simple and easy to do with a few common tools.
Steps
- Kill the bird. If you are defeathering the bird, you are probably doing this yourself as well. Wearing work gloves and safety goggles is strongly advised. The best way to do this is to stun the bird with electricity, however, this is impractical for home processing. Hang the bird by its feet and, with a sharp knife, grip the head holding the beak shut with one hand while you cut through the side of the throat to the other side and pull the knife forward and out. This severs the carotid arteries and the jugular veins, as well as the trachea. Get back. The bird will flap and get blood everywhere, and you can lose an eye to a well placed flap of the wings (thus the goggles). It is a good idea to use this method to kill rather than simply breaking its neck because the heart continues to beat and helps empty the body of unneeded blood. If you believe this method causes too much pain and suffering for the bird, simply remove the entire head. The bird will be dead within seconds, however it will not bleed as well.
- Scald the bird. It should be completely immersed in water heated to roughly {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}. Leave it for 45 seconds. Remove it and immediately (or as soon as you can touch it) remove the feathers by hand. They should be fairly easy to pull out. Remove all feathers by hand but ignore the filoplumes, which are the small hairs which are actually types of feathers.
- Remove the hair feathers. This is done with a source of flame. A blow torch or propane torch will work well for this, but don't get it too hot. Simply run the flame over the entire bird to "singe" the filoplumes off. Do not cook the bird! You are simply burning feathers, not skin and meat. Your bird is now ready for butchering.
- Put the bird on its back on a table. Begin by removing the feet by cutting between the knee joints with a sharp knife.
- Cut the flaps of skin between the legs and beside the anus, opening up the body cavity. Do not cut any organs! It will make a mess. Cut all the way around the anus and make a V-cut to remove the gland just beneath the anus.
- Insert a hand into the body cavity of the bird. Scoop out all organs, including heart, liver, gizzard, kidneys, and air sacs (avian lungs, birds don't have lungs like we do). Throw everything away except the heart, liver, and gizzard if you plan to use them for something else such as giblet gravy. You should also scoop out the trachea and esophagus that is still embedded in the neck. This may take some force, but it will come. You are now ready to butcher.
- Cut through the skin and joint where the thigh connects to the body. Then separate the legs from thighs using the same technique. Next, separate the wings where they connect to the body, again using the same technique.
- Cut just beneath the breast through the skin where the organs used to be. When you get to ribs, use poultry shears to break them and continue the cut. When these are separated you have completed butchering. You now have wings, drumsticks, thighs, breasts, and back. Of course if you want to keep the bird whole, say for Thanksgiving, skip this entire step.
- When preparing the bird, most people discard the back. There is however, good dark meat on it. It is best to just pull it off by hand.
- If you desire boneless meat, is best to just stick your fingers through the meat and twist it off of the bone. Watch out for ligaments and either pull them off or cut them off. These can be very tough (they are said to be the strongest natural fiber).
- Finally, you are ready for cooking. Wash all parts well and remove any leftover blood or feathers.
- If you are storing the meat, it should be immediately packaged and cooled by refrigerating or freezing. Enjoy!
Tips
- You should never cut through a bone except a few of the ribs. When making cuts you should always cut through joints. This makes butchering much easier and saves knife blades.
- All of these steps apply to both chickens and turkeys, as well as virtually any other bird.
- Feathers at the wing tips may be hard to pull out even after scalding. You may want to grip them with a pliers.
- When cutting through joints, first use pressure from a thumb or finger to determine where the joint connects the two bones. This is where your cut should be.
- If you wish to have skinless cuts, you can skip the entire scalding and defeathering process. Simply cut through the skin and pull it off. The feathers will come with it. Again, this is only if you wish to have skinless cuts, however, it is much easier.
Things You'll Need
- Sharp filet style knife (fairly large), poultry shears, rope or good twine, hot water, a large tub (big enough for a turkey to be submerged in), source of fresh water.
