Ready to prepare your first wild turkey? Don’t stress if you’ve read the stories online about how difficult it is.
With a bit of preparation you can cook a meal that is Thanksgiving worthy from a bird you hunted. Let’s start with the differences between wild turkeys and store bought, and then how to prepare the wild one once you know what to expect.
Wild Turkey | Farm Raised | |
Size | ||
Taste | Gamey, chewy, intense | Moist, tender, juicy |
Cook time (oven unstuffed) | 13 minutes per pound | 20 minutes per pound |
Cook time (deep frying) | 4 minutes per pound | 3 to 4 minutes per pound |
Collagen and muscle | More | Less |
Flavor | Changes based on natural diet | Consistent as they’re fed controlled diets |
The good news is that you can cook a wild caught turkey the same way that you cook farm raised and store bought. Both need to be cooked to at least 165 degrees in order to be safe to consume, and both fry at roughly 3 to 4 minutes per pound. Wild and store bought turkeys can also be prepared the same way with your favorite seasonings, stuffing or dressing, and herbs. But that is where the similarities between wild and farm raised turkeys end.
Wild turkeys live in forests so their diets change based on the food available like leafy greens or flower buds in the spring and hearty acorns or crabapples and insects that become available in the fall. This changes the flavor of the meat with most people preferring the fall diet as the turkeys are eating insects which provide them with protein. Studies like this one show that turkeys who eat insects retain more water which makes them easier to cook.
Wild turkeys are much smaller than farm raised, so if you’re used to starting the oven 6 hours before guests arrive, get ready to take some time back because the more muscular meat and smaller size reduce the cooking times so you have more time to relax or get the side dishes ready.
The reason the meat is leaner and has more muscle is that wild turkeys have to hunt, travel, and defend themselves where farm turkeys relax in protected environments so they do not have to work their muscles as often. You’ll also find there is more dark meat on wild turkeys than farm raised for this same reason, and as Live Science puts it, farm raised turkeys are too fat to fly.
Now you know the differences between cooking a wild turkey from a store bought or farm raised one and why you’ll need to adjust your schedule. The good news is you’ll likely be saving some time and get tastier meat in the fall. If you’re planning on hunting your first wild turkey, click here to read our top picks for turkey hunting shotguns, and come back to share how your meal turned out.