[Ayoob]

from a whole bird?

I typically butcher like a chicken, Kosher brine, brown the back, giblets, and the useless parts of the wings for gravy.

Everything else goes on the grill until done. It gets out a lot of the cholesterol and I don't wind up with a big skim of fat on top of my soups and stuff.

I pretty much use the whole bird, even the bones as I boil the offal for gravy. But how much white turkey breast meat, wing drumette meat, thigh and leg meat would I wind up canning from a 20# bird? Is it even 8#? If that was the yield, I could put a turkey in 14 quart jars along with gravy and whatever else I have lying around. Split peas, carrots, beans of one kind or another, etc.

Still, that's $20 (make that $35... jars) for 14 quarts of soup plus the time, labor, cleanup, etc. Is it worth it? It's right after Christmas so I don't think I'll be seeing 59c turkey again any time soon. That's almost three bucks a jar for turkey soup.

I've been doing 28 quart batches of mainly vegetable soup for the last couple of weeks so I have lots of collard greens, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic/onions/leeks, peas, corn, brussels sprouts, blah blah blah. One jar of veggie soup plus one jar of turkey soup would make some good eatin' all day. It's about 10 ounces of turkey per jar if I get 8# off a bird.

What do you guys think?

[Tanada]

Is this whole bird gutted or fresh? If it is 20# already gutted then go for it, you should get 15# of food off of a 20# bird, typically the bones are very light and the skin, fat and fore-wings are pretty small. How much you get all depends on how much you consider useful protein and fat.

[kpeavey]

10% skin and fat
20% bone and cartilage
60% meat
The remaining 10% gets spread out in the 3 groups and allows for fluid content.