# % of meat from a bird



## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

I was curious on the amount of meat from a turkey so I took the time to remove all of the meat from the bones after cooking for a few hours and weighed.
Live weight.....20 1/2 lbs.
Ready for the oven weight......13 1/2 lbs. Kind of surprising.
Boneless, skinless meat........10 lbs.

The bird had 7/8" spurs and 10 1/2" beard. Probably a 2 yr. old. I think a lot of us kill 2 yr. old birds.
So, about 1/3 of the bird's weight is wings, feet, head, gullet, feathers, & the insides.
The amount of meat I got from the bird was just a little less than 50% of its live weight. Pretty expensive meat if I wanted to put an actual price on it.

L & O


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## ATB (Feb 17, 2006)

Liver and Onions said:


> Pretty expensive meat if I wanted to put an actual price on it.
> 
> L & O


I am in finance so I think numbers 99% of the time, but when it comes to hunting fishing that is the 1% I selectively choose not to. Even though my wife likes to remind me!:lol:


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

We save the neck, gizzard, heart and liver also, but that as virtually nothing as far a weight is concerned.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

FREEPOP said:


> We save the neck, gizzard, heart and liver also, but that as virtually nothing as far a weight is concerned.


I cooked the liver and gizzard for my dogs. The heart and the little bit of meat from the neck are included in the 10 lbs. I've always liked beef, venison, chicken, and turkey heart. I don't find mountain oysters as appealling.

L & O


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

Liver and Onions said:


> I cooked the liver and gizzard for my dogs.


As we do too



Liver and Onions said:


> I don't find mountain oysters as appealling.
> 
> L & O


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Bumping this back up to the top for another look. I expect that anyone taking a jake or beared hen would get somewhere between 42-46% of edible meat compared to the birds live weight. 
Bearded hens are not a bird that I would ever shoot unless we had way to many birds around. Not many places have that problem.

L & O


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## Bookmaker (Oct 3, 2003)

Interesting stats. Thanks for crunching the numbers.


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## deathfromabove (Mar 2, 2005)

Aw come on now....us poor fellows are just trying to put meat in the freezer.....


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

A tom turkey weighs more in the spring than the fall.

Due to the breast sponge that it grows, during the winter, around the crop area to sustain it throught the breeding season as they are too busy chasing the ladies to eat much during that time.

I never remove the spounge when cleaning my birds due to the fact that the sponge adds mosture to the roasted bird.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

multibeard said:


> A tom turkey weighs more in the spring than the fall.
> 
> Due to the breast sponge that it grows, during the winter, around the crop area to sustain it throught the breeding season as they are too busy chasing the ladies to eat much during that time.
> 
> I never remove the spounge when cleaning my birds due to the fact that the sponge adds mosture to the roasted bird.


I would not have thought that a tom might weigh more in the spring than in the fall. Seems like some(maybe a lot) weight would be lost during the winter, especially for central and northern Michigan birds. Do you recall where you read that ?
You can leave the sponge in.........I'm taking it out of my birds.

L & O


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

L-O

I can not remember for sure where I read it but it was probably in some of Lovette Williams writings, I have read in the nearly 30 years I have been addicted to chasing turkeys. it is the added weight of the sponge that makes this added weight. 

I have never taken the sponge off any of my turkeys with no ill effects just a juicier bird. The sponge on teh 20 lbder I shot last week was so big that I had a hard time finding the crop to get it out.

I just finally cooked my bird from last spring for Easter. It was the moistest turkey that I have ever done. You could squeeze the juice out of the breast.

I have heard of turkeys being thrown away because rthe hunter did nnot know what the sponge was and thought it was something bad.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

I did a google search for more info regarding the weight of a turkey in the spring vs. the fall and came up empty. I did find out that the heavist wild tom was 37 lbs. The longest beard 18" and the longest spurs 2 1/4".
I am not well read on turkeys, I've always been a guy who just hunts, shoots, cleans and eats the bird. With about 25 beards on my turkey board, I think have at least middle of the road knowledge of the bird and I just can't see toms weighing more in the spring than the fall. The sponge that you leave in and that I remove before cooking weighs but a few ounces and can't make much of a difference. If you ever run across that research, I would like to read it and will gladly eat that sponge thing if I am all wrong about this.

L & O


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Bumping this back up again this year for anyone who might be interested.

L & O


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## multibeard (Mar 3, 2002)

L-O The last bird I roasted in a bag with the breast sponge left on (removed when carving and thrown away) had to have been the juiciest most flavorfull bird I have ever cooked. You have to remember I always pluck my birds not skin them. The skin also helps hold in the juices.

I will have to take a look in Lovett Williams book After The hunt and see if that is where I saw it. Looking through 30 years of turkey hunting books in my collection would take em months.

The carcass is made into turkey soup so the whole bird is used except the bones and feathers. At one time the feathers were dry picked and given to an Indian friend that used them in his art work. Since he passed I now scald and the feathers come off in no time.


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