No need to wing it with this taste-tested wild turkey recipe
Burnet County Heritage Society member Tommye Potts at Fort Croghan Day in October 2023. Staff photo by Suzanne Freeman
Shake the mandible and bard the breast before cooking a wild turkey, recommends a recipe in “The Joy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer. Tommye Potts of Burnet did bard the breast, wrapping a freshly field-dressed wild bird in bacon before cooking it for her family of six in 1991. She left the mandible shaking to husband John, who shot the bird on their Burnet County ranch.
Hunters shake the mandible (lower jaw) to determine a rough estimate of age. If the beak breaks with the shake, the turkey is young. If it doesn’t, it’s a tough old bird that diners might have to pluck up the courage to eat.
John nabbed his poultry in motion on the family farm founded by Tommye’s grandfather Christopher Dorbandt Jr., the first Burnet County sheriff to live in the old Burnet County Jail. Dorbandt was born in the iconic Bluebonnet House on U.S. 281 north of Marble Falls. The couple’s background is a feast of historic proportions. Both were made lifetime members of the Burnet County Heritage Society, the caretakers of Fort Croghan in Burnet, by the late Judge Thomas Ferguson, and both are members of the Burnet County Historical Commission. And that’s just the tip of the yam!
But back to the barded bird.
According to “Texas Home Cooking” (Harvard Common Press, 1993), another of Tommye’s many cookbooks, “game shot in the wild reacts with an adrenaline surge that tightens the muscles,” resulting in a turkey made for jerky.
To drum up an especially juicy bird, “The Joy of Cooking” suggests removing the leg tendons, a complicated process not meant for chickens.
“This is best accomplished before the feet are removed,” reads the recipe. It describes how to snap the knee joint, wiggle the leg, and pull on the foot, none of which Tommye had to do for a delicious roasted bird that the Potts family gobbled up.
“They loved it,” Tommye said. “I honestly remember being very surprised it was so moist.”
Her recipe came from a favorite cookbook, “Southern Living’s Illustrated Cookbook” (Oxmoor House Inc., 1976). However, she didn’t follow it exactly, leaving out the stuffing and grease-soaked cheesecloth. Also, instead of baking it in an oven, she and John cooked their bird at a very low temperature on the barbecue pit and didn’t bother to baste it.
“Basting wasn’t necessary because of the bacon,” Tommye said. “As it cooked, the bacon kept it basted.”
Here is the recipe from page 322 in the Southern Living cookbook. Remember, Tommye knocked the stuffing out of hers!
ROASTED WILD TURKEY
- 1 turkey (8-10 pounds)
- salt and pepper
- 8 cups of dry bread cubes
- ¾ cup finely chopped celery
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 2 to 3 teaspoons of sage
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1½ cups chopped onions
- ¼ cup melted butter
- ¼ cup water
- 4 slices of bacon
- bacon drippings
Rub turkey inside and out with salt and pepper.
Combine bread cubes, celery, walnuts, and seasonings. Saute onion in butter until tender but not brown; pour over bread mixture. Add water and toss lightly.
Lightly stuff turkey with dressing. (Put remaining dressing in a greased casserole. Cover, and bake in oven with turkey during the last 30 minutes of roasting time.)
Truss bird. Cover breast with bacon slices and cheesecloth soaked in bacon drippings. Place turkey, breast up, on rack in roasting pan. Roast at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes per pound or until tender, basting frequently with bacon drippings in pan. Remove dressing from turkey. Yield 8 to 10 servings.