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I've got a recipe I'd like to try that calls for 3.5 lbs of turkey meat (leg and thigh) that has been trimmed of fat and sinew. I'd like to purchase the whole bird and roast the breast and use the legs and thighs for the sausage. But....I don't know how big a bird I'll need to get the 3.5 lbs of dark meat.

I think you'll need to buy a turkey growing a couple of extra legs.

Seriously though, I've seen legs and thighs sold in supermarkets and you could get an idea of the weight from these to help you judge the size of bird required. Alternatively, I'd just buy a turkey that suits and a couple of extra legs to make up the weight needed.

Thanks...that's exactly what I was thinking I'd have to do. Oh well, guess I will have to kill two birds with one stone!

Ok I just cooked a practice turkey, see brining thread in brined meat we ate all the white meat off one side last night and I stripped all the dark meat off that side tonight, and that pure meat without skin weighed 816g, so from a 7kg turkey including giblets I get approx 1.6kg manually recoverable dark meat (after cooking). This includes meat from the carcass that I class as dark meat: oysters, intercostal muscle, neck, but only what I could quickly and easily pull off with my fingers. Edit: that also included wing meat. If I'd had read your post again before stripping I'd have weighed just the thigh and leg meat on their own. I'd guess 1.0 to 1.2 kilos cooked dark meat from a 7kg bird. If you like, when I do the other half I can give you a more precise estimate

Hope this helps,

Dave

That was really helpful. My wife was planning on heading out to purchase the turkey tomorrow. So if I understand this correctly you had about 2-2.5 lbs (U.S.) cooked dark meat from a 15 lb bird. If I double that (and assuming that the raw meat weighed more than the cooked) I would easily have enough for the sausage. I have 1.5 lbs of pork fat set aside to make up the rest to a total of 5 lbs for the sausage. And I hadn't even given the wings any thought and since you mentioned it there's no reason not to use them in the sausage. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'll be making it sometime about the 25th.

Thanks saucisson, you've gone above and beyond the call of duty and it's greaty appreciated.

Jered

You're welcome

It will be interesting to see what you get from a US turkey.

Dave

Better yet, hopefully this will help:

http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sausagensuch121ka3.jpg

Thanks to P.S.

I went the "better safe than sorry" route and purchased a 20 lb or so bird today (didn't check if it was a tom or hen, probably a tom at that weight). By that scale I'm going to have almost double what I need. I may just scale the recipe up because I also purchased 50 ft of casings at the same time. After it thaws and I butcher it I'll weigh the thigh meat and leg meat separate (no bones/no skin) and post it up. Because I'll be roasting the breast I'll only be able to weigh it on the bone. I'll also be using the wings for sausage.

Thanks Again...

Is there an issue making a sausage using already cooked meat?

Johnsoni
there shouldn't be any problems with using cooked meat, though it will make a difference in the texture. Cajun Boudin Blanc, for instance, is made with cooked rice and cooked pork.

I would have sworn that I posted my findings. The leg/thigh/wing meat was more than enough for the recipe plus about 1/2 lb extra. Essentially, my final weight (of raw meat) was about 4 lbs.