Female turkeys

[Rev. Green]

Mrs. Beeton says female turkeys are more tender than male turkeys. Is there anyway of telling the gender of a turkey as normally sold i.e. plucked and minus head, feet, giblets, etc.

Okay, okay, I know I'm inviting the usual bunch of idiotic answers, but why not hold back a bit to see if someone really knows?

[Mr Veritas]

I would say no,that once the turkeys are dressed there is not much chance of telling male from female.
The only guaranteed way is to buy them direct from the (breeding)farm where you can be sure of sex(if you see what I mean) LOL

[R1Geezer]

you can tell in some cases but It's impractical to do before you buy.

If you have seen a plucked fresh Turkey head on etc then at the front of the neck a male bird has a small tuft that has to be cut out. Later when the bird is dressed the neck is taken out for the giblets and the skin surrounding it is left and tucked under. If it's a male then this flap will have a hole in it. This also depends on the butcher not cutting it off too close to the base of the neck.

So not really reliable!

[welshlibranr]

If you go to a butcher who has a few dressed birds on display, you usually find that the male's have larger and plumper legs, and less meaty breasts, that's the way I tell, I find that female birds don't taste much different, but have more breast meat and smaller frames................hope this helps....................welsh

[Rev. Green]

Many thanks everyone. I'll have to return to the butcher, and avoid Tesco's freezers.