An avid turkey hunter once told me that only the breast meat was edible, the thighs & wings were simply too tough. Made sense, a wild turkey can both fly and run extremely fast. I saw both in action when a turkey T-boned my minivan on interstate; left a dent.
Anyway, never had turkey growing up. For Thanksgiving & Christmas my grandmother bought a Padgett chicken from a local breeder who tried to take his large birds to China in the 1930’s. Family dinners were eight adults & four kids; the roast bird was large enough to feed us all & there were leftovers. All the fixin’s were homemade; no Stove Top. Such memories.
We lived across from a turkey farm. Yes, turkeys are dumb. They couldn’t sell the eggs that were double yolked so they’d give them to all the neighbors. Growing up, I barely knew what a chicken egg was. We had so many that I’d play with them by letting them dry out in the shell. The yolks would settle on one side and when you rolled them across the floor, they’d wobble.
The farmer’s wife had a milk cow so she’d give us a couple of gallons a week. Ooooh, soooo gooooood!
Good hunter, bad cook.
I did the thighs as I would a cheap cut of beef - low and slow! Tender and delicious. ;)