| Author | Message | ||
     Xl1200r |
I've been dying to get the smoker out again, so I asked mom if I could smoke the bird on Thursday. She didn't want me to smoke the only one as she wasn't sure if everyone would like it (pfffft), so she said I could do a second one if I wanted. I got a nice small 11 lbs thawed turkey last night as well as a bunch of locally made hot and sweet italian sausage to throw in there as well. Going to start brining it tomorrow morning, found an interesting recipe with salt, sugar, apple cider, apples, oranges, pepper corns, garlic and herbs. Going to do a roughly 6 hour smoke with half apple, half hickory. This will be my first time doing poultry. This should be good. I hope mom doesn't mind when people like mine better  | ||
| Slaughter |
Dude... wow... I thought you were talking hashish. Smoking turkish man | ||
| 86129squids |
XL- I got home last nite from work, found out that my GF had bought a 15# turkey from the store! (I'd planned to just smoke a couple of boston butts...) I'll be smoking it as well. How's about sharing that brining recipe? I gotta do my research on this- NPR had a good story on "soul food" touches for Thanksgiving, included a neat sounding recipe for the stuffing (the author insisted it be called "dressing", LOL) This will be my 2nd shot at smoking something, gotta get it right! Any good tips, as usual, will be greatly appreciated! | ||
| Strokizator |
I've smoked whole turkey breasts as it makes for some great sammiches but I'm not sure about an entire bird for a formal dinner. This year I'll be roasting the bird out on the Traeger grill. It should pick up a slightly smokey flavor. I picked this up off the TV and want to try it this year: Place bird breast-side down on a v-rack in the roasting pan. Slice up some salt pork and layer the entire top of the bird. Cook @ 300* for 2 to 2-1/2 hours until breast temp reads 130*. Turn the bird over and crank it up to 450* and cook until done (160* breast, 175* thigh). Let it rest for 1/2 hour and enjoy. I used to brine my turkeys but it seems all the ones I saw at the market were injected with a saline solution of anywhere from 2% to 10% by weight. At that point, I don't know how much good an extra soak is going to do. | ||
| Xl1200r |
I've never smoked any poultry before and never brined anything, so I can't vouch for the recipe, but here you go: "UNMODIFIED VERSION: 2 gal water 4 cups salt 4 cups sugar 1 full bulb garlic (cut in half) 1 cup black pepper corns Handfull of fresh thyme, sage and rosemary Steep all of the above in hot water until all of the salt and sugar is dissolved. Dump the mixture into a cooler with 3 bags of ice and add: 3 oranges, cut in half and squeezed into the cooler 3 apples, halved 1 gallon apple cider Soak turkey in brine, breast side down, for 24 hours. Rotate the bird every 6-12 hours, keep it completely submerged and maintain a temperature less than 40 degrees (to halt bacteria growth). Before smoking, rinse off and pat dry." This was for a pretty big turkey and seemed like an overkill amount even at that, so I'm cutting basically everything in half (save the garlic, never too much of that). The important thing is to have 1 cup of salt for every 1 gallons of liquid, be it water, juice, ice, etc. I'm going to try and keep mine in the fridge and skip the ice, so that eliminates a lot of liquid. Sugar is optional, but I'm going to go for it, supposed to counteract the salt taste. I'm also adding an onion to mine, and using 2 apples and 2 oranges instead of the three they called for. Will still use a full bulb of garlic and probably keep the full cup or so of pepper corns (I like aggressively seasoned food). A brine can be anything you want it to be. If I were making this for myself, I'd probably go with oranges, limes, cayenne and some chillis instead (and will likely do this when I try a couple chickens in the future). The important thing is to just keep the 1 cup salt to 1 gal water ratio and add whatever you think will taste good. Now, as far as smoking, that's a whole nother can of worms. You'll get conflicting methods all over the place. You may or may not stuff the turkey with "things". I plan on using the fruit, onion and herb sprigs inside mine. You may or may not apply a rub, and that rub may or may not be a dry rub (as opposed to wet), and it may or may not be applied under the skin (as opposed to on top). I have no idea if the skin will be edible (seems it's only kept on to protect the meat), so I'll probably leave mine alone, or just do a simple salt/pepper/garlic on top. Some people say to baste with olive oil or butter to keep the skin moist. Not sure if I will do this yet or not. I will probably put the sausages over the turkey and that them drip on top, but those won't be in for long as they cook fast (2 hours tops). For temps, figure 230-250, but no higher. Turkey, I'm told, does not benefit from the real low temps (225 is typical for beef and pork), but 250 will start to scorch the skin. At 250, you're looking at 30 minutes per pound. Slightly longer as you go lower (which I'd imagine you will as you'll have pork in there as well, and that should be done at 225). The bird can come out when the breast is at 165. Careful not to touch the bone with the probe or you'll get a high reading. As with anything you smoke for a long time, avoid the very pungent woods (mesquite, hickory), at least at full strength as you can get a bitter flavor. I know this for a fact with mesquite. I like hickory, but I'm cutting it half with apple to compliment the other fruits in the brine and apple just goes well everything, save for perhaps red beef. Next project is my brother's friend bagged a deer this past weekend and he's getting some. Hoping for a roast or a tenderloin to smoke. (Message edited by xl1200r on November 20, 2012) | ||
| Xl1200r |
Stork - whole birds are no problem, but anything over 15-16 lbs is probably not a good idea as it stays in the "danger zone" (40-140 degrees) for too long. Also, you are correct, there's no point in brining a turkey that's already been brined, but you can get them without that saline solution. They *usually* only add that to frozen turkeys, but even thawed ones may have been frozen at one time so you gotta check the label. Speaking of which, I need to take a look at mine as I may have messed that part up... | ||
| S21125r |
I've done chickens before but never tried a Turkey. Might have to give that a try. On a side note, my #1 smoking tip is to NOT use wet wood chips - use dry instead. With wet chips the steam and smoke kind of mix together and you end up with a really harsh smoke flavoring. With dry chips the smoke is just as strong but has a mellower and sweater flavor. Also don't put the meat on until the smoke turns from a billowing white to a wispy faint blue. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/good-smoke-vs-b ad-smoke | ||
| 86129squids |
Cool info and tips, y'all! Looks like I'll be heading to the store for some supplies... I'm about to clean my gas grill today, while the weather is awesome, been pondering whether it'd be worthwhile to go ahead and get a rotisserie set-up for it- that's the only thing it doesn't have. I'm pretty much committed to charcoal/wood smoking the bird, but... hmmm. Don't want to blow too much $$$, so I'll prolly just go get the ingredients and a good supply of smoking wood. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Stuff Turkey! I use an Oatmeal, based stuffing. Granny's recipe. Oatmeal, Beef Suet, chopped onion salt & pepper. Keeps the meat nice & moist when you roast. | ||
| Xl1200r |
I always use dry wood as well. I never understood the whole "burn slower" argument. Just add less. Same thing, less work. Thanks for that link as well, I know the blue stuff good but the thick white looks so impressive! Squids - if you are in fact smoking, the temperature should be low enough and the heat indirect making a rotisserie irrelevant. I was all excited to start making the brine tonight, but there's no need. The more I'm reading, the more I'm seeing I don't need to brine it for 24 hours because of it's small size. Will probably just make it tomorrow and give it a 12 hour soak. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
I've smoked a buncha birds. I don't brine them because it's too much expense, time consuming and messy. For a turkey,I rub the skin with olive oil because the smoker will tend to turn the skin to leather if you don't. I rub spices (salt, sage, garlic or just poultry seasoning with some salt added) all over the oily hide and do not stuff the bird. If you stuff it, you will never get the internal temp up to spec without overcooking the extremities. Smoke the bird lying on it's back, right on a rack. No pan. Put a water pan in the smoker right above the chip box. This will make steam which will help cook it evenly as well as keeping moisture in the meat. Smoke at 225 degrees for 5 or 6 hours using fruit wood or alder and fruit wood. Do not replenish the wood chips after you stop seeing visible smoke. It's still imparting good smokey flavor, you just can't see it and you can overdo the smoke real easy. For a larger meal, place a glazed ham directly above the bird and a big bowl of beans directly below it. Gravity will take care of the rest.. | ||
| 01x1buell |
mmmm i love smoking meat i smoke a briskit every weekend and plan to smoke a turkey as well, good luck man. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Brine is all made up. Smells pretty good! | ||
| 86129squids |
Got mine put together, cooling now, gotta get that bird in the mix asap! The recipe I used called for 10 cloves garlic- is that excessive? I mashed up 8 whole cloves... Let's go! | ||
| Xl1200r |
Put mine in this morning. Had to make a little more to get it covered, no biggie. Use ice cubes inside ziplock bags to cool it down without adding any water to the mix. 10 cloves isn't excessive. I used an entire bulb, must have been that many or more. | ||
| 86129squids |
 Ummm- I used 8 ENTIRE bulbs, guess I'll fish out some now...  | ||
| Xl1200r |
Haha... yeah, unless you REALLY like garlic I'd fish a few out. | ||
| 86129squids |
Well, we do really like garlic, and it'll still have too much in the brine, but once the brine rinses off it should be OK... I strained out maybe half of the garlic in the brine, trying to keep the rest of the stuff in. Got an apple, a tangerine, and a lemon to zest and squeeze in the AM. Thrill a minute! | ||
| 86129squids |
OK, wow... I have to report that my first evaar brined and smoked turkey was... AWESUMMM!!! Truly some of the best bird I've ever eaten. WILL be repeating that experiment again! Bird sat over hickory charcoal and wine-soaked cherry chips from 740am to almost 4pm, temps ranging from 200 up to 300, mostly about 215ish... until the very end, when the accumulated mass of chips caught fire and jumped the temp to 500!  My neighbor and I were outside and caught the conflagration quickly- by then the 15#'er was literally falling apart. For my first official duty as "carver of the bird", I just yanked legs and wings off and served them around the table- it just seemed right, any good barbecue I've really enjoyed ended up with all going at it caveman style... also had green bean casserole (with fried onions in and on top, 'natch), mashed red potatoes, baby carrots, country gravy, and dinner rolls. We ended up feeding a total of six guests, with a decent amount of leftovers... I was most thankful yesterday to be able to present a great meal (with the ample help of my honey) to several close friends, most of whom are facing tough times, all in what was basically a beautiful summer day here in E. TN.   | ||
| Jon |
Didn't smoke it, but a 20 lb turkey was translated to perfection in 4.5 hrs in my standard no frills Weber yesterday. Did the rub, stuffed the cavity with white onions and orange slices, made a basting sauce of 7-up, brown sugar, cloves, allspice powder, and perfect pinch. I stuck thinly slices oranges sections to the exterior with cloves. The dropped the birdy on to the grill with fences used to hold coals to the side. I protected the wings and legs with a foil shield loosely to keep those extremities from burning up ahead of the body. Every 25 minutes, I basted, added about 5 - 7 coals to each side. About 1.5 hrs into it, I took out the stuffing and laid them around the bird in the pan to speed up the process. Then kept basting, adjusting foil shields, adding coals. Took all the foil off 1 hour prior to completion. Done in 4.5 right when she hit 165 - 170 degrees. When I lifted the bird out of the pan, the wings fell off. They were tender and moist as was the rest of the meat. The sauce produced by the the baste, turkey juice, onions, oranges and spices was amazing. We had more than enough for 10 and had leftovers. All good, all juicy, all perfect. Coal cooked in a Weber the way the Pilgrims and Squanto intended. And yes, we all gave thanks. | ||
| S21125r |
I ended up doing a very small Turkey (minus wings and drums) beer can style. Did inject with a butter/lemon/broth/beer/rub mix. Turned out better than expected. Did something different than I usually do though and almost caused me an issue... I left the top vent of my Green Egg wide open and held 350F with the bottom vent cracked 1/2". Worked good except that it used up a firebox full of lump before I hit the target internal temp. Made for better smoke though. | ||
| 86129squids |
Sounds good, Jon! Also sounds like a fair amount more work than what I did- I just rinsed the brine off, put the bird over the charcoal, and kept adding fresh charcoal about every hour, along with wine-soaked cherry chips. Occasionally basted olive oil on the whole thing. Didn't use a drip-pan, kinda wish I had so I could've done a scratch gravy...  | ||
| Badlionsfan |
For you guys with a weber grill, get this-- http://www.smokenator.com/ | ||
| Xl1200r |
Well, mine *looked* about as good as you could ask for - color was good enough for a magazine! Smoke flavor was perfect, just enough, super juicy. However, there were two bad things - it was too salty, not overpowering but too much. The turkey was in it's own brine solution but I went ahead and brined it anyway, I'm thinking that's the reason. I also couldn't taste ANYTHING extra a put in the brine - no apple, orange, garlic, herbs, nothing. Not sure if this was because it was pre-brined, but I'm not sure I'll go through the trouble of it again with these results. This was a second turkey for us so we had a lot left over. I'm going to chop it up, combine it with some of the sausage I did in there and do a soup/stew with black beans or something. Should be good, and the saltiness should work well in that application. | ||
| Badlionsfan |
I'm gonna say the brine was your issue too. I did one last year with that smokenator and no one thought it was salty. Something you can try in the future is smoke it for 2 hours to get some smoke flavor then finish in the oven. | ||
| Cowboy |
Wife took left over turkey and sausage and made gumbo put is 1/2 gal containers and frozt it for later best way for left overs. | ||
| Jon |
Taking an already injected turkey and then brining it will cause excessive saltiness. I had a brine all prepared, had a cooler ready and then unwrapped my sis in law's provided turkey. It was already injected! I never expected that but I am glad I checked. The injection just keeps it from drying out as will a pre-brining. Careful pre-rub and continuous basting helps too along with stuffing. I love Thanksgiving. It truly is un-taintable by the big business machine so far. | ||
| Gunut75 |
I stopped over at Stalker's house last weekend, and he smoked a turkey. It was really dang good. Good enough for a second round. I just happen to have another 22lb bird sittin around. The side was halved jalapenos, filled with cream cheese, topped with sausage, and wrapped in bacon. Cooked on the grill. Faaaaaaabulous! | ||
| S21125r |
Gunut - those Jalapeno poppers done up that way are to die for. When I make those on the grill for my family, I don't even need to bring out a pan... They act like a bunch of vultures picking over a dead carcass as soon as the grill lid opens. | ||
| Aesquire |
http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-thanksgiving -miscellany-mark-twain.html The odd thing is smoked turkey just doesn't have the excitement of a good turkey fry. ( by excitement, I mean the burning down the house fun.... ) Some of Shatner's finest work.  | ||
| Chauly |
My effort was highly successful: The brine recipe was pretty good, although I could have used more spices and garlic... Thanks, all!  | ||
| Xl1200r |
Well, the turkey itself was ok, but the soup... my god, the soup is FANTASTIC. I chopped up about 2 cups of leftover turkey (half white mean, half dark), 1 cup of sausage, added onion, red pepper, jalapeno, garlic, cayenne pepper and some chipotle hot sauce, mixed it all with 2 cartons of chicken stock and DAYUM! It's good. Real gooooooooood. |
