This Thanksgiving I fixed 2 - 12 pound turkeys and a 7.47 lb turkey breast. In an attempt to cater to everyone’s tastes I brined all 3 turkeys with different brines for different lengths of time and cooked each one differently. To give somewhat of an equal treatment to the 3 turkeys after the brining process they were all washed, dried with paper towels, stuffed with a quartered apple, a quartered onion and two stalks of celery prior to being trussed up and returned to the refrigerator to set for 12 hours
The breast and the turkey on the left had variations of the holiday apple honey brine. The purple bird was brined using the cranberry pomegranate brine.
The cranberry pomegranate turkey was brined 48 hours and came out purple. The holiday apple honey brined turkey had a few extra spices and was brined 24 hours. The holiday apple honey brined breast was brined 12 hours.
During the 12 hour period after the brining the two apple honey brined birds leached a considerable amount more onto the plate than the cranberry pomegranate bird.
I put the holiday apple honey brined turkey breast in a bag in a roaster at 300 for 2 1/2 hours (the presentation was horrible)
I smoked the holiday apple honey brined turkey for 4 1/2 hours at 250 with 6 ounces of apple wood chunks.
I smoked the cranberry pomegranate brined turkey for 3 hours at 275 with 4 ounces of cherry wood chunks.
The cranberry pomegranate turkey sat in the cooler for 2 hours 15 minutes before it was unwrapped. I let it sit for 15 minutes prior to carving it. The turkey was firm, moist and a little tart from the cranberry, but very tasty. The cherry smoke was strong, but not overpowering.
The holiday apple honey brined turkey sat in the cooler for 1 hour before it was unwrapped. I let it sit for 15 minutes prior to carving it. The turkey was firm, moist and had a mild sweet apple taste and smoke flavor.
The holiday apple honey brined breast sat 15 minutes prior to carving it. The turkey was firm and moist with a slightly sweet apple taste.
What did I learn?
1. A 15% “solution” added turkey breast can pull up as much flavor as an 8% “solution” added turkey.
2. The firmness of the turkey meat was not affected by the length of the brine.
3. Less brine is needed if you brine the turkey in a bag.
4. A 2 ½ gallon Hefty Jumbo Slider bag is much easier to use than a large oven bag and requires less brine (about half)
5. Cherry smoke was a bit stronger than I expected
6. I served 20 people and had roughly the same amount of turkey leftover from each recipe, and I had no complaints from anyone.
It's all Good!
