Cooking Turkey

I brined a 12 1/2 pounder, cooked at 325 with apple pellets, raging river rub, whole stick of butter under the skin, basted a couple of times with butter mixed with rub. 3 1/4 hours total.
That 20 lber of yours was quick.

Turbo Turkey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How/what do you brine in? The breast that I have is in solution so I may not need to brine, but what is a good brine for non-solutioned birds.
Thanks,
Joe

Joe..you can't go wrong with Smokin's Holiday Turkey brine. See brining 101.
CB

Thanks CB,
I smoked a Breast last night and the meat was great, but the skin turned out tough, not crisp. I had it on smoke for 2 hours and finshed it on 180 (190 at the thermo), pulled it at 160, wrapped it in tinfoil and a couple towels as I was busy, for an hour or so and as I said, the meat was mm mm good, but that skin.........what did I do wrong?
Joe

I have to strongly second Russ's brine. We've brined a few birds using other recipes, but the "Smokin' Okie Holiday Turkey Brine" recipe was awesome. I was the only one who could taste the soy, but I thought it gave the bird great flavor. We fried the turkey again this year. Based on the results, we'll do this combination again next year. Thnx Russ!!!

Rod

Has anyone tried smoking the turkey some before frying?

Hey Fred, did the access work for you? Did you show Annie the picture of you drinking diet pop?

We brined then injected the turkey before cooking it on the FE. We started with 450 for 30 to 45 minutes to brown/crisp the skin then down to 375. 14 lbs and it was done in 3 to 3.5 hours. It was good, but the duck was a bigger hit.

Smoking then frying sounds interesting but I wonder about the amount of smoke flavor you'd get in the bird and how that smoking time would affect the total frying time.

I'm still trying to figure the best was to get the most flavor out of turkey. What does Papa Shaka do?

Just got finished going thriugh the pictures. Great web site by the way. Annie really enjoyed the pics since she couldn't be there. Also, she thinks you are really good with photoshop to have turned that beer can into a Pepsi.

At Marshaltown they had a turkey category. Several teams were injecting with the HC marinade. One thing I saw that look interesting was loosening the skin and laying bacon strips on the breasts. Pig fat rules..

I'm going to try the smoke/fry approach. But you are right that figuring out the smoke vs fry times will take some experimenting to get right.

Glad you like it Rod, it's one of the flavors I like in that brine also.

For others, here's the link:

Brining 101

Russ

docT
We tried the brine thing,and I agree that it is by far a better product,however in my operation I have to look at costs.Brine,labor,time plus cooking time .After a year we stopped brining and went back to basics.Could not see an increase in sales by brining.
Basics for us is simple,clean bird,remove pope nose and heavy fat ,rub with kosher salt inside and out ,make a slurry of your favorite brand of cheep salad dressing and brown sugar,light or dark ,whatever.Smeer the bird all over outside,kind of messy.Stuff a couple of quarted apples inside,and put on 2nd rack.I went to 180 straight off,for 8 hours.Nice golden skin,moist breast,great bird.That was for the paying public.
Home bird day same prep,running late bird on #2 rack,went right to the spot between 180 and 275.Prob in the thigh and 5 hours later 165,pulled,double wrapped with foil,heavy big bath towel,into holding box,and served hot at 5pm.
Same nice skin,moist breast,and a hell of a lot less work.Dinner over no more bird.
I've tried the smoke/fry bird.Don't care for it,the fry over powers the smoke and all you get is fry,and you have to watch your fry time as you have already started the bird cooking,something to think about.
Good Luck,
Papa Shaka

Papa,
Do you use an oil and vinegar dressing? I've been told to use Newman's Own, but I'd think just the oil and vinegar mixture would work just as well. What do you think?
Peggy

Peggy,
Try miracle whip or something like it.
Papa Shaka

I put mine in the Traeger at 225 after brining for 12 hours ( my own brine and spices) 14 lb bird and 8 hours of cooking 3 injections of a butter garlic liquid, pulled it at 175 wropped for 30 minutes and was voted holliday cook from that day on I only did it because my wife was under the weather now I'm stuck.