First Turkey

Hi Al...you can probably find Morton's Tender quick at Kroger or Publix and for a brine I recommend Smokin Oakie's Holiday Turkey brine, it produces fantastic results. See brining 101. Let us know how the bird comes out.
Bill

Mornin' Al,

I'm no turkey expert,but I'll give a couple of basic thoughts.

You have read all the benefits that sometime come with brining.

At times it may help more in an offset, with the higher airflow, than in a CS.

I assume you know how to fly the Okla Joe.

Some folks like to run their offsets a little higher for turkeys, than we might run a CS.

Cherry can make a dark bird,but a little is nice on poultry.

Oak with a little pecan gives a well rounded flavor.

If the turkey isn't huge,I personally don't use a cure agent like Tenderquick.

It can make it "hammy" tasting to me.

Is the turkey already injected/pumped with salt water from the plant?

If so you may,
want to just inject and let set overnight for flavor.

If I do this,I usually just use a lower salt rub under the skin the morning of the cook.

You may want to rub the skin with oil or melted butter and wrap in vinegar smoked cheesecloth to keep from becoming too dark.

You can also oil/vinegar the cheesecloth half way through.

If you don't need to present it whole,you could section the leg quarters from the whole breast.

This allows you to start or pull them separately,when the breast crosses over the 155+� mark and the leg quarters cross about 175�+.

If you aren't ready to serve you can always wrap in plastic and foil and cooler it for a couple of hours.

Hope this helps a little 'til the experts get here.

Thanks for the comeback. I guess I just get one of these brine recipes and inject into the breast, legs and thighs and let set in the fridge overnight. My plan was to smoke in the 210 degree range about 1 hour per pound and I didn't know about the cheese cloth but I will get some and wrap it. I have plenty of oak and pecan.

If that bird is not already pumped,Smokin's Holiday brine will make a fine injection.

If it is already pumped,you might like something like Scottie's.

Posted by Scottie on November 17, 2002 at 17:50:00: Scottie's Creole Butter

This comes courtesy of Ray Basso's forum.

If you've never injected, try it you'll like it..

Scottie's Creole Butter

- � can of beer
- � lb. Butter
- 1 tsp. Bonesmokers Big Time BBQ Rub (any mild BBQ rub will do)
- 2 tsp. Paprika
- 1 � tsp. White Pepper
- 1 � tsp. Sea Salt
- 1 tbsp. Garlic Powder
- 1 � tsp. Onion Powder
- 1 tsp. Coleman's Mustard
- 1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
- � tsp. Cayenne Pepper
- � tsp. Tabasco

Let mixture cool a bit and then inject...

Is there a reason you would want to hold that woodburner down at 210�.

There might be a little less chance of drying at 250� or even higher.

Smokin' is an old Okie Joe man and he might have some thoughts.

I can't believe he'd be over plottin' strategy for this week's game.

Tom, if I raised the temp, would that shorten the cooking time? Otherwise, it looks like it be more apt to dry the bird out. al

Mornin Al,

The slow and low cooking methods were developed to utilize fatty,tough tissued,gristled cuts of meat and make them usable after rendering the fat and breaking down the collagen to make the meat chewable.

The turkey has very little fat or moisture and certainly isn't considered tough.

Yes,the increased cook temps will shorten cook times.

Standard oven cook temps for turkeys is in the 325�-350�,to keep them from drying out.

Folks that don't cook a lot of turkeys find they have good results cooking by internal temps.

Strictly for estimating the day,I've found that the 12-14 lb birds ,that I like to cook, average about 6 or 7 hrs.

The bigger birds up to around 20 lbs may take 8 hrs.

This is running between 225�-250�.

Now well brined birds can finish much more quickly.

Smokin' may have some thoughts on that OK Joe that will help you.

my last experiment produced turkey ham..haha!
i didnt use any rub. i smoked her hard for a couple hours. then put her in a pan. someone suggested that i use crushed chicken bullion cubes and butter. so i did. smothered the bird with it, wrapped it up. stuck her with a thermo and baked til done. great juicy bird, but didnt taste like turkey at all. in a blind test, i couldnt tell you what kind of meat it was...haha! oh well

All great comments.

Just posted the Turkey 101 and most of these ideas were already in there.

My thoughts.

Brining and Injecting aren't the same thing. Brine meants to immerse the entire bird into a liquid.



Turkey needs a higher temp for the skin. If you cook it at this low a temp, just take the skin off. You won't like the texture. You can certainly cook it this low to prevent drying, but I'd baste it at least every 1 or 2 just to keep moisutre on it. Any meat will dry out after a while. The cheese cloth idea is just to keep you from basting as much.



CB. Yeah, don't you think, in most cases, turkey doesn't taste like much anyway? That's why I brine mine.

That's just 'cause you and Smokin',Jr. don't understand the principle of mayo on light bread turkey sandwiches.

Thanks to all of you for all your help and especially for the recipes. I would not have been able to do this without a lot of the experience off this board. I didn't use everything exactly as given but what I did had the neighbors showing up about 5 PM Sunday with their napkins around their necks and forks in their hands. Here's what I did.

Brined 12 lb. turkey in basic brine for 20 hours.
Used the following in brine mixture and made 1 gallon
1 cup Kosher salt � cup brown sugar 3 Tablespoons black peppercorns
� cup white sugar 3 cloves chopped garlic � cup honey
1 tsp allspice
Rinsed, patted dry and left in refrig for two hours to dry.
Seasoned with dry poultry rub (homemade) and wrapped in cheese cloth.
Put in hot smoker at 7:30AM. Using pecan wood and a little oak.
Smoked til 11:30 at max temp.
Removed cheese cloth and check temp.
Put butter on skin and injected breasts and thighs with creole butter
Returned to smoker til 1:30 PM
Finished in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes to crisp skin.
Wasn�t much left. Keep in mind I was using an offset Oklahoma Joe and the max temp for that old smoker is about 230 degrees. Next time I will not use the drippings from the smoker for the gravy. Too salty. Other than that I wouldn't change a thing. Thanks again. al

Sounds like you got a pretty good handle on it.

Keep good notes.

all i got to say is..... go dogs!
go 'noles!
and of course... go sooners!