Help me Brainstorm

Try Scotties Creole butter injection at the following link. I've heard very good things about it.

http://www.cookshack.com/barbeque_guide/101/Turkey_101.htm

run,
make a compound butter using bell's seasoning or just go for poultry seasoning.
work the skin loose with your fingers and smear the butter under that. hold the skin tight with toothpicks and give a liberal coating of kosher salt to the skin. let that air dry till tacky and smoke with 50% oak and 50% pecan for color.
when you are around 150 in the thigh baste with a thick mix of orange juice and honey till you hit 155 in breast. pull and foil for 1 hour and carve
jack

quote:

The meat is the typical firm, "ham-like" hard-cured bird that you'd expect from doing a brine.

I don't know, but I've brined a lot in my time and never get a hard cured hammy taste in my birds.

Maybe you could post the recipe and we can modify that.

Or just skip brining and go with one of the suggestions.

Injecting or Pastes are about your only other options, well maybe Deep Frying.

Long time in a salty brine will do that. Changes the texture too.

Thanks for the replies. Okay Russ, smack me for not thinking about your Turkey 101. J Appledog�s Award winning turkey recipe that you have listed sounds like a really nice change of pace for one of this year's smoked birds. I don't have time to order the jerk marinade that the recipe calls for, but I'm sure that I can scrounge up a worthy substitute. I think I'll try Jack's honey/oj glaze on the second one, put some rub over/under the skin and do an injection for good measure. (nothing like experimenting on the guests, huh? lol)

Maybe it is a local thing, but many of the people here expect smoked turkey to be cured (like ham). If you put enough salt in the brine (where an egg can float) and brine it long enough to get complete flavor/salt penetration in the breast, the meat's texture will be quite firm.

Here's my turkey brine. It'll make some nice, cured, smoked chicken as well, but the brine times are wayyyyyy shorter:

2 gallons water
4 1/4 cups pickling/canning salt
4 cups dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons dill weed
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon sage
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

You have to be REALLY careful with the time that you leave the turkey in the brine. For 12.5 - 14 lbs birds, 32 hrs seems optimum. Over 36 hrs will start getting you "too salty" comments, and much under 32 hrs doesn't penetrate all the way through the breast--and forgodsakes don't use pre-injected birds or you'll never get your salt content right.

Try it on whole chickens sometime for a change of pace from BBQ'd chicken. 12 hrs for a light cure to 24 hrs for a heavy cure for chicken.

Paul