Turkey

It would probably be easier to cook whole. One the other hand cuting it up would allow you to temp probe the white and dark parts separately and pull each when done; plus it would probably cook a little faster.

db

Be careful about brining the turkey. On other forums individuald have cautioned brining because most commercial turkeys have been injected with a saline solution . End resulot is that you might get too much of a salt flavor

Have a read through Turkey 101.

You "can" do the dark/white separate but it creates new issues (timing for one).

As you've not done many, what I would do is do it whole and practice for next year.

Brine for 2 days (if it's not solution enhanced like JJ said).

Smokin'

I've tried SmokinOkies's Turkey Brine recipie twice and both times it was delicious.... Both at meal time and the left overs made great turkey salad. Just my .50 cents worth!

I looked at my wrapper on the turkey. It is a Jeny-o with up to 8% of several salinated type products enhanced. Should I still brine it? Should i cut back the brine time, less salt, maybe marinate instead? Any suggestions appreceiated.

If you want details, look at this Brining 202
thread, but for me, 8% isn't enough to worry about, so I'd brine as normal.

would recommend not to brine

Listen to SmokinOkie He is by far more experienced than I. Sorry about the confusion

A note to Smokin. Thanks for the help with the smoked turkey. I followed the recipe pretty close. I didn’t have time to brine for 48 hours so did it for only about 16 hours. Used your Holiday brine recipe and the cheese cloth soaked in butter. It was a small bird, a little under 9 pounds. Came out beautiful. CS at 300 took only about 2 hours. I let it rest then carved it. Foiled and refrigerated. Next day reheated and added some hot gravy (the turkey came with a packet). Everyone at the party loved it. No leftovers. Definitely will do again.
Thanks Smokin!

Ranger,

Did you open to let out moisture?

Did you add more butter to cloth?

I thought about the 300* on my 1st turkey.

Good job.

I opened the door one time when it was nearly done, ie breast about 155 thigh 160 and removed the Cheese cloth. I sprayed it with Pam at that time.

Yep,

I must have been moved by you Ranger, because I also did a turkey this week. I must say it was my 1st. I must also thank Smokin' for the useful knowledge that I found in the turkey forum.

I brined my 13.5lb 8% enhanced turkey for 48 hrs, perfect I must say.I let it dry in frig all night,then seperated the skin from breast.

I used greek seasoning under the skin with 1/4 stick of butter, back to frig with bag of ice on breast for 4 hrs. Now this is where I my have strayed from you Ranger.

I prewarmed my cs020 to 250*, about 45 min. I then put the turkey covered with cheese cloth( 2 sticks of butter on cloth).

I cooked 45 min at 250* opened sprayed the breast with butter flavored pam,turned up to 275*.

I then did the same thing in 45min, but turned up to 300*. Then 30 min later I opened door and took cheese cloth off. Sprayed breast with pam again.

Well here's where things went wrong, My turkey was uncovered for 1.5hrs without cheese cloth. This caused the skin to pull back a little and crack on the breast,oh well!

Overall, nice color, good taste, real moist. I feel it could have used a little more smoke. I used only two small cherry and one small hickory, less than 2 ozs.

I wished I had opened door one more time. Total time after prewarm was 3.5hrs counting opening the door 3 times.

My brine recipe was 3/4 cup salt,1/2 cup sugar,1/4 cup black pepper, 2 heaping tbls of minced garlic,1 tbls italian seasoning,1/2ts sage,1/2ts alspice. Yep, just something i threw together. Worked nice!

Skin was not crispy,but looked real good. Have to say BEST turkey I ever ate.

About forgot to say, I removed it when breast was 170*.

quote:

Originally posted by cal:
...
Well here's where things went wrong, My turkey was uncovered for 1.5hrs without cheese cloth. This caused the skin to pull back a little and crack on the breast,oh well!

Glad it worked out for you.

Actually that happens more times than not WHEN you separate the skin from the meat, there's nothing to keep it from shrinking once you separate it from the meat.

You can use toothpicks, kinda fold the skin over and stick. Sometimes the skin rips, sometimes it doesn't.