Turkey Brine ???

good question, haven't had a lot of "mass" producing brine.

My thoughts...

I would say 24 min, more is preferred. You could probably get into a day production kind of thing.

I'm just thinking the mass of turkey (how many in a batch) is going to dilute the process somewhat.

As long as it's cold, I think you can reuse it, but...

1) I'm not sure how many times I'd reuse it. If you do it a 2nd or 3rd time, you're using turkey juices from the previous batches and that wouldn't be good after maybe 2 or 3 days total.

2) I'd add more brine each time. The concept of brining is to take the liquid inside the bird and via osmosis change it with the brine. Thus the brine will be diluted when you reuse it because of the exchanged liquid from the turkey's you just did.

Russ

Thanks Smokin'. Good info.

It all depends on how many are sold, but darn these people who just have to have their Thanksgiving turkey "BEFORE" Thanksgiving, but not too far before. Makes scheduling kind of tricky.

I'm looking at cooking 50 birds at a time, so I might go ahead and brine all of them at the same time, then pull 50 at the 24hr mark, 50 more at the 32-36hr mark, and the last batch at 42ish mark. If I need more I'll know ahead of time and put additional turkeys in the first brine when I remove the earliest batch for cooking. I can adjust the strength of the brine as needed to allow for the different soak time.

I'm doing a test cook this weekend with six turkeys to test the system and timing. Better to know now if it needs tweaking than find out on November 23rd.

From the threads, it sounds like the birds need to sit after brining for 12 hours or so in order for the skin to dry out enough to crisp while cooking. That added a step I wasn't planning on, so it looks like I'll have to rent a reefer truck for a couple of days to give me the cold space I need.

I'll have brine buckets down the middle of the truck, with drying birds on one side and cooling birds on the other.

Any suggestions on how to deliver these turkeys? I looked for BIG rotisserie chicken type carriers but no luck. I guess it will be half pans and foil unless someone has a better idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd G.:
From the threads, it sounds like the birds need to sit after brining for 12 hours or so in order for the skin to dry out enough to crisp while cooking. That added a step I wasn't planning on, so it looks like I'll have to rent a reefer truck for a couple of days to give me the cold space I need.

Any suggestions on how to deliver these turkeys? I looked for BIG rotisserie chicken type carriers but no luck. I guess it will be half pans and foil unless someone has a better idea.

Depends. What cooker will you be using and what temp. I don't do that when I cook in the FEC and 290+ temps. That step is a "workaround" for other smokers and lower temps.

If you're doing 50 in an offset, you wont need to.

I don't have a recommend delivery, are you going to cook and deliver? man I hope they're paying for it. guess it depends on food safety, as you're having to cool them quick and the client reheating? Then you have to be food safe and wrap accordingly. a foil pan and color plastic wrap to be a little festive?

I'm doing these on my gas pig cooker, so I guess it's closer to an offset in a lot of ways, but without the big airflow. My AQ and trusty 008 will be doing multiple loads of butts. I'm planning to cook birds around 300-325*, but tests will determine where I actually end up. By the time Thanksgiving gets here, I'm not even going to want to look at a turkey!

Watching the food safety issues very closely. I'm planning to TQ the brine even with the higher cooking temps. Turkeys scare me a little. They seem to go bad very easily, so I don't want to take any chances.

Don't plan to deliver any hot birds. I'm thinking cool, pan, and wrap as you described, but I'm going by the Honey Baked ham store down the street today and see what they put their turkeys in. Guessing they must have some type of turkey carrier. Maybe I'll do a disposable platter and cellophane wrap like folks use for gift baskets. That might work.

Pulled 6 turkeys off the cooker about an two hours ago. Three different brines. All were good, but I think Smokin's Holiday brine was the best (not over powering, widest appeal). I used ponzu sauce instead of the soy, and doubled the amount of honey, but stayed true otherwise. Rubbed with McCormicks rotisserie chicken seasoning. I also tried rosemary/garlic rub and cajun rub. I preferred the cajun, but most others like the plain rotisserie better. Again, more neutral but still flavorful. Birds cooked at 350*, then rested for an hour. And they weren't dried for 12 hours either, but the skin was still crisp.

Getting ready to feed now on fresh collard greens, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes. Had to leave off the stuffing lest we steal Thanksgiving's thunder. This testing isn't all bad.

Cooked. Ate. Watched football. Napped. Plan to repeat later. Good day.