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Having mastered ribs in my new 008 I did a turkey this weekend. I have had great sucess with my old "SausageMaker" smoker. I brined the 12# bird as always and put it into the smoker with alittle more than 4 oz of wood. Needless to say 12 hours later at 160 degrees internal temperature I took it out, only to find it had turned completely black. I had the smoker set at 225 for about 10 hours then cranked it to 250 for the rest. I searched the archives and have seen some post dealing with this. One conclusion was that the longer you leave in the smoker the blacker it gets. I am sure that I had too much wood and may be the main culprit, however I suspect that the fat from the turkey dripping on the wood box continues to create smoke which adds to the blackening process. Is this true? How can I get back to that beautiful golden brown smoked look that is much more appealling?

Thanks
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Hi David. I havent brined any birds yet as I didnt feel the need and was happy with the outcome of mine so far. My guesses are you used way too much wood, but I dont know what kind you used. For fowl, I use apple. On a bird that size, 1 oz does my tastes just fine. The time looked a little long too, but I could be mistaken there. I have read that cheesecloth coated in butter, wrapped over the bird will help the skin color too. Instead of brine, I coat mine in mayonaise and CS Chicken rub.

Bob

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