BRADLEY SMOKER | "Taste the Great Outdoors"

I am going to try some Smoked Turkey Legs, I have been looking over many brine recipes.
Some have Cure # 1 and salt and others just have salt.  So do you need Cure #1 in
Turkey Brine?

Thanks

Mike

Sorry I can't help you here Mike.  I'm sure someone will come along soon. But,  I'm going to watch for your answer because it will help me too one day.

Don't need cure unless you want to do them "Theme Park" style, little bit of a ham taste.

Hey Smokin Soon

That is what I want to make the Theme Park style.  Most of the recipes say to use MTQ
for the cure, I have cure #1 so I am looking for a recipe using cure #1

Thanks

Mike

I found on the recipe site a recipe for making MTQ so I am going to try

SMOKED TURKEY
1 cup tender quick salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 gallon water (or amount to cover pieces)

I will post the results

Mike

You can make the Basic Cure, but if you have cure #1 I generally use the following ratio for a 4 - 5 quarts of water:

3 oz of Cure #1 (Instacure #1; Prague Powder #1; pink salt)
10 ounces of non-iodize salt

That is a good ratio to use for ≈ 1 gallon of water to replace the MTQ, but the above ratio will contain a lot more salt then the recipe you posted. 

The recipe you posted contains a ≈8 ounces or 3/4 cup of salt. So if you are going for the same type of flavor you may want to cut the salt to 5 ounces, and add an additional 1/4 cup of sugar that would have been part of MTQ. It seems like a lot of sugar in that recipe.

Thanks Habs I will give it a try

Mike

I usually toss in a 1/4 cup of maple sugar on top of that mix.

I mixed up the brine

Cure #1
salt
brown sugar
water

add Turkey Legs and Wings, in the fridge for over night, after work tonight into the smoker.

(http://www.interiorhobbies.com/mmIH/Images/smoker/IMG_0051.jpg)

Lookin' forward to the pics.  Been thinking about doing some turkey dark meat myself.  If yours turns out to your liking I'll give it a shot.

Wow the Turkey legs turned out great for the first batch, I love the ham
look and taste and flavors.  This batch is a bit too salty, I only rised the legs
off after the brine, next time I will soak them in cold water for 1/2 hour
to remove some of the salt.

2hrs       @ 140 with Cherry Smoke
1 3/4 hrs @ 300 unit IT of 160

(http://www.interiorhobbies.com/mmIH/Images/smoker/img_0052.jpg)

(http://www.interiorhobbies.com/mmIH/Images/smoker/img_0053.jpg)

(http://www.interiorhobbies.com/mmIH/Images/smoker/img_0054.jpg)

I usually only brine my birds with a 21 degree brine. This would be less salty than what you used.

This is from Marianski's book and it works well.

1 gal water
1/2 cup (146g) (5.15oz) salt
3 oz. (85g) of cure #1
3 oz. (85g) sugar

brining time examples
1-2 hours game hens
2-4 hours chicken pieces
1 day whole chickens 2lbs
1-2 days whole chickens 4lbs
4-8 hours turky breast
1-2 days whole turkeys up to 10lbs
2-3 days whole turkeys over 10lbs

Rather than the soak, just reduce the brine time.

Thanks KevinG  that looks like a better recipe.

I was thing the same thing too FLBentRider just cut back the the time.

Mike

Glade to hear that had great flavor, but sorry that it came out too salty. Did you follow my suggestions in my first post to add only 5 ounces of salt, plus 3 ounces of cure #1; that gives you ≈ 8 ounces of salt. That is slightly less salt content then Kevin's recipe. I'm also thinking on the same track as FBL, reduce the brine time.

It may be because of your large smoker and large racks, but the legs look small. If that is the case then that would also reduce the brine time. How long did you brine for?

Hey habs

I will check my notes at home on the amounts of cure and salt, I have read so much information
on Turkey Brines, they are starting to run together.  ;D ;D  I did make notes in my smoking journal
as I made the brine.

The brine time was about 14 hrs

Do you have oz to tsp for cure # 1 or is it best to go by weight?

Thanks

Mike

Weight is best, but if you need to measure by volume; 2 tablespoons of Cure #1 weights close to one ounce (it's a little over an ounce but close enough to stay in the safe range of use). If you click on the below link and scroll down to Cure #1 there is a chart that has a fairly accurate weight to volume conversion. Just note that the amount of meat/fat is used only for measurement for sausage making or for dry cure application, but the volume to weight conversion is good for either wet or dry cure methods.
Curing Salts (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?736-Curing-Salts)

When wet curing you have more latitude in the amount of cure you use, though brine times generally are adjusted accordingly. Generally you will see ranges of cure #1 as 1.5 - 3.0 ounces per gallon; but I have seen some amounts in Rytek's book that go as high as 1 ounce per quart. I use 3 ounces per 5 gallons when I am curing hams, but use 1.5 ounces per gallon for making corned beef/pastrami, thinner cuts of meat, and chicken parts. The amounts I mentioned in my first post are close to the conversion of use of TQ.

Also curing times are important; 16 hours is a long time for turkey legs. I would go by the guidelines that Kevin posted for chicken parts, but for turkey parts I would use the high end of the brine time; 4 hours.

Thank you Habs

After reviewing my notes I found my error, I used 1 1/2 cups salt instead of 1/2 cup
I had so many different notes and read so many recipes I got confussed  ;D ;D
I am glad I took notes as I made the brine.

I also agree I just cut back on the brine time.

Thanks everyone for the help

I will definitely try this again, even with the extra salt the turkey legs tasted great
I cant wait to try them with less salt.

Mike