1. I'M BACK, HAVE LOTS OF BOOZE LEFT FROM THE WEDDING AND EVERYTHING TURNED OUT AWESOME
2. I WILL POST SOME PICS ON MY DAY OFF TUESDAY FOR EVERYONE (WIFE SAID I HAVE TO....don't ask)
3. I have a few simple questions about turkey breasts I was asked to do for Thanksgiving.
I am planning on doing 3 Turkey breasts, 2 will be used for Thursday and 1 will be used Friday. Father in law wants one plain and one brined and brother in law wants one brined. They are gonna range in the 6-7 lb range. I already have a plan for brining them so that is not an issue. (Unless of course someone has an AMAZING honey brine recipe) My issue is:
Everyone plans on eating around noon-1pm on Thursday as well as Friday. Can I simply cold smoke and vac seal all 3 breasts lets say on Wednesday and when I wake up on lets say Thursday and Friday morning can I put these into the oven until they are done the day of. I don't want anyone sick thus me asking. If I need to I will wake up super early and just smoke/cook them so they are ready by the time everyone wants to eat. I just want to make sure because every time I have done breasts I have smoked/cooked all the same day.
Thanks!
John
really??? nothing????
Once you start cooking poultry (including cold-smoking), finish the job. All at once. No breaks.
Yep, start to finish at once. Either get up reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally early, or do them the night before, go to bed reaaaaaallllllllllly late, and reheat for a bit for the feast.
Or, do them this Sunday at your leisure, vacuum seal them after they have cooled off, then reheat in a pan of hot (not boiling!) water on Turkey day morning. Cut open, slice and enjoy.
I'd pick door #2 Monty. They are always better left over.
so actually put them in the water???? as if I'm boiling pasta or put them in a roaster pan over boiling water, almost like a crock?
I think he means to put the vac sealed breasts in a pot of hot water, not boiling as it may break open hte bag.
it ALL makes so much sense now!!!!!!!!
Turkey breasts dont take that long to cook,,,heres one I did and it only took around 3 hr start to the plate
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=28808.0#top
See'n you dont have TBE finish in the oven on a rack over an roasting pan with some turkey broth in it, then make gravy outta the drippings
Should only take 3 to 4 hr start to finish
If the skin starts gettin to dark before its done just drape some foil over it
And the most important part of a juicy turkey breast is you only need to take the IT to 160 F in the hot box
Then when ya let it rest (for at least 15 min, I go 20 min) under foil the IT will come up to 165 F
Ya gotta let it rest before ya carve
Now I got a hankering for some turkey :o
What they said!
Now I'm hungry for smoked turkey as well....... ;D
whoah whoah whoah who said I don't have a TBE? :o :( 8)
Quote from: Consooger on November 13, 2012, 05:54:59 PM
whoah whoah whoah who said I don't have a TBE? :o :( 8)
OK,,,I take back every thing I said about the oven thingy ;D
PERFECT......so the plan should be, smoke in the bradley, bring the breasts to the house we're going to, TBE travels nicely, and blast it until finished? I think that will work!
Quote from: Consooger on November 13, 2012, 06:04:18 PM
PERFECT......so the plan should be, smoke in the bradley, bring the breasts to the house we're going to, TBE travels nicely, and blast it until finished? I think that will work!
How long of a trip is it to this said house?
15 minutes......i could probably finish them here and wrap them up and take them. To be honest I NEVER thought of using TBE at all...... DUH!!!!!!!!!! ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
I would finish at home,,,,,,,the ride to this said house would be the rest the breast needs.
The hard part is the planing with your host to have all the fixings ready when ya get there ;)
Quote from: squirtthecat on November 13, 2012, 05:08:35 PM
Yep, start to finish at once. Either get up reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally early, or do them the night before, go to bed reaaaaaallllllllllly late, and reheat for a bit for the feast.
Or, do them this Sunday at your leisure, vacuum seal them after they have cooled off, then reheat in a pan of hot (not boiling!) water on Turkey day morning. Cut open, slice and enjoy.
I'd pick door #2 Monty. They are always better left over.
I'll take door #2 as well. I'm doing a turkey boulder(the 10 poung thingy) on Wednesday and will reheat that bad boy on Thanksgiving Thursday.
I'm assuming the breasts you are cooking are those bone-in turkey breasts. I would smoke/cook them, bring them in and let them rest and then remove the solid breast halves from the bone and individually vac seal each half.(I know you know how to do that. If not, shoot me a PM) Come Thanksgiving, heat 'em as needed as STC suggested in the water bath. That way, if the turkey isn't all eaten you can present your FIL and BIL with their turkey breast halves still vac sealed.
BTW do NOT toss those turkey bone carcasses.You have some amazing smoked turkey stock at your fingertips. Water in a stockpot, quarter an onion(don't bother to peel) a couple of carrots chunked up and a couple stalks of celery chunked up. Some salt and whole peppercorns. Turkey carcasses and all the other ingredients into the pool. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Recipes say you can do this for an hour or so. In my house it's going for at least 2, maybe 3 hours. It will reduce cooking it that long but you are going to wind up with some very flavorful stock.
What they said!!
Holding a cooked turkey breast for an hour or more really isn't a problem. When I was frying and smoking turkey a couple of weeks ago, I could only fry one bird at a time. When the first bird came out, I used the FTC approach. Wouldn't fit into the smaller coolers we have, so slid it into the microwave. When I went to carve the breast meat off the carcass in about an hour and a quarter, it was still so hot that I had trouble handling the meat. I'm betting that an FTC approach would keep your bird in the safe temp range for a couple of hours. To keep the bird hot for two hours, you might want to add a second towel, several layers of newspaper, or the like.
ok so I'm going to smoke the 2 breasts and finish each on TBE. Now my next question is how do I stand the breast up. Will it stand up straight on it's own. I have the insert for the rack inside I just think an 8 lb breast will end up falling to one side?
If you can find a cheap 'beer can chicken' stand, you can hammer the turkey breast on it to stand it up.
sweet I have one of those out in the smoke room, I was thinking that i just thought it would be too top heavy.
Thanks!
You'll have to be careful, but it should work.
Yep,,,,,,,,the beer can chicken holder upper, minus the beer can, works great for a turkey breast
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=21868.0