Last night I put 15 Turkey legs in a "brown sugar cure" brine (sold by Alliedkenco.com) . I plan to take them out Saturday and smoke them.
Do you think that I should rinse them early in the day and let them dry (like the Canadian Bacon), or just rinse, pat dry and smoke?
im thinking more towards the rinsing part...if your going to eat it right away it may be salty if done the other way
Rinse, dry, smoke is what I do to mine and they turn out great.
I do the same as Iceman.
man i dont what i was typing(i think i had a brain sore there for a second) go with ice and you will be just fine!
Roger that.
I will pull them Saturday early, (or maybe Friday night late, We have a bicycle event early Saturday an hour away, it starts @ 0730) rinse and put on a sheet pan in the fridge to dry, then in the afternoon I will smoke them with 3 or 4 hours of Hickory.
You should try to elevate the legs off the pan. If you are using a sheet pan invert one of the Bradley racks on top of the sheet pan, and place the turkey legs on top of the inverted rack. Or you can use a cooling rack that will fit over the pan.
Thanks.
When I did the Canadian Bacon I made a 2 tier rack contraption using smoker racks and my childrens sippy cups - I should have taken a picture!
The hardest part will be finding that much horizontal space in our fridge.
They're D O N E !
I hit them with 4 hours of Hickory.
I rinsed after the cure/brine - I should have soaked them longer - came out too salty. They had a great flavor, just a salty aftertaste. I will post pictures soon.
I'm not familiar with the cure you used, but depending on the amount of salt in the brine turkey legs generally only need about 8 hours of brining.
Would a post-smoke soak do any good ? I'm going to test with a leg.
Quote from: FLBentRider on March 30, 2008, 09:12:51 AM
Would a post-smoke soak do any good ? I'm going to test with a leg.
I don't know. I wouldn't think it will help all that much, because after cooking the cell membranes may not be able to allow the exchange of salt and fluid. It can't hurt to try. I would be interested in the out come.
I soaked it for 10 minutes, and gave it a couple of hours to dry - tasted it and it was a little less salty, (kind of a subjective thing anyway) but still too much like country ham for our liking.
Lesson learned - you can over-brine.
I now have a recipe for "Country Turkey Ham on a Stick"
;D
This really sounds worth trying. Can anyone direct me to a thread that talks about the brining process for turkey legs? How long, what the mix could be if I made my own etc. Thanks. I have seen links on brining but wondered if it may be different for this.
Cheers.
Jason.
Here is a good article on brining and curing. If you look half way down it gives you the recommended times for brining. Also the times depends on the amount of salt, and nitrite (if added) in the solution. I use a low sodium brine so my brining times for turkey legs is about 8 hours. This article recommend 1-3 hours.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?p=21#post21
This link has several brines you may want to check out a few. For these brines I would use the 1-3 hour brining times, because many of those recipes have a lot of salt; except for the "Low Salt Brine".
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13
If you are making your own brine from one on the recipe site and want to add a curing salt (nitrite) and that recipe does not have that ingredient, add 5 teaspoons or 1 ounce of pink salt (InstaCure #1; Prague Powder #1 etc.) per gallon of brine.
I forgot to add stay on the high end of time for brining turkey legs.