Smoke/cured turkey

[JF7FSU]

That turkey looks real pretty.  How did it taste?

[ronbeaux]

I stole a slice of breast and leg and the taste was just a tad salty, but not too bad. The sugar in the curing solution stands out too.

[ronbeaux]

This was a first for me and I had fun making it work, although at first I didn't think it was gonna be good OR edible.

Got the 16 pound turkey frozen and partially thawed it in the fridge for a few days. Then made up the brine. This brine seemed WAY on the salty and sugar side plus it had the instacure #1 added. What ever...

I jazzed it up by replacing a portion of the salt with Tony's and a portion of the sugar with maple powder. The recipe called for 5 gallons and my igloo will only hold a little over two with a turkey in it so I cut the ingredients in half. Except for the amount of #1 for the lbs of meat.

Shot it up with about 10% of its weight to make sure the inside got treated, then dropped it in the brine. 51 hours later I pulled it out, dumped the brine and replaced it with fresh water to let the turkey soak for about 2 hours. I always made sure I had ice floating in the water on each step.

Then it was back into the fridge for 12 hours to dry out. I made a rub with equal parts paprika, sugar, then a dash of garlic, cumin, and oregano. Rubbed it a little with EVOO and applied the rub. I didn't want any more salt on the bird.

Plugged in the Bradley and adjusted it to get to 140 and steady. Loaded 5 hours of a mix of hickory and maple pucks. Then put the turkey in.



After one hour I hit the button to make smoke. Each hour after that I increased the temp 10 degrees until I got to 190. This was not a smooth process but I don't see where it mattered too much.

Jammed a probe in it and set it to go off at 165. Everything was looking great when I went to bed and the turkey IT was 127. This was about 11PM.

0330 I woke up and went out to check on it and the Bradley was still at 190 and the turkey was at 147. Refilled the little water pan for the pucks to fall in, shut the door and went to bed.

0600 I woke up and the Maverick said the bird temp was 120??? Ran outside and the Bradley had dropped to 150.

Pulled the bird and placed it in a 300 oven and within 1 hour it reached 165.


Worry worry worry at this point. BUT. It was cured. So I stopped worrying. Sliced a piece of breast and a piece of thigh and OMG!!! This was fantastic!

3 hours later I was still alive with no symptoms so I carried it to the Inlaw's for TG. There was a fried one, a baked one, and mine. Mine is gone!!!!

The breast meat was way more juicy than any turkey I have ever done. The dark meat resembled ham but taste even better.



I will definitely do this again. Plus I figured out why the temp dropped on the Bradley. There were pucks smoldering in the little water pan adding heat to the environment and when I re-filled it without bumping up the temp slide, the heat went away and caused the temp to drop. Lesson learned. Next time I will keep the pan full.

You have got to try one like this.

Feel free to critique, pounce, hammer, slam, or what ever. I'm here to learn too.

[KyNola]

Nothing to hammer or criticize here.  That turkey looks awesome!

Way to go Ron.

KyNola

[squirtthecat]

Outstanding!

A trick to avoid that 3:30AM wakeup call...   (hat tip to Pachanga and CRG for this one)   Get a 9x13x2.5" foil pan from Wally World.  It'll cover the entire bottom of the Bradley (and fit under the heating element, so no worries there).  You can put a good 1/2 gallon of steaming hot water in it.   You can smoke all night and half the morning, and not worry about it running dry.

Never thought about putting a cure in the brine.  Slick!

[Quarlow]

Who could scoff at a budgie that looks like that. Good job RonBeaux.

[ronbeaux]

Thanks guys! It was fun. I'm fixing to attach some Saints stickers to my new toyool. It's almost got the same record as far as good food turnout.

[KyNola]

I'll take a big Saints Fleur de lis please!

WHO DAT?!

KyNola