Using Apple Juice for More Tender Turkey

[TedEbear]

Hi. I've been lurking all summer since I bought an OBS. I've had great results with pork butts and wrapping them in foil the last few hours with a bit of apple juice to make them even more tender.  The meat just falls off the bone.

My question has to do with turkeys.  I've read some recipes for brining a turkey with a mixture of apple juice and a handful of other things.  What I'd like to know is if anyone has tried wrapping it in foil the last few hours of cooking and adding some apple juice for tenderness, similar to what many cooks apparently do when smoking a pork butt.  I'm smoking a test turkey this weekend before the big event next Thursday.  Thanks.

[Ka Honu]

If you wrap a turkey in foil and cook it for a couple hours, you get a steamed turkey.  That's not all bad - in Hawaii we call the method "oven kalua" after the traditional practice of cooking a pig in an underground oven (kalua pig).  I just did it with two turkeys last week but it's not what I think you'd want for Thanksgiving dinner.  You'd have something close to "pulled turkey" - not the traditional golden bird on a platter.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi TedEbear,

It is not the apple juice that makes the butt tender, is the low & slow cooking method that denatures the proteins, breaks down the tough connective tissue (collagen) and converts it to gelatin; and this is done over a long period of time - keeping the meat in a temperature zone where collagen does break down. Turkey is a tender meat and does have connective tissue, but it is not tough like you find in a butt. So if you don't over cook it, it will be tender.

Unless you are looking for a texture that Ka Honu is describing.