My First Brined Turkey

[Captainslug]

I did a turkey back in the beginning of December for my daughter's birthday.  Used Cranberry juice and Kosher salt for my brine. Brined it for 12 hrs.  I was scared of over powering the taste of my turkey with the flavour of cranberries but it didn't happen.  I did do a good 3 or 4 full rinses after though and then used a simple seasoning salt, pepper, onion powder and a small amount of poultry seasoning as a rub.  My turkey was 13.6 lbs and it was done in just short of 7 hrs (about 30 mins/lb).  Had 3 hrs of apple/pecan smoke (two to one ratio of apple to pecan) and the smoker was at 240* the whole time.

I had to FTC it for about 4 hrs (more than double that I had planned) but it still turned out great. I poured in about a half cup of heated chicken broth inside of it while it was FTCing and the bird ended up really juicy! Plus any of the left over juices I could save from in the foil after FTCing were then used in the gravy which turned out excellent too!  Great reviews from my family and the outlaws.....errrrrrr I mean in-laws.  Sorry it was a really busy couple of days and I didn't have a chance take any pics to share. I was really weird though seeing that bird as red as an apple after being brined.  

If you want to have crispy skin, throw it uncovered in a hot (400*ish) preheated oven for 20-30 mins prior to carving.  I did this as well as the Warden loves to have crispy skin and who am I to argue since I love it as well.  Worked out great!

Also also learned that a 14 lb bird would be the about the biggest you can put on a rack.  Anything bigger you would have to hang.  To prevent sagging and bending of my rack I double racked it and used a frog mat as well to prevent sticking.

[Smoking Jim]

G Day Caneyscud fantastic forum and a great product the DBS 6. Nostimini is made by gaganis bros,the tastiest seasoning for meat,poultry and fish i dont know if it is available in your country, i reckon it is one of the best. you can google it and see, if i could get my head around photo bucket i would post some pictures, happy smokin.
Smoking Jim.