apple and spices brine smoked turkey

[sje3009]

   This recipe, and smoke made for one of the best turkeys I have ever tasted. Please forigve me ahead of time if I leave out some of the details as I didn't chronicle as I went along. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures either, but I can guarantee that I will be making this again and have a little more forethought.

  I hapenned to be in the food chain store William Sonoma. In there, I happenned upon a turkey brine. I prefer to try and construct my own, but this sounded interesting enough to try premade. After using it I plan on breaking down the measurements and making my own from scratch.
Here are the ingrediants:
sea salt, apples, juniper berries, lemon peel, star anise, garlic, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, onion, bay leaf.

  I combined the brine to 1 gallon water and brought to a boil until the salt was dissolved. After the brine cooled I placed in a fridge overnight to let the flavors meld a bit more. The next day I combined the brine, a 12 lb thawed turkey, 1 gallon/ 2 cups water, and 6 cups apple cider, in a cooler. To keep the cooler cold I filled 2 large ziploc bags full of ice in the cooler also. I brined the turkey for 24 hours turning over once halfway through. 

  After brining the turkey for 24 hours I made sure to rinse the turkey off well and pat dry. I went with apple for smoking, wanting to smoke with a wood that wasn't going to overpower the brine flavor. I smoked the turkey at 210 for 4 hours moving it to the oven tenting it at 225 for another 1 and a half hours until I reached 165 degrees at the deepest part of the breast.

  I was a bit unlcear wether I should try to ftc the turkey, so I just let it rest for about 20 minutes. It turned out so nice and brown on the outside and juicy inside. The flavor was tremendous. Herbal, with a bit of sweet, and salty, along with the light apple wood smoked flavor. My family loved it. I can't wait for thanksgiving to do it again. Maybe this time I'll have more presence of mind to take pictures along the way.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi sje3009;

Welcome to the forum. The brine recipe looks good. With measuring the temperature of the breast, was the dark meat cooked well enough.

There is no need to FTC poultry. After taking it out of the smoker and placing it in the over, a higher heat without the foil will crisped up the skin a little.

[sje3009]

    Good to know about the ftc part Habernero.  I was a little concerned overall about the temp being high enough on all parts of the bird. Believe it or not there was only about 2-3 degree variance everywhere i took temps, even at the dark meat areas. I smoked the bird back down on the lowest rack. That may have played a part.

   I tented it in the oven due to concerns also of the breast becoming too dry. It came out moist, and the family was pretty happy about the crispness of the outside skin. I'll definitely give it a shot the next go around of placing the bird without foil in the oven to see what kind of changes it brings. Thanks for the info.

[FLBentRider]

Brining will result in a juicy breast.

The last dry turkey I made (years ago) was in an oven before I discovered brining, and Bradley smoking.

[Habanero Smoker]

If you brine there is very little chance that the breast will dry out. Generally when you cook poultry at a low temperature the skin becomes rubbery. If your's came out crisp, then continue to do what you have done. If you do try what I suggested then use a oven temperature of 350°F - 375°F.

[Hopefull Romantic]

Hi SJE3009 and welcome to the forum

YOur brinr recipy sounds so goo and I would be very interested to get the measurment of the brine ingredients when you get around to it. I plan a big thanksgiving dinner for some friends and hope to start planning the smoke by next week.

HR

[Fuzzybear]

SJE:  didja happen to breakdown the ingredients?  Williams Sonoma up/over here wants $18 plus tax for the jar of stuff (I bought it anyway cuz the ingredients you listed sounded so great) it will be a job separating all those ingredients but if you do it, please let us all know!

Thanks

Fuzz

[jeff_smoke]

Looks like a good plan SJ. I got online just to check basic stuff like how long you might smoke a turkey before finishing in the oven. Turns out your brine looks so similar to the one I'm going to use "Mean Chef's Apple Brine", that I thought I'd follow your lead. I just got done boiling the natural applie juice, the brown sugar and salt...added the remaining brine ingredients and cooling it down for tomorrow.
     My entire Thanksgiving relies on the accuracy and validity of your highly touted recipe.   ;D   No pressure there....
     With such tasty ingredients, the only thing I could possibly do wrong is overcook it. I'm going to go with Applewood too and I'll take your advice to run at around 210 for 4 hours as my bird is about 12 lbs too.
    I bought a new double-oven recently and I'm going to finish off in the convection oven with the temperature probe. I thought I might split the difference in temperature between yourself and Habarnero...maybe about 275 since convections run hotter. My oven book talks about tenting because of the convection so as not to darken the skin too much, but I'm not going to do that because it won't be in there very long. I want a nice crispy golden brown.
     Regarding the final temp and probe location... I thought I'd put the probe deep in the breast and shoot for 160. Does that seem like a good plan?

[ArnieM]

Sounds pretty good sje.

Here are the ingrediants:
sea salt, apples, juniper berries, lemon peel, star anise, garlic, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, onion, bay leaf.

For my own preference, I'd leave out the juniper berries and the star anise (just never went for the star anise).  You DEFINITELY need a bay leaf or two.

I think the apples, lemon peel (or zest) and maybe some orange zest sounds good.  I have some apples on hand because I'm doing a whole cranberry/apple mix for TG.

So, if the guests leave early, I'll know I screwed up.  Oh well, there's always next TG.

[sje3009]

     
I brined and smoked 2 12 lb turkey's with this same brine for Tday.  It was a tremendous hit and everyone kept applauding the taste of the turkey. This particular brine using with apple cider and applewood is a keeper.

After Tday I took a little time to try and break down the brine. It measures 4 cups total out of the container bought off the shelf. Below is what I came up with. Keep in mind that this is meant for 20 lbs of turkey. 
3 cups salt
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon star anise- broken pieces
2 tablespoons juniper berries
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 cup lemon peel
1/3 cup apples
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
onion , black pepper; i'm not exactly sure as to the amounts of either of these two as they both seemed to be in powder form. I'm going to assume 2-3 teaspons each. 

so its all together here is the method again. Combine brine with 1 gallon of water, bring to boil and dissolve. Let chill and combine 1 gallon water along with 6 cups apple cider.

 

[OU812]

Welcome to the fun sje

Looks like you have the turkey thing down, it all sounds good and the break down of the store bought brine sounds tasty.