Where did my turkey go?

[KevinG]

I wasn't going to do a turkey this year, but when I went grocery shopping I saw that I could get a 20lb turkey for $7.00. I decided what the heck, lets smoke up a bird. These are the ingredients I went with.

Ingredients:

1 20 lb Turkey
12-18 Bradley Apple Bisquettes (depending on how much smoke you want, I did 12)

Brine Ingredients:

3 gallons of Water
2 ¼ cups Kosher Salt
9.6 oz (298.6 grams) Cure #1
1 ½ cups Light Brown Sugar
3 Bunches of Tarragon
3 Bunches of Fresh Parsley
6 Bay Leaves
3 Hoods of Garlic (Minced)
3 White Onions (Finely Chopped)
9 Tablespoons Black Peppercorns (Ground or Broken)
6 Lemons (Halved and Squeezed)

Directions:

1) Thaw the turkey
2) Add water to a large pot and place on stove, turn heat to high and boil.
3) Add salt, cure #1, and light brown sugar, mix until dissolved.
4) Turn off heat.
5) Add remaining brine ingredients and stir until well mixed (include lemon halves).
6) Chill mixture in refrigerator or ice chest filled with ice for at least 1 day.
7) Filter some of the brine through a strainer so it won't clog an injecting needle.
8) Inject brine into turkey (10% pump, which means 10% of the birds starting weight, i.e. the bird weighs 20lbs 20 * 10% = 2lbs so inject 2 lbs of brine into turkey.)
9) Add turkey to brine
10) Place brined turkey (make sure turkey is fully covered by brine, you may need to weigh it down) in the refrigerator or ice chest full of ice for 1 ½ days rotating and stirring mixture at least 3 times.
11) Remove turkey from brine and place in a turkey stand in a pan so opening faces down and let drip dry for another day in the refrigerator or ice chest. Reserve some brine for the pan in the bottom of the Bradley.
12) Pull bird out and let warm for about an hour.
13) Preheat Bradley Smoker to 130° F.
14) Place Turkey on lowest rack on turkey stand so opening faces down. Don't forget to add the brine to the pan in the bottom.
15) Smoke at 130° F for 1 hour with vent wide open.
16) Close vent to ¼ and smoke for another approx. 5 hours at 130° F.
17) Increase temp to 140° F and cook for another 4 hours (no more smoke)
18) Increase temp to 165° and cook until birds internal temperature gets to about 160° F.
19) Remove bird from smoker and place in preheated 325° F oven to crisp up the skin and get internal temperature to 165° F.
20) Remove bird from oven to set for at least 15 minutes.
21) Cut and Serve.

The story: I made up the brine and put it on ice



   I had just finished the brine when my sister called and invited me over to her house for thanksgiving. I told her I already had a turkey soaking. She said go ahead and bring it over and we'll have that and the ham she made.



I started the other stuff also, mashed potatoes


Homemade buns




I injected the turkey with a strained 10% pump and soaked the turkey in the brine for 1 1/2 days, I then pulled it out and set it up to drip dry for another day


I pulled it out about an hour before ready to cook and let it warm up.


I loaded the bird in the 130 F preheated Bradley.


I started smoking for 1 hour at 130 F with the vent wide open, I then closed the vent to 1/4 and smoked for another 5 hours.


Then I turned up the temp to 140 F and went for another 4 hours with no smoke.
I increased the temp to 165 F and kept cooking the bird until it got to a 160 F internal temp.


I then had to take it to my sisters house to finish in the oven. So I did the FTC thing and brought it over and stuck it in her oven. I decided to take her kids to the movies while it finished, since we had to wait for her husband to get home from work anyhow. I showed her how to use my new Maverick, told her to pull it out at 165 F and headed out to the movies.

When I got back, this is what I found.


Apparently the smell was too much my brother-in-law and he started without us.
We set up the table for the rest of us and got a little of what was left.


Here's the angry hungry mob gobbling down what was left. They had no desire to get their picture taken, just eat, eat, eat!


There were many comments on how juicy it was and about the flavor of the injected brine. Did you notice, even though there was very little turkey left, the ham never made it to the table!

[KyNola]

Kevin,
I'm glad it all turned out well for you. 

Am I reading your post correctly that the bird was in your smoker for 10 hours at a cooking temp of 130-140 degrees before finally increasing the cooking temp to 165?  Would you happen to know what the IT of the bird was when you put it in the Bradley?

KyNola     

[KevinG]

Unfortunately I didn't write that one down, but if I remember right it was a little on the cold side still also the whether was at 66 degrees F. The Bradley was having a hard time keeping warm. I started at 2 in the morning so I was a little groggy still, and didn't get much sleep throughout.

[standles]

Brother-in-law would gotta butt whuppin at our hose for being that insensitive.  ;D

[Quarlow]

I would have drank alot of booze and started an international incident. >:( >:(

[KevinG]

Yup, good thing theirs is a dry house! I did manage to sneak in a few cold ones, but not enough to wash down the emptiness.

[Huntnfreak]

What do you have on top of the bisquettes in your bradley.  I know why you have them there, but what are they??  The bird looked great!  Off with the brother in laws hands!!   Ok, maybe that's a little harsh it is hard to say no when it smells oh so good! 

[HawkeyeSmokes]

What do you have on top of the bisquettes in your bradley.  I know why you have them there, but what are they??  The bird looked great!  Off with the brother in laws hands!!   Ok, maybe that's a little harsh it is hard to say no when it smells oh so good! 

Those are known as "Bubba Pucks" that are used to push the last smoldering puck off of the burner.

[Huntnfreak]

Are bubba pucks homemade?  steel or aluminum?

[KevinG]

They are aluminum, you can get them at Yard and Pool. BigJohnT also makes them here on this forum.

[HawkeyeSmokes]

Are bubba pucks homemade?  steel or aluminum?

Made of aluminum. You can get them at Scott's Place or Yard & Pool

[Huntnfreak]

Very cool.  Thanks.

[OU812]

That feast all looks great, the mob looked to be getting along good too.

I almost had to get my sun glasses when you showed the inside of your smoker.

My moms house is a dry house also but she dont mind if I bring my own.

[KevinG]

Only reason it's so clean is cause I did some chicken and it splattered all over. Oh well, do over on the conditioning.

[OU812]

Only reason it's so clean is cause I did some chicken and it splattered all over. Oh well, do over on the conditioning.

You aint suppose to put live birds in there.  :D


Sorry that was wrong.  ::)