Christmas Cranberry Brine for Turkey (with photos added)

[Smokeville]

OK, so it could be a disaster.... but maybe not.....

This is a variation of a cranberry brine I found while googling....

2 bags fresh cranberries
2 gallons water
2 cups salt
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup not-from-concentrate orange/tangerine juice
1 cup apple juice
5 cloves of garlic
3 tbs thyme
3 tbs rosemary
3-4 bay leaves

Wash the cranberries and add them to the water and bring to a boil. They will burst and turn to mush.
Add all the other ingredients, stir and cool until you can add the turkey.

The original recipe used cranberry juice and no sugar. As I checked the labels, all cranberry juices (not cranberry cocktail) have a lot of grape and apple juice added in order to get the natural sugar content up to where people can actually drink it.

I decided to use fresh cranberries and then added what I hope will be the right amount of dark brown sugar which has some molasses in it.

The 11lb turkey is in the brine in the fridge awaiting tomorrow's smoke with apple pucks.

I hope it works. The brine is quite red and festive looking so I wonder what will happen to the white meat as it gets absorbed....?

Regards, Rich

[Smokeville]

OK, so it's been a few hours and the skin is the SAME COLOUR as the brine.

Not quite candy apple red but the colour of my Isuzu Rodeo 4x4:   Cranberry!

Gotta take a photo when it comes out of the brine on Sunday....

[ArnieM]

That sounds interesting and pretty good Rich.  When I do fresh cranberries I lighten up on the sugar because I like it tart.

I'd really be hard pressed to find not from concentrate tangerine juice short of getting some tangerines and wringing them out.  I love the flavor of tangerines.

We'll be waiting for pics and the final result.

[classicrockgriller]

That sounds really good. Love the creativity of adjusting the recipe to what you like.

I'm like Arnie ..... "We'll be waiting for pics and the final result".

[deb415611]

Rich, 

That sounds good, let us know how it works.

Deb

[Smokeville]

That sounds interesting and pretty good Rich.  When I do fresh cranberries I lighten up on the sugar because I like it tart.

I'd really be hard pressed to find not from concentrate tangerine juice short of getting some tangerines and wringing them out.  I love the flavor of tangerines.

We'll be waiting for pics and the final result.

Tropicana makes not-from-concentrate orange/tangerine juice. Adds a great taste to the regular o.j.

They also have orange/cranberry but it's from concentrate and added sugar. Mixes well with vodka, my wife says.

[Smokeville]

The taste will tell, but right now I'm not sure if I like the colour much.....

I'll post a photo at noon when I have it out to dry before the big smoke.

[ArnieM]

It'll be interesting to see how much brine penetration there is.  You should be able to tell by the color of the meat.

[deb415611]

If it looks terrible but tastes good I think there is white cranberry juice.  Wouldn't be quite the same as using berries but...

I'm thinking the white I saw was 100% juice and not cocktail.  Though I wouldn't be surprised if it was cut with another type of juice.

[Smokeville]

I soaked the bird in clear cold water for a couple of hours and the turkey is a nice "pink" colour now....



And in she goes.....

[ArnieM]

I'm waiting to see what it looks like carved.

[squirtthecat]

Ditto..   That looks really interesting.

[Smokeville]

I don't think there will be much leeway on this one - it will either be very very good or very very bad.

(And when she was bad she was horrid.....)  :(

[KevinG]

That looks like a girly turkey. :D

[Smokeville]

Two hours into the smoke and the skin is beginning to brown a bit. Still pinky in the crevices like between the breast and leg....