Turkey Brine

[mikeradio]

I am going to try some Smoked Turkey Legs, I have been looking over many brine recipes.
Some have Cure # 1 and salt and others just have salt.  So do you need Cure #1 in
Turkey Brine?

Thanks

Mike

[TestRocket]

Sorry I can't help you here Mike.  I'm sure someone will come along soon. But,  I'm going to watch for your answer because it will help me too one day.

[Smokin Soon]

Don't need cure unless you want to do them "Theme Park" style, little bit of a ham taste.

[mikeradio]

Hey Smokin Soon

That is what I want to make the Theme Park style.  Most of the recipes say to use MTQ
for the cure, I have cure #1 so I am looking for a recipe using cure #1

Thanks

Mike

[mikeradio]

I found on the recipe site a recipe for making MTQ so I am going to try

SMOKED TURKEY
1 cup tender quick salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 gallon water (or amount to cover pieces)

I will post the results

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

You can make the Basic Cure, but if you have cure #1 I generally use the following ratio for a 4 - 5 quarts of water:

3 oz of Cure #1 (Instacure #1; Prague Powder #1; pink salt)
10 ounces of non-iodize salt

That is a good ratio to use for ≈ 1 gallon of water to replace the MTQ, but the above ratio will contain a lot more salt then the recipe you posted. 

The recipe you posted contains a ≈8 ounces or 3/4 cup of salt. So if you are going for the same type of flavor you may want to cut the salt to 5 ounces, and add an additional 1/4 cup of sugar that would have been part of MTQ. It seems like a lot of sugar in that recipe.

[mikeradio]

Thanks Habs I will give it a try

Mike

[Smokin Soon]

I usually toss in a 1/4 cup of maple sugar on top of that mix.

[mikeradio]

I mixed up the brine

Cure #1
salt
brown sugar
water

add Turkey Legs and Wings, in the fridge for over night, after work tonight into the smoker.

[3rensho]

Lookin' forward to the pics.  Been thinking about doing some turkey dark meat myself.  If yours turns out to your liking I'll give it a shot.

[mikeradio]

Wow the Turkey legs turned out great for the first batch, I love the ham
look and taste and flavors.  This batch is a bit too salty, I only rised the legs
off after the brine, next time I will soak them in cold water for 1/2 hour
to remove some of the salt.

2hrs       @ 140 with Cherry Smoke
1 3/4 hrs @ 300 unit IT of 160

[KevinG]

I usually only brine my birds with a 21 degree brine. This would be less salty than what you used.

This is from Marianski's book and it works well.

1 gal water
1/2 cup (146g) (5.15oz) salt
3 oz. (85g) of cure #1
3 oz. (85g) sugar

brining time examples
1-2 hours game hens
2-4 hours chicken pieces
1 day whole chickens 2lbs
1-2 days whole chickens 4lbs
4-8 hours turky breast
1-2 days whole turkeys up to 10lbs
2-3 days whole turkeys over 10lbs

[FLBentRider]

Rather than the soak, just reduce the brine time.

[mikeradio]

Thanks KevinG  that looks like a better recipe.

I was thing the same thing too FLBentRider just cut back the the time.

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

Glade to hear that had great flavor, but sorry that it came out too salty. Did you follow my suggestions in my first post to add only 5 ounces of salt, plus 3 ounces of cure #1; that gives you ≈ 8 ounces of salt. That is slightly less salt content then Kevin's recipe. I'm also thinking on the same track as FBL, reduce the brine time.

It may be because of your large smoker and large racks, but the legs look small. If that is the case then that would also reduce the brine time. How long did you brine for?