24 lb turkey?
 

I have a 24 lb turkey that is way to much for us, so was thinking of cutting in half and freezing the other half for another time.

I want to brine it and was thinking of bringing the whole bird, and was wondering if it would be ok to freeze the other half, or would it be a problem?
Dave

I would brine it separately when you are ready to make it. It'll make it that much easier on the defrost by waiting for the other half too.

I agree...

My wife and I love to have smoked turkey in the freezer. I would cook the whole thing and package the rest. Takes the same amount of wood and time. I do one every month or so.

Smoke it whole. Freeze leftovers.

The bird is already thawed, my wife does not enjoy smoked food as much as I do, so I thought the other half could be used for something else for her benefit at a later date. Given all that, I think it would be hard to manage this beast whole on my uds, and definitely to big to spatchcock. My concern is if it would effect the frozen half in some way, after the brine?
Dave

Be careful smoking a 24lb bird. I prefer two smaller birds if I am cooking that much. With a 24lb bird, cooking low and slow, part if it is bound to be in the danger zone for 4+ hours.

I have not posted anything here in awhile now and I am beginning to remember why. :tsk: :tsk: :frusty: I know I am not always clear on my intent, but sometimes I wonder if some do not have their browser in English mod,and getting a foreign language instead, and the words mean something entirely different. Ok I will crawl back into my lurker mod now.
Dave

No first hand experience here Dave, but I think it would be fine based on the fact that the frozen turkeys we get here are usually brined prior to freezing with a ± 8% salt solution.

Thanks for taking the time to read and understand what I was posting. I suspected the same thing. but thought, this not being an injection it may be different somehow. I have decided not to brine the second half, instead I am going to boil it, remove the meat and probably have enough to make a turkey pop pie, and a pot of turkey noodles at a later date.

I would like to apologize to anyone I may have offended with my rather caustic post. I just get upset when it is apparent a post has not been read entirely before jumping on the key board to reply, I have been guilty of this myself and have no right to criticize others like I did. I wont make an excuse, except maybe my blood sugar was a little high at the time . :oops:
Dave

All is fine from my point of view. I posted my opinion, based on your question. Like all opinions, it is, at worst, good for a laugh. Your approach covers later usage, which was my point.

Dadsr4 I was a bit vague in my first post, except I was asking a basic question of how it would effect the frozen half later on, not what everyone else would do with it.

As I stated in a later post, my wife is not a huge fan of smoked meat, I on the other hand would be happy eating it all the time, or using the meat in some other dish. It is only after a long stint of no smoked food can she enjoy it, funny thing is a couple weeks ago she complained the meat was not smokey enough, I think it was a pork butt, I just shook my head and kept eating.

At any rate I did not brine the second half, instead I cut it into manageable chunks and divided it in to 4 bags and froze, now I can pull what ever I want to make other things, who knows with enough time I may even smoke some of that. The other half is in a brine and will sit until tomorrow, and will be dispatched to the uds along with some hickory and oak. This bird was twice the size I would normally smoke, and just to big for my uds, so unless I smoked one half took that off and then cooked the second half I don't think it would have done to well, and was not wanting to cook it that way. :biggrin1:
Dave

Might have to brine a 24# bird might require a bathtub.

It's all good.