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TALKIN' TURKEY!! (The official/unofficial turkey thread)

C:\Users\David\Pictures\Smoked Turkey.jpg
I usually fry, but I've been smoking so much meat lately and haven't smoked a turkey in years, I decided it was time. I didn't brine because the package said "flavor added", so I figured someone had already, but I did inject Tony Chachere's buttery stuff (the same I used when I fry). I also made sure to squirt some between the skin and meat, and rubbed it all over the outside of the bird too. Then I sprinkled generously with herbs de provence. Smoked over apple wood on my kamado joe at 325-350 until the breast was 165. Rested it as long as I could stand it. Wow. It was just as juicy as any fried bird I had ever done, but had that touch of smokeyness we all love. It was awesome. I will do this a lot more often. Best of all, I didn't have to deal with 3 1/2 gallons of peanut oil. I hope the picture comes through. Not sure I've figured out how to add them yet.
 
For turkey day I was considering smoking on turkey and a bunch of breasts. I figure the breasts will be easier to slice and not make a terrible mess when having to dissect the turkey. Anyone else take this approach?
 
Heffneil said:
For turkey day I was considering smoking on turkey and a bunch of breasts. I figure the breasts will be easier to slice and not make a terrible mess when having to dissect the turkey. Anyone else take this approach?
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I've done a few whole turkeys and they came out great. As of an hour ago, I have a breast (with wings) in my UDS...along with a 9 pound butt. I'm very interested to see how the breast comes out since just about everyone in my family likes that part the best. Did not brine since it was an "enhanced" breast...
 
This year I figured on passing on the brine and just doing an injection (Butterball butter creole injection marinade). Since in the past I've always purchased "unenhanced" birds and brined them myself, any thoughts on enhanced vs. unenhanced if I plan skip brining and just inject? Going to smoke about a 16lb bird on a 22.5 Weber kettle @ around 350.
 
UF_Aero said:
This year I figured on passing on the brine and just doing an injection (Butterball butter creole injection marinade). Since in the past I've always purchased "unenhanced" birds and brined them myself, any thoughts on enhanced vs. unenhanced if I plan skip brining and just inject? Going to smoke about a 16lb bird on a 22.5 Weber kettle @ around 350.
Click to expand...

I've brined enhanced birds before. I don't think you get as big a change with brining enhanced birds, but I also think that it does help some.

I've even brined AND injected!


I usually just inject with butter. Sometimes the butter is seasoned, sometimes not. I wouldn't inject with a lot of flavor AND brine though. Do one or the other unless your injection is pretty simple.




Here's my opinion on enhanced turkeys:
The "enhancement" is usually a salty brine solution that's added. The packaging may say "up to 8%" or "up to3.5%". So, there's a big variable as to how much they injected and of what.
Let's say that brining adds a total of 10% "enhancement". (I really have no idea how much brining adds, but let's say 10%). Brining works by equilibrium and osmosis. So if you start with a raw, fresh turkey with 0% enhancement and you brine you end up with 10% enhancement due to the brine.

IF, on the other hand, you start with a turkey that has been "enhanced with up to 5% salt solution" and you brine it for 18-24 hours, you'll end up with what? Yep....a 10% enhanced bird. Because the whole process of brining first extracts any salt in the meat (whether natural or previously enhanced) and THEN through equilibrium, the salt level equalizes between the brine and the meat, yielding flavorful turkey meat. I don't think that brining an enhanced bird makes the turkey way more overly salty. I think you don't get AS MUCH improvement by brining an enhanced bird, but you still get benefit. They say "up to 3%", so what actual percentage of the bird got "enhanced" Who knows?





Now.....these are just my thoughts on this. I really have no concrete evidence to defend this right now, other than what I've read and learned along the way. Someone could pop in here and tell me I'm off my rocker.

All I know is that I've brined enhanced and non-enhanced birds and they both turn about the same: AWESOME.
 
Great thoughts, Wampus. Thanks. I was trying to avoid brining at all though to avoid the space in the cooler and/or refrigerator. Sounds like an enhanced turkey + injection is better than unenhanced + injection, both of which are of course inferior to a brine + injection.
 
UF_Aero said:
Great thoughts, Wampus. Thanks. I was trying to avoid brining at all though to avoid the space in the cooler and/or refrigerator. Sounds like an enhanced turkey + injection is better than unenhanced + injection, both of which are of course inferior to a brine + injection.
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Oh there's different schools of thought on that. Some suggest that injecting INSTEAD of brining is the way to go. A lot of flavor can be added with an injection for sure. Personally, I think that since brining acts on a cellular level, you can get a more complete, evenly distributed flavor with a brine vs injection where you have different "pockets" of injection in and among the meat fibers. I think that once both are cooked, one would be hard pressed to really tell a difference though.
 
Wampus said:
Here's my opinion on enhanced turkeys:
The "enhancement" is usually a salty brine solution that's added. The packaging may say "up to 8%" or "up to3.5%". So, there's a big variable as to how much they injected and of what.
Let's say that brining adds a total of 10% "enhancement". (I really have no idea how much brining adds, but let's say 10%). Brining works by equilibrium and osmosis. So if you start with a raw, fresh turkey with 0% enhancement and you brine you end up with 10% enhancement due to the brine.

IF, on the other hand, you start with a turkey that has been "enhanced with up to 5% salt solution" and you brine it for 18-24 hours, you'll end up with what? Yep....a 10% enhanced bird. Because the whole process of brining first extracts any salt in the meat (whether natural or previously enhanced) and THEN through equilibrium, the salt level equalizes between the brine and the meat, yielding flavorful turkey meat. I don't think that brining an enhanced bird makes the turkey way more overly salty. I think you don't get AS MUCH improvement by brining an enhanced bird, but you still get benefit. They say "up to 3%", so what actual percentage of the bird got "enhanced" Who knows?





Now.....these are just my thoughts on this. I really have no concrete evidence to defend this right now, other than what I've read and learned along the way. Someone could pop in here and tell me I'm off my rocker.

All I know is that I've brined enhanced and non-enhanced birds and they both turn about the same: AWESOME.
Click to expand...

I'd love to hear some more opinions on this. I have an 8% enhanced turkey I plan to cook next week. I won't be injecting, but I'm hesitant to brine as I thought the 8% + brine + some salt in my rub would make for way too much sodium.
 
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Wampus,

Would you inject an "enhanced" turkey with store bought creole butter? Reason I ask is because we don't use hardly any salt on my food and I'm concerned that the store bought creole butter, which almost certainly is loaded with sodium, plus the enhance bird would end up with an overly salty meal.

Or, would you make you own butter injection, minus the salt?

Thanks in advance
 
moe1967 said:
Wampus,

Would you inject an "enhanced" turkey with store bought creole butter? Reason I ask is because we don't use hardly any salt on my food and I'm concerned that the store bought creole butter, which almost certainly is loaded with sodium, plus the enhance bird would end up with an overly salty meal.

Or, would you make you own butter injection, minus the salt?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I am curious about this as well. I prefer injection just for the simplicity...
 
I think if you're gonna worry about the amount of sodium while injecting and or brining, don't do it! If the bird is "enhanced", maybe that's enough for some. Personally, I haven't looked at whether it's enhanced with an x% of solution the past two thanksgiving birds I've done, and brined them as I normally do and it turned out great. It's Thanksgiving, I'm too busy smokin' the bird, drinking beer and watching football to worry about sodium!
 
Spatchcock cook time vs whole?
Wife and kids don't want to go out of town so I have been ordered to cook for 8-10 people. It just dawned on me I never timed any of the spatchcock turkeys I made in the past.
Wife wants to eat between 4-5pm so I'm thinking 23lb bird cooked at 325-350 2-2/12 hrs maybe? Also I'll have a pan of gravy on the lower rack of the WSM so I was thinking about firing her up around noon getting bird on 2pm.
Any thoughts?
 
Im thinking of dry brining a turkey. My question is once it has been brined for a couple of days then rinsed and allowed to dry in the fridge, do I put a normal amount of rub on/under the skin? go light on the rub? Or reduce the salt in the rub recipe?
 
Now you did it Kempis!! I've never smoked a whole turkey before,(or ever had deep fried turkey) I'm really thinking about it this year, and its all your fault! LOL!
 
All these great turkey ideas and information !!! Thanks to all, I'm a newbie here wanted to say hello and thanks for the turkey info. I'm gonna try the turkey this weekend in my recently built uds we shall see...lol
 
superlazy said:
Spatchcock cook time vs whole?
Wife and kids don't want to go out of town so I have been ordered to cook for 8-10 people. It just dawned on me I never timed any of the spatchcock turkeys I made in the past.
Wife wants to eat between 4-5pm so I'm thinking 23lb bird cooked at 325-350 2-2/12 hrs maybe? Also I'll have a pan of gravy on the lower rack of the WSM so I was thinking about firing her up around noon getting bird on 2pm.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

You might want to give yourself more time. I did a chicken in 1 1/2 hours at 300. Seems like that big of a turkey would take longer than 2 1/2 hours. Maybe some one who has done that big of a bird can provide a better answer
 
moe1967 said:
Wampus,

Would you inject an "enhanced" turkey with store bought creole butter? Reason I ask is because we don't use hardly any salt on my food and I'm concerned that the store bought creole butter, which almost certainly is loaded with sodium, plus the enhance bird would end up with an overly salty meal.

Or, would you make you own butter injection, minus the salt?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Here are my thoughts about "injecting" vs Brining. Obviously, since I wrote the book on brining about 15 years ago (OMG, really that long?) I like the brine. Link to Brining and Turkey 101 are in my signature.

My issue with injections is one of science. Well actually viscosity. think injections tend to just sit in the one spot. Depending on the injection and length of time, all you will do is flavor the spot of the injection. With a LOT of practice you can spread it out somewhat, but you will have a bunch of track marks in the bird.

I'm a big fan of "go ahead an try it". We settled on brining vs injecting years ago in a side by side taste test. And SO many of the commercial injections are water and salt, that you can get some of the benefits of brining, but like brining, let them sit 12 to 24 hours (or more) for the injection to have time to spread
 
I have been smoking turkey for 35 some odd years.
I will smack down anyone with a 1 day brine and low and slow turkey. (225 not 300).
Heck, I could do a roasted turkey in the oven at 325!!!
Smoking is a slow and smoke flavored process.
If you want to put a turkey in a foil pan, cover it with foil and "smoke" it at 300 deg, he'll put it in the oven and save your wood!!
Love you all!:clap2:
 
I received both of my turkey cannons today...can't wait till next week...they look like they will work well.

Thanks again for the suggestion.
 
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