Dozen Turkeys, To Brine or Not?

Lemon Lime

Lemon Lime

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I offered to smoke our annual Thanksgiving turkeys from my company for our small office on my Heartland ROT. Space is not an issue but... Now I'm faced with with deciding whether to brine or not, primarily because of liquid volume and space. I have 12 turkeys and wanting to make a good impression...I thought brining would be the way to go. Now looking at the logisitics of the brine, I'm scratching my head. I have two large coolers that would contain the birds but my god, how many gallons and how to prep the brine? Any advice? All are 8% enhanced.
 
What are you used to doing? I don't Brine I inject Tony C's. A little in many places. Last week I saw several Large Cooler pics with 6-10-12 Turkeys brining --in a cpl posts. Look at the Stickied Turkey Thread.?
 
For enhanced birds, I've been quite happy just rubbing under the skin before cooking. The enhancing process is actually injecting.
 
I'm used to brining but one at a time. Got ahead of myself on this. I always thought injecting didn't disperse in the meat of a turkey. You'd have pockets. That would be more efficient.
 
Lemon Lime said:
I'm used to brining but one at a time. Got ahead of myself on this. I always thought injecting didn't disperse in the meat of a turkey. You'd have pockets. That would be more efficient.
Click to expand...

It Don't -so I do like 25 tiny injections all over the Bird.

If you are used to Brining and like the results I'd Brine them then.
 
Use whatever brining solution you normally use, and make up enough to just cover the birds in your coolers. It will take less than what it would for one bird times the number of birds. You can put the birds in the containers and pour water over them to cover them up to see how much brine you need to make up.

Sounds like a big job, but a challenge you can do! Good luck!

Blessings,

Omar
 
SmokeDawg, thanks! That is one impressive process. Smitty...great link to a ton of info/ideas. Dadsr4, maybe I'm thinking like you, they're already enhanced, rubbing a compound butter/sage mixture sounds good. I'm used to smoking dozens of ribs at a time, multiple butts/briskets, injecting. Never brined more than one big bird at a time. You guys are great but I struggle with making enough brine for a dozen turkeys.
 
Thanks Trucker, I want to brine but don't want to spend all night boiling gallons upon gallons of water, dissolving salt/sugar to cover the 12 birds in a 120 gallon cooler. Lazy I guess.
 
Lazy works for me! :heh: My wife would tell you that I have mastered that action. :yawn:

Blessings,

Omar
 
I'd brine them, If I have enough to fill a 120qt cooler I use the cooler of not, I use 5 gal buckets with a bucket bag from Stark boards, toss a few hand towels in to take up space and pour in the brine. I will qualify it- I have commercial refrigerators, and my arctic entry is below 40 all the time in the winter :) so not dealing with ice or stressed of it going about 40F

Making Volume of brine not that hard, use a turkey fryer/crab boil/craw-fish 5 gal pot double the salt/sugar/seasoning for 10 gallons, use then add the extra 5 gallons of water to "cool" down the brine :)

Clint
 
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