Six Smoked Chickens

sawhorseray · Oct 22, 2014

First I'd like to say thanks for your input, and I mean absolutely no disrespect to anyone here, I'm constantly learning. The first book I bought when I got into sausage making 6-7 years back was "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" authored by Rytec Kutas. When I stumbled on the American version of a Polish sausage website years back I found the senior moderator, Chuckwagon, was a longtime disciple of Rytec from his later years in Las Vegas. That book is my bible to this day, sitting on my coffee table since I bought it, I reference it all the time. The one quarter teaspoon per pound of meat on the label of that Instacure package was in relation to "curing" the meat for sausage, not the amount one would use to cure meat thru brining.. Most of the recipes I incorporate come from Chuckwagon, Rytec Kutas, and the PS Seasonings website, the folks who made my smoker. I look forward to learning and contributing on this site, you all seem like a real fine group of guys. I turned this little piggy into some pretty darned fine Italian sausage a few weeks back, got enough meat left to do one more 25 lb. batch.

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sawhorseray
Oct 22, 2014

RAY

pops6927 · Oct 23, 2014

I use this as my reference:

Cure no 1.jpg

pops6927
Oct 23, 2014

24 lbs. per 100 gallons of water.

That is 2.4 lbs. per 10 gallons of water.

That is .24 lbs per 1 gal. of water

.24 lbs x 16 = 3.84 oz of curing salt at maximum cure w/10% pump (which is ave. pump with seam leakage).

8 oz. of cure ÷ 3 (gallons of water) = 2.67 oz. of cure per gallon, under 3.84 oz. maximum cure. Yerrrr..........

S A F E !!!

themule69 · Oct 23, 2014

sawhorseray said:
First I'd like to say thanks for your input, and I mean absolutely no disrespect to anyone here, I'm constantly learning. The first book I bought when I got into sausage making 6-7 years back was "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" authored by Rytec Kutas. When I stumbled on the American version of a Polish sausage website years back I found the senior moderator, Chuckwagon, was a longtime disciple of Rytec from his later years in Las Vegas. That book is my bible to this day, sitting on my coffee table since I bought it, I reference it all the time. The one quarter teaspoon per pound of meat on the label of that Instacure package was in relation to "curing" the meat for sausage, not the amount one would use to cure meat thru brining.. Most of the recipes I incorporate come from Chuckwagon, Rytec Kutas, and the PS Seasonings website, the folks who made my smoker. I look forward to learning and contributing on this site, you all seem like a real fine group of guys. I turned this little piggy into some pretty darned fine Italian sausage a few weeks back, got enough meat left to do one more 25 lb. batch.

003.JPG

sawhorseray

Oct 22, 2014

RAY

Nice hog. I have eaten a bunch of it from sausage to pulled pork or ribs.

Happy smoken.

David

pops6927 · Oct 23, 2014

I made an Instructional from this to help others:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/maximum-amount-of-cure-1-per-gallon-of-water

Thank you for asking! Always glad to help!

sawhorseray · Oct 23, 2014

Thanks for posting that formula, makes it really easy to figure how much Instacure is needed for any given amount of water. I weighed some Instacure #1 and crunched the numbers, the brine I made had 2.91 oz. of cure to one gallon of water, right on target. Thanks again! RAY

dougmays · Oct 23, 2014

I've never done 7-Up in a brine before...gonna have to give that a try! Can you taste the Citrus-y sweetness of it?

sawhorseray · Oct 23, 2014

dougmays said:
I've never done 7-Up in a brine before...gonna have to give that a try! Can you taste the Citrus-y sweetness of it?

Hi dougmays! You can't really taste any lemon-lime flavor, it just seems to make chicken and turkey very juicy and moist after it's smoked. I smoke most all my meat with applewood, and the great smoke flavor really comes thru. I like to pull smoked chicken and turkey off at 165º, once you start getting over 170º the birds will start to dry out. Give it a shot, it's become a staple around our place. Oh, and if you occasionally like to make chicken salad this stuff will be off the charts. RAY

dirtsailor2003 · Oct 23, 2014

Any soda pop, will make your meat tender and the fact that you are adding liquid adds to the moisture content.

The acid in the soda pop is what tenderizes the meat.

For fun take some really dirty pennies, pour pop over them let them sit for a while. Do the same with any store bought salsa. You'll have clean pennies.

Anything that contains vinegar will tenderize meat. Italian dressing is a good example. Another is the juice from pickles.

bhawkins · Oct 23, 2014

Don't know how many of you can find it, however I used a Buffalo Rock brand Southern Spice Ginger Ale in a Chick-Can. Didn't like the Ginger Ale to drink, but the flavor of the chicken was GREAT!! I have to say that if you believe that the drinks don't leave a flavor in the meat then you are just using too neutral of a soda. Not saying that is a bad thing. Depends on what you want.

sawhorseray · Oct 23, 2014

Many years back I had a set of Ping copper irons for golf. When I went to sell them I soaked them in a bucket of coke overnight. They looked so good I wanted to keep them, but I went on to forged blades and never looked back. Haven't played a round or hit a ball in twelve years now, golf and arthritis don't go well together. I might smoke a big bird for Thanks, tho every now and then it's nice to crack out the turkey fryer and make a big mess. RAY

joe cosmo · Oct 28, 2014

Just wondering how much smoke flavor you get with them whole like that? I just did one where I take out the back bone and flatten it like El Pollo Loco and smoked it and without a doubt, it was the best chicken I ever ate. GL

sawhorseray · Oct 28, 2014

Joe Cosmo said:
Just wondering how much smoke flavor you get with them whole like that? I just did one where I take out the back bone and flatten it like El Pollo Loco and smoked it and without a doubt, it was the best chicken I ever ate. GL

I think they get a great smoke flavor Joe. After drying for a hour or two at about 100º in the smoker, the temp gets raised a couple of times and they get eight solid hours of smoke. RAY

riverrat3 · Oct 30, 2014

Can't say anything about the safety as I am new to curing but they look deeeelicous!:drool

oldschoolbbq · Oct 30, 2014

Gottawatch this one...

sawhorseray · Oct 31, 2014

This is the recipe for smoking poultry set forth by the PS Seasonings Co., the makers of my Pro 100 electric smoker sold to me under the Cabelas name. . I've been using it for right about three years now without a glitch, and have pretty much followed their recommendations for smoking chicken, turkey, bacon, Canadian bacon, hams, and all kinds of sausage. They've been in business for quite some time and seem to have a fine reputation, their products appear to be of top quality, I know how to make my own perfectly safe curing brine, and how to follow directions. All my smoked stuff seems to come out pretty darned fine, and safe to eat.

http://www.psseasoning.com/index.cfm/act/recipes#

Flipping a switch on my smoker makes it real easy to pound out a quality rack of ribs or hunk of pulled pork butt too.

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sawhorseray
Oct 31, 2014

Seems to me the two most important aspects of smoking meat is proper curing and cooking until the desired internal temperature is attained. Other than not being in a rush, it's all a piece of cake.

RAY

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