Smoked Turkey Breast and Sausage

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kingudaroad

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Feb 3, 2009
248
10
central texas
I bought a 14 lb turkey the day after Thanksgiving last year. I pulled it out of the freezer and had it defrosting in the fridge for several days. I decided to remove the breast for one smoke, and bone out the rest for smoked turkey sausage. It would be a busy weekend with all the bacon I still had to slice from last weekends bacon smoke. So I cracked open a beer and went to work.
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First I removed the breast, boned out the rest of the meat, and saved all the skin and fat in a separate bowl.


The boned meat got seasonings,cure and a big glob of chinese chili paste and went in the fridge for a 2 day cure.
I did not brine the breast but it got injected with Tony Chachere's cajun butter. Then rubbed with a spicy rub.

I smoked the breast at 300 for about 5 or 6 hours basting with left over butter marinade and then spraying with cranberry juice. I pulled it when the coldest spot I could find reached 160 degrees.

The buttery texture and moistness was fabulous. The skin was crispy and spicy.



Of course I still had bacon slicing duty with my piece of crap slicer. I felt like I was in a gun fight with a pea shooter.

But here is some more bacon porn...



Might as well make some ABT's with all this bacon laying around!:sausage:


Now onto the smoked turkey sausage. I had about 3 lbs of cured turkey chunks and about 3/4 lb of turkey fat and skin. I added 3/4 lb of pork back fat to get to a 70/30 meat/fat ratio. Ground it through my small die and fried up a little piece to taste. It was lacking flavor at this point so I added salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, and another glop of chili paste. Ground again and tasted again. Liked it this time!! I mixed in 3/4 cup of soy protien concentrate and stuffed it into 40mm hog casings.

Here's what it looked like after stuffing...

I smoked it with pecan for several hours slowly increasing the temp throughout the day until it had an internal temp of 160. Then an ice bath.

Here they are after smoking and cooling...


At this point I still had a fire in the smoker firebox, so I stoked it up with more pecan and grilled one. My crazy dogs love to fight each other. Every now and then I have to break them up. Michael Vick would be proud
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This is a fine textured sausage that really plumped up when I grilled it. Here is the grilled one next to the cold ones...


And the money shot...

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What a great weekend of smoking!! Thanks for lookin.
 
Oh man does that look great!
Excellent work Keith, I absolutely love turkey (and who doesn't love bacon) so that all looked good to me.
Points for some beautiful work.
 
Holy cow Keith! You were a very busy guy this past weekend! All of the food looks great. However, I've got a soft spot in my heart for the bacon and sausages . . . both look absolutely fantastic. The sausages look perfect (how was the mouthfeel w/the 3/4 cup of soy protein for 4.5 pds of meat? I usually use 1 1/2 cups for 10-12 pds. I find that if I follow the recipes, most of which call for 2 cups, it can taste grainy even if I emulsify.)! Nice job and great post. Thanks for all of the pics!!

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Best,
Trout
 
I know what you mean but no graininess at all. I did not emulsify but did grind twice. I also like to make sure I put enough fat.
 
Kingudaroad,

That all looks awesome. I am currently smoking a turkey for my ma and pa for their trip to the coast. I may have to take part for payment. Looks too good.

I do have one question. You stated, . Do you have a recipe for sausage?



Thanks,
Dreamer
 
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