Cured turkey drumsticks

[buzzy]

I’m interested in doing these. Did a search and only found 1 previous post by Foamheart. Like he said don’t want it to taste hammy. He got me headed in the right direction. Just cured a little. Just wandering if other have done this and what your process. Also does anyone pull the tendons out of the leg and do u do it before smoked or after???

I would first like to say, I lub my butcher again! She sent me with last weeks groceries a dozen turkey legs. I set 4 to wet cure, and divided the others in half and into the freezer. Its like the Renfest! I started yelling for the wench to bring me another tankard of ale!! I turned around and realized I was surround by no one......LOL I was my own wench!

Since it was just 4 legs, I used a gallon ziplock.

1/2 t. cure #1

1/4 C Brown sugar

1T. canning Salt

1/2 T Ground Rosemary

1/2 T. Ground Sage

1/4 T. Thyme

1/4 t. Corriander

1/4 t. Ginger

1T. Maple Extract

1t. Lea & Perins

Boil it with a little water, then allow to steep 5 mins. Add ice to cool it to tepid, add enough water to equal total of a quart of water.

2-day brine. I would like to appoligize here cause I screwed up, hey, I still have a lot going on in real life. I did not allow the legs to dry in the reefer, I did not put the fan on them, I took them directly out of the brine shook off those remaining drops and threw 'em on the smoker rack. I know better!

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• foamheart
• Sep 2, 2014

In the smoker, with a 100% apple pellet and 100% apple chips.

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• foamheart
• Sep 2, 2014

And hour later, not much color, I didn't allow a pelicle to form and its all apple.

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• foamheart
• Sep 2, 2014

4 hours in I inserted a probe...... OMG IT's BEEN PROBED!!!!

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• foamheart
• Sep 2, 2014

I achieved 160 degrees 4 hours into the smoke, I dropped the box temp back to 190 degrees so I could maintain the smoke. Slow and low wins........

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• foamheart
• Sep 2, 2014

I could play the big bass drum in the marching band! Thats 100% apple smoke, 7 hours worth of it.

I should have allow one more hour, and I think I could have just grabbed the nub, where all the ligiments are connected and pulled it out, I was very very close at 7 hours. Pop's has a great discreption located here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/130992/taking-the-ligaments-out-of-the-drumstick-all-at-once

My Pop has a stick with a loop that he said a friend in N.C. gave him to do the same thing.

Anyway, Slightly cured sugary cured drumsticks. And they are totally awesome. And I didn't even want them, my butcher just sent them. I am going to send her a bag my spicy jerky next week for her to take to the camp. Good butchers are hard to find.

Oh I am forgetting!!!!!

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• foamheart
• Sep 2, 2014

THE BEAR VIEW!!!!

Tossed salad, pasta primavera, slightly cured sweet brined turkey. I wish you could have seen how tender and juicy that meat is. I have two legs left and I am guessing a midnite snack would not be totally out of the question!

<waving his turkey leg around flamboyantly>

Knights Joust! Wenches more ale for my friends! Everyone party!! But touch my turkey legs and ya die!

 

[zwiller]

I think Pops brine is a light cure and would encourage you to check it out. Have not done drums only but did whole turkey with it and it is what I wanted. Just learned of the tendon trick recently and plan to try it out but honestly smoked turkey is sooo good the tendons didn't bother me one bit. :)

 

[chef jimmyj]

Only one thread...Lol...Below are a hundred or so more...JJ

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/search/6714233/?q=Disney+Turkey+legs&o=relevance

 

[buzzy]

Thanks JJ. I didn’t know they were called Disney Turkey Legs. That would of saved a lot of time. I guess I need to get out more often. Now I can do more reading on it. Thanks again and that is lol

 

[tallbm]

I believe you found my post earlier today. One of the nice things about the approach I used was that it doesn't need for you to completely cure the turkey drumsticks.

The idea is to get some of that great cured flavor but no need to wait until the drums are 100% cured all the way through. The drums are cooked hot and fast so other than flavor the cure doesn't do anything for you lol.

Now if you planned to cold smoke or low heat cook the legs over hours and hours then I would recommend to fully cure the drums, but that isn't the case for the approach I took.

I plan to do the same thing with a whole turkey this thanksgiving. The tweak on my end is that I'm deboning the turkey before applying a cure and brine on it. I plan to make a Turkey Galantine where stuffing is in the middle of it. I will be cooking it hot and fast in the smoker and I want that cured flavor even though I don't need the bird to be cured for slow smoking safety purposes.

I should be running a test bird next week/weekend. I have a 22 pounder defrosting in the fridge since Sunday :)

 

[buzzy]

tallnm yes I did and that is the way I ll go. Won’t be able to hit those temps but can get to 275. My gasser make thick white smoke when going over that. I do smoke whole turkey for Thanksgiving with apple cider brine but never added cure. Will be interested in how yours turns out. Thanks again

 

[zwiller]

Careful if you are thinking adding sure to an apple cider brine. There is some debate whether cure will be negatively affected by the acidity. That reminds me I need to start a thread about that...

WRT to "quick curing" I do that for chicken drums. Works well. I add a small amount of cure to a dry rub and rest overnight. Would also work on wings. That said, I prefer the full cure flavor on turkey drums.

 

[hondabbq]

What is the Tendon trick?

 

[tallbm]

tallnm yes I did and that is the way I ll go. Won’t be able to hit those temps but can get to 275. My gasser make thick white smoke when going over that. I do smoke whole turkey for Thanksgiving with apple cider brine but never added cure. Will be interested in how yours turns out. Thanks again

Important info here. Poultry skin is like leather unless you can cook at a high enough temp. So you may want to smoke the turkey drums at a lower temp to get more smoke time on them and then finish them on a hot grill so you end up with edible skin.

I'm guessing you would want to pull the turkey drums when they hit an IT of about 140F and then on a very grill.
At a true 275F the entire time I am 99% sure you will end up with leathery skin.

I hope this info helps! :)

 

[buzzy]

zwiller. I would like to see debate on cure in apple cider. Keep me posted. Thanks.

tallbm. Was thinking when they hit 150 just pull wood pan and jack up heat. That should work don’t u think. I know most won’t like this but we rarely eat the skin off poultry. I don’t try to make crisp skin but would like to on these to give to others. All help appreciated.

 

[buzzy]

Here ya go hondabbq

One of the 'problems' with a turkey is in the drumstick portion; unlike a chicken, the turkey is larger and more mature and the ligaments are grown more and inedible.

Years and years ago, dad got his turkeys with all the feathers on, legs, feet, head, neck; everything but the guts, they had been eviscerated prior to delivery (they couldn't be transported with the guts, they'd spoil too quick). However, the same parts were saved; the gizzard, the liver, and the heart. We spent many hours plucking feathers, burning off pinfeathers (there was a tool you used to do this), dad would cleave off the heads and cut the necks, then my brother and I got to rip out the leg tendons with a leg-puller. We had a tool on the wall that we'd anchor the leg in, pull the lever, and the foot and all the attached tendons came out from the drumstick! Of course, nowadays they don't do that at the packing plants because it would rip the skin sometimes.

http://www.whiteheadengineering.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=85

handpuller.jpg

• pops6927
• Nov 23, 2012

Dad had his mounted on the wall.

However, it is not that hard to do, either before the turkey is cooked or after. If you look at a drumstick:

drum1.jpg

• pops6927
• Nov 23, 2012

on the short side of the drumstick (inner side) you see an extra 'bump' at the joint:

drum2.jpg

• pops6927
• Nov 23, 2012

If you cut that, you can pull out most all the ligaments in the drumstick! You may have to grip it with some vice grips, but this is where all those are attached. If you select the drumstick for eating, loosen it at the bone and yank on it, your drum will be ligament-free! They are not attached to the bone individually, they are attached at that point as a group.

 

[tallbm]

zwiller. I would like to see debate on cure in apple cider. Keep me posted. Thanks.

tallbm. Was thinking when they hit 150 just pull wood pan and jack up heat. That should work don’t u think. I know most won’t like this but we rarely eat the skin off poultry. I don’t try to make crisp skin but would like to on these to give to others. All help appreciated.

I'm assuming your gasser can get pretty hot, if so then you should be good to go. I'm not in love with crispy skin I just want edible lol. Crispy is a bonus for me :)

 

[hondabbq]

Here ya go hondabbq

Thank you.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Here is the thread on Apple Cider Brine and adding Cure...JJ

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/apple-cider-cure-1.281248/#post-1893291