I had a lady at my dojo contact me regarding smoking some turkeys. I told her that I'd never done that but I had done some whole chickens, and said if she was will I'd give it a try for her. She paid me by giving me two turkeys to smoke (one for her and one for me) as well as 2 dozen farm fresh eggs from their own chickens... LOVE THAT...
On Sunday I got both turkeys out of the fridge to get them ready to brine. I didnt notice the size when she gave them to me a few days earlier still partially frozen. I just know that the one barely would fit in my smoker. One was 13.5 lbs and the other was just over 21. UGH...will they get abouve 140 in time????
So I started with Tip's Slaughterhouse brine except I used some of Emerils Essence (my version without the salt) and I also skipped the celery seed since I couldnt find it in the spice rack. The only container I had big enough was an old plastic tote that i scrubbed with bleach real well. I did check the mfg website and said it was foodsafe.... I Started the brining at 11:00 AM Sunday and around 11:00 that night I turned them over since they werent completely submerged. Also I just forgot I didnt have onion powder so I used dride minced onion.
On Monday pulled them out of the water, patted them dry rubbed with a bit of olive oil and some more Essence.
Used some butcher twine to truss them up a bit (only one shown here)..
Both in the smoker.
I used Hickory chunks and apple chips and instead of using the chip pan with the lid on it. I left the lid off and wrapped the chips in aluminum foil with a very small opening for TBS to escape. In the water pan I used a 50/50 mix of Blue Moon and water. I tried keeping the temp at 300 but given the wind and rain I had a hard time and it took about an hour to recover after adding the cold birds.
I put the probes in about 3 hours into the smoke and the temp was at 130.... WOW I'll make the 140 mark in 4 hours....
First bird (small one) came out 7 hours after starting. Big bird came out almost 9 hours. Here's the big bird, It is sitting on a 13*9 glass baking dish....
I have no money shots on a plate as we didnt eat any of our bird and the other is going back to that wonderful lady at the dojo. I do have a shot of it all vaccuum packed and frozen for future.
I kept it real simple, brine, Essence, olive oil, heat & smoke. I did pick at some of it while carving. It was juicy and delicious.
Thanks for looking.
On Sunday I got both turkeys out of the fridge to get them ready to brine. I didnt notice the size when she gave them to me a few days earlier still partially frozen. I just know that the one barely would fit in my smoker. One was 13.5 lbs and the other was just over 21. UGH...will they get abouve 140 in time????
So I started with Tip's Slaughterhouse brine except I used some of Emerils Essence (my version without the salt) and I also skipped the celery seed since I couldnt find it in the spice rack. The only container I had big enough was an old plastic tote that i scrubbed with bleach real well. I did check the mfg website and said it was foodsafe.... I Started the brining at 11:00 AM Sunday and around 11:00 that night I turned them over since they werent completely submerged. Also I just forgot I didnt have onion powder so I used dride minced onion.
On Monday pulled them out of the water, patted them dry rubbed with a bit of olive oil and some more Essence.
Used some butcher twine to truss them up a bit (only one shown here)..
Both in the smoker.
I used Hickory chunks and apple chips and instead of using the chip pan with the lid on it. I left the lid off and wrapped the chips in aluminum foil with a very small opening for TBS to escape. In the water pan I used a 50/50 mix of Blue Moon and water. I tried keeping the temp at 300 but given the wind and rain I had a hard time and it took about an hour to recover after adding the cold birds.
I put the probes in about 3 hours into the smoke and the temp was at 130.... WOW I'll make the 140 mark in 4 hours....
First bird (small one) came out 7 hours after starting. Big bird came out almost 9 hours. Here's the big bird, It is sitting on a 13*9 glass baking dish....
I have no money shots on a plate as we didnt eat any of our bird and the other is going back to that wonderful lady at the dojo. I do have a shot of it all vaccuum packed and frozen for future.
I kept it real simple, brine, Essence, olive oil, heat & smoke. I did pick at some of it while carving. It was juicy and delicious.
Thanks for looking.