is butterball better?

[cptnding]

The rule of thumb is that the salt and cure will travel 1/4inch every 24 hours.
So if you have a 4 inch thick piece of meat submerged it will get 1/2 inch travel total (from all sides towards each other) in 24 hours. So a 4 inch piece of meat in theory takes 8 days and then a couple days extra to be sure.

Now, with that said, if you have a thick piece of meat like a ham or a turkey, you will want to inject that same solution all over and deep into the meat. This will then ensure everything gets cured all the way through AND you get faster curing times with the liquid traveling both outside-in and inside-out. This is what I do with my hams, turkey, and chickens. It speeds things up and makes it fool proof.

I like doing pork butt's as hams because the flavor is still amazing, the cost is way cheaper, and there is the flat shoulder blade bone to work around versus big round leg bones.

I have a full "how to" on how to wet cure and inject a pork butt to make a holiday ham here in the Thanksgiving Central https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/how-to-holiday-ham-from-pork-butt-pork-shoulder.318276/

FYI, I dry cure my bacon as well but have wet cured it before out of curiosity and it was all the same in the end. The difference was the amount of extra steps and cleaning of a web cure on the bacon. With big cuts like pork butts/hams, you will want to wet cure so you can inject and ensure it is cured all the way through and around the bones.
The same process works with a salt brine that has no cure in it. I do salt brines like this every time but have fell in love with the cure flavor on whole chickens, so I do that more wet cures than straight salt brines these days.

I hope this info helps :D

It helps a lot. Thanks for all the detailed info tallbm
When you inject a turkey how long do you usually let sit in the cure. That's the part I wonder about.

 

[fxsales1959]

They don't make enough beer .................. just sayin' lol

cant do gizzards, but since I was a child, my dad and i fought over the livers after a broth bath.

 

[nomoreusmc]

Y'all are lucky. 88c a pound is the cheapest around here that I have found! I'll be buying turkeys to make turkey sausage out of!

My grandma made gizzards, not pickled, but dredged and deep fried. I generally don't eat organs, this is my one exception. Livers are for fishing, gizzards are for eating. I would definitely try one pickled though.

 

[mneeley490]

Grocery Outlet has a special going this week. Spend $35, and get a 14-16 lb. Jennie-O turkey for $3.99.

 

[tallbm]

It helps a lot. Thanks for all the detailed info tallbm
When you inject a turkey how long do you usually let sit in the cure. That's the part I wonder about.

I think it's about 4-5 days or so. I could let it go longer as it will never get too salty with everything being measured as an equilibrium cure/brine. Also with the turkey it's going to be hot smoked in my case so the cure is all for flavor and it is also part of the solution that gets injected all into the bird so the flavor disperses nicely and quickly.

Some will say they don't like birds to sit too long because they get a texture change. I have never encountered anything noticeable in this area and it's all about general convenience.

With my pork butts I ensure it sits long enough for cure to travel all the way through based on the rate of 1/2 inch a day (1/4 inch from all directions because it is submerged so it gets 1/4 inch on opposing sides that equals 1/2 inch).