I had been asked about 3 weeks ago to smoke a turkey for my Father-In Law. I told him I needed the bird by Saturday before Thanksgiving in order to insure it was defrosted and prepped in time for the cook. I am not really a brine fan. In the past the birds that I have eaten that were brined seems to have this weird almost fake texture to it. So I usually will inject my birds and rub what I strain out of the injection marinade on the inside of the cavity. But this year I was going to use the Slaughterhouse brine. I wanted to try what everyone was raving about. Well let’s say he did not say anything more to me about the bird after I reminded him last week I needed it by Saturday. I asked him on Tuesday where the bird was and he just grinned. He had forgotten to get the bird. He said that he would get a thawed bird tomorrow (Wednesday)
. I said OK, it needs to be thawed or we may have issues having it for dinner at Noon on Thursday.
Before we go any further… I would NOT suggest you do what I had to do. But if you find yourself in a pinch, this will work. Again NOT the best practice for doing a smoked turkey!!!!!
I was talking with a friend on the phone on Wednesday morning and realized I almost missed my daughter’s doctor appointment. So we did a mad dash to get to the doctor. While I was waiting I get a text from my Father-In Law that he had gotten a turkey and a couple pork shoulders. I asked if any was frozen. He told me the bird was
. I told him to put it under cold running water and I would be home soon. Thawing under cold running water is ok in a pinch, but would advise to cook ASAP after thawed. When I got home it was solid as you can get. So I took it out of the package and ran enough cold water into the cavity to release the neck and gizzard package. Let the water run into the cavity while I prepared the brine. I dissolved the salt and sugar in some warm water and mixed it with ice water to chill it quickly and to finish the amount of water needed. I knew I was going to split the bird anyways, so I tried to split it while it was half frozen. Did not work!!
Into the bucket the bird went and then the brine, they both went into the fridge for a soak overnight. At this time I have a half way frozen bird in a cold brine and it is around 4pm on Wednesday. He was wanting this ready for travel at 12:00 for dinner at 1:00pm. I got the fire going at 6am Thursday morning . Took forever to get the smoker up to temp, finally got the split bird on at 7:30. Ran the smoker at 300 and the bird was actually at 165 IT at 11:50. Then got a call from Father-In Law that he did not need the bird for this dinner, it is for them to have leftovers the next few days. Put the turkey in a pan and wrapped it, then threw it into the oven set at 170 to sit till I had time to deal with it later…..off we went to our next misadventure….
My camera was at a friend’s house, so did not get any prep pictures only ending shots.
I was talking with a friend on the phone on Wednesday morning and realized I almost missed my daughter’s doctor appointment. So we did a mad dash to get to the doctor. While I was waiting I get a text from my Father-In Law that he had gotten a turkey and a couple pork shoulders. I asked if any was frozen. He told me the bird was
My camera was at a friend’s house, so did not get any prep pictures only ending shots.
