Thanksgiving Turkey

[DadtoTheBone]

Hey guys, I recently got myself a pitboss smoker and have been using the crap out of it. Mostly pork, chicken and some breakfast meals. I want to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving but have no knowledge on turkeys. Any info on other guys methods would help me a lot! Open to multiple ways

 

[Kevin DeShazo]

We brine then smoke our turkey. Its an orange, black tea and bourbon brine, hit w Emerils Essence, SPOG or even just salt and pepper then I smoke with either post oak or if I can find it, orange wood chips.

Cook to temp, wanna say between 2.5-3 hrs at 225, but it was last hear so not 100% on approximate time.

 

[tallbm]

Hey guys, I recently got myself a pitboss smoker and have been using the crap out of it. Mostly pork, chicken and some breakfast meals. I want to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving but have no knowledge on turkeys. Any info on other guys methods would help me a lot! Open to multiple ways

Hi there and welcome!

I too am big on wet brining/curing a turkey. Your other option is to inject it with something like Tony Cacheres Creole Butter injectable marinade, but the amount you need is a guess so you can end up with too much or too little.
If you want a great turkey, you will want to do one or the other, never both.

If you want that reddish color and that amazing flavor like the smoked drums from a fair, that only comes from using Cure#1 in the brine.


Wet Brining/Curing Info:
You can find lots of info on brining BUT most of it is not very precise and will be too much salt or too little.
A surefire approach is doing an Equilibrium brine.

In short, an Equilibrium brine takes the weight of the Turkey plus the weight of the Water that will cover the turkey (1 gallon weighs 8.333lbs or 3780 grams; grams is simple math).
You then take that total weight and do 1.65% of total weight in salt (total weight x 0.0165 for amount of salt needed). Do the same but 1% for sugar (0.001 x total weight for sugar amount).

It will NEVER get too salty because you accurately calculated the amounts and salt naturally wants to distribute equally among the water and the bird meat so that you never get 1.65% of salt in since it equals out in both the meat and water.

I also add cure #1 for the same amount of total weight (1.13gm of cure #1 per pound of total weight) and blend that into the water. JUST DON'T use hot water or it messes up the cure.

Blend all of that into the water you will brine the turkey in and then let the turkey brine in a cold fridge for a couple of days.
Also to speed things up and make sure things brine/cure more evenly (inside out and outside in) inject that mixed up liquid all over into the breast and thick meaty areas of the turkey with one of these meat marinade injection syringes. They are amazing and sooooooo easy to use compared to a cheap plastic marinade needle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08W45S886/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Smoking:
If you want edible bite through or even crispy skin, just commit to smoking at a smoker temp of 325F. Pull when the bird is like 160-162F in the breast meat and it should raise up to 165F on it's own. You do NOT want it to go over 165F because it only gets dryer every moment over 165F, even when brined/cured.

If you do not smoke at a high enough temp (like 325F smoker temp) and/or you don't do some other extra steps for skin issues, your skin will come out leathery and rubbery and inedible. This is simply the way poultry skin behaves when not cooked at a high enough temp. High enough smoker temp just works and is the simplest approach out there, turkey does not benefit from low and slow.

Once you pull the turkey, if you cover it and steam is generating under that covering, the skin will change from edible or crispy, back to chewy or leathery so just be aware of that :D

I wrote a lot but didn't dive into any major details. This should get you started and the key is to prepare, prepare, prepare, and focus on the quirks to avoid a dry turkey (brine/cure or marinade inject) and avoid leathery/rubbery skin.

I hope this helps, ask any questions you may have :D

 

[chopsaw]

If you're going to smoke a whole turkey , USDA says ,
8 to 12 pounds max .
Don't stuff the cavity .
Maintain smoker temp between 225 and 300 .

You also need to check the leg joint . Don't just go by the temp of the breast .
If you run a bit over 165 in the breast , it's not a disaster . Especially if it was brined .

I like to do the breast by themselves . Usually boned and rolled . Here's a thread I did that has one of each .

Smoked Turkey breast

This came up in another thread about BBQ chains stores . I mentioned that a local place had great Turkey and it made me rethink the process . @SmokinVOLfan asked about it , so I figured I would write it out . Here's a thread on how I was doing them before I had the Turkey from Sugar fire BBQ ...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[normanaj]

Find yourself a 100% cranberry based juice blend and start with that as your brine base.Trust me you'll like it!

I have my very last bottle of OceanSpray cran/blackberry 100% that will get used.Shameful OS doesn't make it anymore.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Here's a method thirdeye uses... works great!

Ryan

 

[mike243]

Prep turkey any manor you like, set smoker low, give it a hour- hour and 1/2 of heavy smoke then into a cooking bag and finish in the oven, birds take smoke pretty easy and the bag will keep them from drying out, when the popup timer pops up pull and enjoy

 

[Fueling Around]

Do not like turkey so no experience there.
I do like chicken though. They are spatchcocked and separated down to quarters.

 

[DougE]

For a whole bird, spachcock that sucker to reduce cooking time. We mostly only eat white meat so I mostly just smoke turkey breasts anymore.

 

[cptnding]

Here's a method thirdeye uses... works great!

View attachment 706706


Ryan

That's exactly how I cook them except for I crack the breast down flat as well. Works great and shortens cook time.

 

[ifitsdeadsmokeit]

The 165 degrees for safe temp is an old recommendation. Current is 157 for turkey. The dark meat needs to go higher to break down but I dont have an issue cooking breast to 157.

 

[civilsmoker]

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/brining-and-smoking-18lb-turkey.324250/#post-2475180

This past thread has some good info from many members……..

 

[Inscrutable]

I always dry brine and spatchcock. Give it an hour at low temp smoke, then crank to 400 to finish.

You do not need to go to 165 for food safety … it is a function of BOTH time and temp. Five minutes at 150 does the job, and the breast retains a LOT more moisture.

The problem with that s the dark meat may still be tough (which is why parting it as thirdeye does works nicely)

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-02d249f990b04279d393978b939677ae-c?fbclid=IwAR0PV4gfDHOn8pwvGJlaNUaDkkL4VrhzqIm3WeC9CTEYoiOlmVtfitTFSgU

 

[mike243]

The 165 degrees for safe temp is an old recommendation. Current is 157 for turkey. The dark meat needs to go higher to break down but I dont have an issue cooking breast to 157.

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safe... choose to cook turkey to higher temperatures. is that a woke temp ? USDA still calling for the Old temp for some reason. I would rather be over temp a tad as under, too many bugs out there these days,

 

[Brokenhandle]

Here's a sheet that Dave Omak posted in a sticky in poultry section

But as Chef JJ mentioned in this thread... after cooking at lower temps for the allotted time had his family lined up at the microwave to finish cooking their turkey as they didn't like the pink color! So there is that.

Ryan

 

[Inscrutable]

But as Chef JJ mentioned in this thread... after cooking at lower temps for the allotted time had his family lined up at the microwave to finish cooking their turkey as they didn't like the pink color! So there is that.

Ryan

yeah, you can talk myoglobin until blue in the face, but many don’t get past the yuck factor

 

[albow]

Hi there and welcome!

I too am big on wet brining/curing a turkey. Your other option is to inject it with something like Tony Cacheres Creole Butter injectable marinade, but the amount you need is a guess so you can end up with too much or too little.
If you want a great turkey, you will want to do one or the other, never both.

If you want that reddish color and that amazing flavor like the smoked drums from a fair, that only comes from using Cure#1 in the brine.


Wet Brining/Curing Info:
You can find lots of info on brining BUT most of it is not very precise and will be too much salt or too little.
A surefire approach is doing an Equilibrium brine.

In short, an Equilibrium brine takes the weight of the Turkey plus the weight of the Water that will cover the turkey (1 gallon weighs 8.333lbs or 3780 grams; grams is simple math).
You then take that total weight and do 1.65% of total weight in salt (total weight x 0.0165 for amount of salt needed). Do the same but 1% for sugar (0.001 x total weight for sugar amount).

It will NEVER get too salty because you accurately calculated the amounts and salt naturally wants to distribute equally among the water and the bird meat so that you never get 1.65% of salt in since it equals out in both the meat and water.

I also add cure #1 for the same amount of total weight (1.13gm of cure #1 per pound of total weight) and blend that into the water. JUST DON'T use hot water or it messes up the cure.

Blend all of that into the water you will brine the turkey in and then let the turkey brine in a cold fridge for a couple of days.
Also to speed things up and make sure things brine/cure more evenly (inside out and outside in) inject that mixed up liquid all over into the breast and thick meaty areas of the turkey with one of these meat marinade injection syringes. They are amazing and sooooooo easy to use compared to a cheap plastic marinade needle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08W45S886/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

View attachment 706695


Smoking:
If you want edible bite through or even crispy skin, just commit to smoking at a smoker temp of 325F. Pull when the bird is like 160-162F in the breast meat and it should raise up to 165F on it's own. You do NOT want it to go over 165F because it only gets dryer every moment over 165F, even when brined/cured.

If you do not smoke at a high enough temp (like 325F smoker temp) and/or you don't do some other extra steps for skin issues, your skin will come out leathery and rubbery and inedible. This is simply the way poultry skin behaves when not cooked at a high enough temp. High enough smoker temp just works and is the simplest approach out there, turkey does not benefit from low and slow.

Once you pull the turkey, if you cover it and steam is generating under that covering, the skin will change from edible or crispy, back to chewy or leathery so just be aware of that :D

I wrote a lot but didn't dive into any major details. This should get you started and the key is to prepare, prepare, prepare, and focus on the quirks to avoid a dry turkey (brine/cure or marinade inject) and avoid leathery/rubbery skin.

I hope this helps, ask any questions you may have :D

So, how do you know how much water it will take to cover the turkey, or do you calculate the amount you are using as you pour it in? It seems you will need a large roasting pan to brine it in and I assume you want to use just enough brine to cover the turkey completely?

 

[tallbm]

So, how do you know how much water it will take to cover the turkey, or do you calculate the amount you are using as you pour it in? It seems you will need a large roasting pan to brine it in and I assume you want to use just enough brine to cover the turkey completely?

Good question.

I use a 5 gallon bucket and it all goes into my garage fridge.

Two methods to measure.

Method 1: put the bird in the bucket/tub while the bird is still in the package. Fill up the bucket/tub with 64oz pitchers of water and count how many you use. Fill until you are about 3.5 inches over because the cavity of the bird will take up water when not in the packaging. See how much you have written down and you can use new water if needed or just stick with the water you used already. If using that water then take the pitcher and pull out 64 oz of it so you can blender up the salt, sugar, and cure in that water :D

Method 2: (my preferred method) Put the bird in the bucket WITHOUT it being in the wrapping and start filling up with a 64oz pitcher. Go until barely not covering. Then take your number and add 1 gallon to it (two 64oz pitchers) and you can use that last 1 gallon to blend up your salt, sugar, and cure and pour it in to finally cover the bird.


My mother likes to buy smaller turkeys like 10-12 pounds and use a big roasting pan to do this.
If you spatch cock or half the bird you can also easily use a meat tote/lug, or big roasting pan to do this as well. These are wider than taller and may help with people's fridge dimensions.
My garage fridge stays pretty empty in the fridge section so I can do things like this.
Only the door and the freezer part have things in it.

I hope this makes sense and ask all the questions you have :D

 

[fxsales1959]

Hey guys, I recently got myself a pitboss smoker and have been using the crap out of it. Mostly pork, chicken and some breakfast meals. I want to smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving but have no knowledge on turkeys. Any info on other guys methods would help me a lot! Open to multiple ways

as much meat as I smoke, this will make Y'all cringe. I only do whole Turkey once a year for Thanksgiving. for the past 40 years I get Glad plastic turkey bags. Shake some flour in it and put it in the oven with2 inkbird probes. I'd be sick if I F'd up my one turkey dinner a year trying to smoke it.

 

[schlotz]

Turkey and the on going saga of not so good skin. To solve this issue it requires the right tools and the smoker isn't it. INSTEAD: use the gas grill and rotisserie @350-375º with a smoker tube full of pellets or dust. Result is a perfectly self basted bird with gorgeous colored crispy skin and very moist meat.

Fyi, DO NOT STUFF the cavity as this creates a food safety issue.