This year I'm doing 3 cured and smoked 15 lb'rs for Thanksgiving - one for each son, plus one for my chiropractor, Dr. Chris Michlin in Fort Worth. I bought the turkeys on Saturday, Oct. 29th and put them in the refrigerator to thaw out for several days. On Friday, Nov. 4th, I brought them into the kitchen, unwrapped them, removed the pop-up thermometer, the neck from the main cavity and the giblets from the neck cavity, then put them in my big curing bucket (no.2 designation for food-safe product). I made up 2 - 4 gallon buckets of my Lo-Salt curing brine, rolled them out to the back fridge and filled up the bucket, total 8 gallons of curing brine.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/pops6927s-curing-brines-regular-and-lo-salt
This year I did something a little different. Instead of 2 - 1 gallon ziploc bags half-filled with water to weigh the turkeys down so they will stay submerged, I simply used two heavy dinner plates on top of them. Worked perfect!
Kept them down into the curing brine with no problem.
Now, today, November 20th, I took off the plates and lifted each turkey out of the curing brine (of course, with my right, non-affected hand) and put into individual small buckets and rolled them into the kitchen:
Then, I used 3 lengths of pre-cut and sewn stockinette - 36" (from Butcher-Packer)
Although they are used for hams and the like, they can be used for poultry, or anything else you wish to put in your smoker/smokehouse.
I roll down the stockinette just like a lady puts on her hose (antiquated, talk to your mom, lol) and bring up over the turkey:
Then bring the ends together like two pieces of string and tie a SQUARE KNOT on the end. This is important, as the entire weight of the turkey will be dependent on this knot, and a square knot won't slip and allow the turkey to fall. Also known as a Reef Knot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef_knot
Then slip a ham hook through the knot and hang them into the smokehouse.
I DO NOT dry the inside nor the outside of the birds, just sack'em and hang'em then start the propane and toss in some wood chunks and let'er rip!
The smoke will adhere just fine to the birds (as further photos will prove). The idea of 'drying' and forming a 'pellicle' is for fish, which is delicate and a short smoke and usually very wet, so for that it is necessary, but not for hams or bacons or turkeys or chickens, etc.
I started the fire up at 7:30 am, we'll see how they progress!
It was 55° F at 7:30am when I started the smokehouse. I just checked it at 8:30am and the wood chunks mostly were charred out, so I added 3 more pieces, and the smokehouse was up to 208° F,
I will add a few chunks into the pan every 30-45 minutes until done and will start temp checks at 3:00pm. Bought a new instant read thermometer from Amazon:
Low-end model but it worked wonderfully on a beef roast for dinner a few nights ago!
Photo at 12 noon - as you can see, they are taking the smoke well!
3pm temp check, in the breast - 133°
In the thigh, 139°
Be done probably around 6pm, normal.
(Changed the 'done' time to 6pm, they finished up great! On the 20+ lb'rs, it would have taken to 8pm)
Brought them in and unsacked them, put them in buckets and took them to the back fridge to cool!
Lots of good eating right there! Fully cooked, juicy, and ohhh what an aroma!
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/pops6927s-curing-brines-regular-and-lo-salt
This year I did something a little different. Instead of 2 - 1 gallon ziploc bags half-filled with water to weigh the turkeys down so they will stay submerged, I simply used two heavy dinner plates on top of them. Worked perfect!
Kept them down into the curing brine with no problem.
Now, today, November 20th, I took off the plates and lifted each turkey out of the curing brine (of course, with my right, non-affected hand) and put into individual small buckets and rolled them into the kitchen:
Then, I used 3 lengths of pre-cut and sewn stockinette - 36" (from Butcher-Packer)
Although they are used for hams and the like, they can be used for poultry, or anything else you wish to put in your smoker/smokehouse.
I roll down the stockinette just like a lady puts on her hose (antiquated, talk to your mom, lol) and bring up over the turkey:
Then bring the ends together like two pieces of string and tie a SQUARE KNOT on the end. This is important, as the entire weight of the turkey will be dependent on this knot, and a square knot won't slip and allow the turkey to fall. Also known as a Reef Knot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef_knot
Then slip a ham hook through the knot and hang them into the smokehouse.
I DO NOT dry the inside nor the outside of the birds, just sack'em and hang'em then start the propane and toss in some wood chunks and let'er rip!
The smoke will adhere just fine to the birds (as further photos will prove). The idea of 'drying' and forming a 'pellicle' is for fish, which is delicate and a short smoke and usually very wet, so for that it is necessary, but not for hams or bacons or turkeys or chickens, etc.
I started the fire up at 7:30 am, we'll see how they progress!
It was 55° F at 7:30am when I started the smokehouse. I just checked it at 8:30am and the wood chunks mostly were charred out, so I added 3 more pieces, and the smokehouse was up to 208° F,
I will add a few chunks into the pan every 30-45 minutes until done and will start temp checks at 3:00pm. Bought a new instant read thermometer from Amazon:
Low-end model but it worked wonderfully on a beef roast for dinner a few nights ago!
Photo at 12 noon - as you can see, they are taking the smoke well!
3pm temp check, in the breast - 133°
In the thigh, 139°
Be done probably around 6pm, normal.
(Changed the 'done' time to 6pm, they finished up great! On the 20+ lb'rs, it would have taken to 8pm)
Brought them in and unsacked them, put them in buckets and took them to the back fridge to cool!
Lots of good eating right there! Fully cooked, juicy, and ohhh what an aroma!
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