Turkey Brined with pops brine.

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wild west

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Apr 25, 2016
496
115
Saskatoon Saskatchewan
Hi all. I have a small turkey that I want to brine with pops low salt brine. The wrap on the bird states its been deep basted with normandy style butter. The nutritional info on the wrap says a 100 gram serving (about 4 oz )contains 90mg salt (4% of recomended daily salt intake ). My question is after brineing in pops brine for a week will I end up with a very salty bird? I plan to rinse before i smoke it and would consider soaking if need be. I have used pops brine on turkey before with good results but that bird was not enhanced in any way.
 
Im guessing Pops may chime in, a week might be overkill, Id say 4 maybe 5 days, depends if you inject it I suppose. If I remember he did say it depends on the size? a smallish, say 14 pounder may get cured through in 3 or 4 days.
 
I use Pops brine at 1/4-1/3 cup salt per gallon and they are not at all salty. A week is not too long and I "think" Pops even goes longer on birds that are not injected but maybe he will come along and clarify. You could also slip a knife in under the skin and take a sample after brining to do a fry test on to see if you think you will need to soak it for saltiness.

Barry.
 
All my birds are enhanced (cheap) and while you do need to factor in the salt they use it is actually on the very low side so it has a low impact. Using Pop's full strength might be just over the top. It was to me. Not inedible just a tad too much. I say reduce slightly for enhanced. It will take you some time to find your preference but I just did some canadian bacon at 3/4C table salt and I think it was excellent but could use a tad more (being real picky) BUT remember the loin/CB was not enhanced... I plan to use that on next turkey.

While I think injecting speeds the cure rate and it may be fully cured fast, sugar moves much slower than salt and thus I use a 7-10 day brine for cured birds. https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/halved-turkey-brine-time.256455/
 
I ended up brining for 6 days with 1/2cup kosher salt 1 cup white sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1 heaping tbsp cure #1 per gallon plus some miscellaneous dry herbs. Rinsed real good with cold water and let it dry for 24 hrs in the fridge. Smoked for 6hrs at 140 then raised temp to 200 until it hit 165 IT.Turned out great and will do it again. I found some older posts by pops where he was brining for close to two weeks with larger birds and he also used enhanced birds so it convinced me to give it a try.
 
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