Hi folks,
This thanksgiving I gave my mother-in-law a big break and smoked the turkeys for the family Thanksgiving. She normally spends all day working on the birds as well as other things so I decided that I would handle the birds this year.
I was involved in a recent debate regarding brine vs. injection, and since all of my injection experience had been with chickens I decided to give it a shot with Turkey, especially after receiving some advice from Dave Omak! So, I prepared a slaugherhouse brine and dropped in a 13 pound gobbler and then used some Creaole Butter for injecting a 16 pounder.
Because it was Thanksgiving and we were preparing several other dishes, I did not get a lot of pictures, but I managed to grab a few.
TBS from the WSM.
Prepped and ready for the smoker.
Off the smoker and ready for dinner.
Normally we always have left-over turkey, but this year there wasn't a scrap of turkey left! Even the children were eating turkey like they would never have another. I had some of the brined turkey (brined for 24 hours) and some of the injected turkey. Both were equally juicy and tender with great texture. I had previous issues with injecting but allowing the turkey to rest for 24 hours before cooking allowed the injection to distribute properly throughout the tissues and I didn't get the juice pockets. Everything was awesome.
Thanks for looking.
Bill
This thanksgiving I gave my mother-in-law a big break and smoked the turkeys for the family Thanksgiving. She normally spends all day working on the birds as well as other things so I decided that I would handle the birds this year.
I was involved in a recent debate regarding brine vs. injection, and since all of my injection experience had been with chickens I decided to give it a shot with Turkey, especially after receiving some advice from Dave Omak! So, I prepared a slaugherhouse brine and dropped in a 13 pound gobbler and then used some Creaole Butter for injecting a 16 pounder.
Because it was Thanksgiving and we were preparing several other dishes, I did not get a lot of pictures, but I managed to grab a few.
TBS from the WSM.
Prepped and ready for the smoker.
Off the smoker and ready for dinner.
Normally we always have left-over turkey, but this year there wasn't a scrap of turkey left! Even the children were eating turkey like they would never have another. I had some of the brined turkey (brined for 24 hours) and some of the injected turkey. Both were equally juicy and tender with great texture. I had previous issues with injecting but allowing the turkey to rest for 24 hours before cooking allowed the injection to distribute properly throughout the tissues and I didn't get the juice pockets. Everything was awesome.
Thanks for looking.
Bill
