Using Dave Omak's Ham Injection Brine for Turkey

[TARM]

Any reason not to or changes I would need to make to use SmokinEdge ham in bag injection brine for doing a small whole turkey? Or is it best just to use a std Pop's submersion brine and use itnto inject and cover?

I am doing a ham with the brine on Tuesday for Xmas and we have a turkey to do as well. Figured why not sure the same brine recipe/technique for both.. I think the KB Veg Broth with phosphate brine would add nice flavor and extra moisture to the turkey. This would be my first time curing a ham and turkey but have dry and wet cured other cuts. I know to ensure to get the entire area around the bones well injected and hold to 1" pattern on the ham. A little unsure on any possible issues with turkey and looking for advice. Any advice on ham also is appreciated. Lol

 

[chopsaw]

. I think the KB Veg Broth with phosphate brine

I use the Veg broth phosphate curing brine from Dave Omak . He's the one that came up with that . A lot of us use it , but it came from Dave .
Here's a whole chicken done using Dave's injection method .
Injected just like you would for ham . This was held for 6 days , then smoked .

The veg stock will affect the color of the bird .

Comes out full of flavor and completely tender , but the texture is changed
from a normally brined bird . Makes a good pulled sandwich .

Dave's injection is great on pork for curing hams .
For poultry I like Pop's brine mixed as follows .
1 gallon water
1/2 cup pickling salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 TBL cure 1
Inject as much as it will hold and soak overnight .
Bird won't be fully cured , so cook accordingly .

 

[SmokinEdge]

Any reason not to or changes I would need to make to use SmokinEdge ham in bag injection brine for doing a small whole turkey? Or is it best just to use a std Pop's submersion brine and use itnto inject and cover?

I am doing a ham with the brine on Tuesday for Xmas and we have a turkey to do as well. Figured why not sure the same brine recipe/technique for both.. I think the KB Veg Broth with phosphate brine would add nice flavor and extra moisture to the turkey. This would be my first time curing a ham and turkey but have dry and wet cured other cuts. I know to ensure to get the entire area around the bones well injected and hold to 1" pattern on the ham. A little unsure on any possible issues with turkey and looking for advice. Any advice on ham also is appreciated. Lol

The KB veg stock injection is a Dave Omak original. I use the same process with different salt and sugar percentages plus I add sodium erythorbate. This works perfectly with hams. I used it in our turkey this year as well but left out the cure #1 and erythorbate but you don’t have to. If you do use cure #1 in a bird I try to allow for the skeleton weight and subtract that from the total bird weight somewhere in the 30% range.

 

[TARM]

Thanks guys. Well definately using it on the ham. The turkey will be served sliced breasts etc not pulled so I guess I will use Pop's with phosphate added and inject and submerge as I want the typical cured texture.

Will be smoking it along side the ham at least part of the time. I also have a large standing rib roast dry aging that will be cooked as well. I am planning the ham first as it can hold over the longest and will crisp and glaze near carving/serving. The rib roast I will be following civilsmoker Rib Roast cook and directions so it can hold over in the oven for a couple hour or so if needed. The main stable smoker temp will be 235°F which is needed for the roast and should work well for both the turkey and ham. If I had more time I could do the ham ahead and SV and glaze which would free up separate cook times but I think it should work. I have the built in thermometer of the mammouth smoker plus a couple wireless and my thermapen manual.

What do you all think of adding say 0.5% msg to the Dave Omak injection brine on the ham?
Its a medium sized green berkshire around 14-15lb and I'm only going to get 13-14 days cure time. I certainly like it in a 80/20 blend ratio with I&G for beef 24hr dry brine . I was thinking a low dose 2.5g per kg or about ½ tsp/kg just to give it that hint of something you can't place unless you know its effect. Just not sure on city ham as I have only used it on beef.

 

[TARM]

Inject as much as it will hold and soak overnight .
Bird won't be fully cured , so cook accordingly .

Why would the bird meat not fully cure?
Is that just a characteristic of poultry on the carcass?

Since I tend to cook birds low and slow the meat holds 140°F temps plenty long for safety so its about meat texture for me. On just regular 24-48hr brined turkey (no cure) I like the textures of White @ 150°F & Dark @ 170°F. I did not consider how curing would effect texture in termsof the cooking temp. I guess I can go 160°F which will rest to 165°F see how that works out. It will not be stuffed only aromatics so it should heat that dark meat in the thighs quicker. With stuffing the thigh areas for be are always at least 5°F behind the core temp at the breast. At a minimum I at least know it will not be dry.

 

[chopsaw]

Why would the bird meat not fully cure?

Because I inject and only soak overnight . If you go longer it will cure .

 

[TARM]

Because I inject and only soak overnight . If you go longer it will cure .

Ok that makes total sense. Shew, you wlmost had me questioningbwhat I "thought" I knew about curing. LoL

I will be curing at least a week.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Poultry in brine cure generally can get mushy if left too long. About 3 days is as long as you should go but with injection it’s overnight to a couple days. Just my experience

 

[TARM]

Poultry in brine cure generally can get mushy if left too long. About 3 days is as long as you should go but with injection it’s overnight to a couple days. Just my experience

Thank you for the info. Ignorance is running high on my part with poultry. Before this I have only done 24hr regular brines never a cure. Ok so injection 24hrs max 48. Submersion 48-72. Got it. Now I have to decide which brine. I keep going back and forth. To get the KB broth best price was to get a case. I think since it only needs such a short brine I will do a chicken with each and see what I think

Thank you for all the help.

Hard to believe how fast Christmas is coming up. So much to do with these long extended preps. I also have a crazy good but very complex chocolate cake I am making. Takes about 8 days to complete. Trying to get photos of the entire process to post up along with the other stages of the meats and sides. On the plus side my wife is not nearly as stressed. I want her to just be able to enjoy the family and our new grandsaughter's first Christmas. She was/is so excited to be a new first time grandmother.

 

[thirdeye]

Following for future reference

 

[TARM]

Finally got the ham thawed. I really must have not been paying attention . It turns out its a bonless green ham. Grrr! I was so sure I ordered a bone-in. Not sure how ai missed it. I am usually so careful.

I can not believe I did not catch it sooner. Its totally on me. I missed the print. Really wish the pic was not of a nice bone-in. Oh well. At least its still a Berkshire and looks to have nice marbling.

I have never cooked a boneless ham. I do not think we ever had one even when I was a kid. It was always a nice big bone-in ham.

I assume I might loose a bit of flavor?

On the plus side I don't have to worry about ensuring I get cure injected around the bones.

I also got more ham than I was planning too. Wanted a bone-in 15lb got a boneless 16lb so about a 19lb bone-in.

Certainly is going to be easy to carve well I guess niw its slicing LOL.

As expected, it's in a netted sock. I will synch it tight to hold its form as tight as possible during the cure & cook.

Be injecting it when I get up.

Anything I need to be careful of while injecting the cure?

Do I need to go over the 10% of the ham weight for the injection cure amount as this is all meat, no bone? On my thankgiving ham I am guessing there was 3lb of bone. Just guessing by in hand.