Whole turkey attempt on the GF800 rotisserie

[hooked on smoke]

Greetings,
I have a 14lb whole Butterball turkey I would like to cook on my Gravity 800 Rotisserie on Christmas day. I am wondering should I brine it? Or would that be overkill since I'm presuming it's already got goodies in it. Any other tips and pointer would be a big help.
Thank you all.

 

[motocrash]

Check the label to see if it's "enhanced" at 15-20% already. If so, just spin it. If not, absolutely brine it.

 

[hooked on smoke]

Thanks for the input.

 

[tallbm]

Greetings,
I have a 14lb whole Butterball turkey I would like to cook on my Gravity 800 Rotisserie on Christmas day. I am wondering should I brine it? Or would that be overkill since I'm presuming it's already got goodies in it. Any other tips and pointer would be a big help.
Thank you all.

I brine all my turkeys period.
If you are familiar with an equilibrium brine I would do 1.6% salt.
Did that with my last butterball after the holidays and it and came out great. Not too salty at all AND it was already "enhanced" with solution. If you like less salt go 1.5% salt.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[pineywoods]

I too brine all my turkeys before smoking.
I also smoke poultry at 325-350 so the skin gets crisp. If you don't want to eat the skin then you can smoke it at 225-250 but the skin will come out kind of like rubber. You can also smoke at 225-250 and before it finishes put it on a hot grill or in a hot oven to finish it and crisp the skin.
Poultry unlike many of the other meats we smoke isn't real tough or have a lot of collagen to break down so I personally will give up a little of the smoke flavor for the crispy skin which my family wants. If I want more smoke flavor I can always use a stronger flavored wood.

 

[Brokenhandle]

I would brine it also... but if its going on your rotisserie, which I'm not familiar with yours, could also inject with Tony Cs and or baste with butter as it spins. Either way, we wanna see pics!

Ryan

 

[1MoreFord]

I've heard that Butterball advises to brine their enhanced birds so brine away.

 

[hooked on smoke]

I brine all my turkeys period.
If you are familiar with an equilibrium brine I would do 1.6% salt.
Did that with my last butterball after the holidays and it and came out great. Not too salty at all AND it was already "enhanced" with solution. If you like less salt go 1.5% salt.

I hope this info helps :)

Thanks. Yes it is helpful. Although I am not familiar with the brine you are suggesting. Would you have the time to share it with me?
Best regards,
Hooked

 

[tallbm]

Thanks. Yes it is helpful. Although I am not familiar with the brine you are suggesting. Would you have the time to share it with me?
Best regards,
Hooked

Sure thing.

An Equilibrium Brine is a simple brine that ensures you have equal amount of salt in the bird and water (never too salty, never too bland). Many brine recipes and instructions simply guess and hope for the best but an equilibrium brine calculates exactly what you need so if you brine for 1 day or 5 days you'll never get too salty :)


Ok quick version:

• Total weight = turkey weight + water weight, all converted to ounces or grams
• Salt Weight = Total weight x 0.015 (this is 1.5% salt)
• Turkey into brine bucket
• Dissolve salt into water in blender and pour into brine bucket
• Optional: Inject the brine all over if you want a speedy uptake

Example:

• 20 pound bird = 9071.8 gm
• 2 gallon water = 7257.44 gm
• Total weight = 16,329.24 gm = ( 9071.8 + 7257.44)
• Salt Weight = 244.94 gm = (16,329.24 x 0.015)
• Put bird in brine bucket and add 244.94 gm of salt to your 2 gallons of water (dissolved) into the brine bucket
• Put in fridge and wait, done!

The secret....

• Write down the weight of your bird and convert to ounces of grams
• Figure out the amount of water it takes to cover your bird and convert that to ounces of grams weight (1 gallon of water rough weighs 8 pounds = 128oz or 3628.8gm)
  • While my turkey is frozen and in the package I put it in my brine bucket and then measure and pour water (64 floz at a time) until it is covered by an inch or 2 and I know how much water it takes. I convert that to weight, 2 gallons often gets it done.
• Add turkey weight + water weight to get total weight
• Take total weight x 0.015 (this is 1.5%) and that will give you the weight/amount of salt to use
• Put raw defrosted turkey into brine bucket
• Dissolve that amount of salt in your water (I blender it in water and pour into brine bucket)

I also inject that brine into the bird all over to speed up the brine process as the salt travels about 1/4 inch per 24 hours. If you inject the dissolved brine solution you are getting inside out and outside in penetration so it DRASTICALLY speeds up the brine time.

Let it brine for as long as you need.

Ok so I threw a lot at you here. Just understand it's salt + water BUT calculated at a tasty 1.5% salt used.

This will ensure you never over salt even if you brine for quite a while!

Here is a helpful calculator for this. You can convert your weights and then use the main calculator to figure out how much salt you need to use.

Just change salt to 1.5, cure#1 to 0.0, and sugar to 0 and it will tell you all your numbers

Again this is a lot so ask a ton of questions. Once you understand it all, it becomes simple. Like how you know to turn your key or press a button to start your car but you know that the engine is doing a lot of stuff that you don't have to know in depth. Just key, start, done! :)

 

[hooked on smoke]

That's a great explanation tallbm. I actually get it.
Questions,

I'm a bit of a dummy when it comes to stuff like this.

What type of scale do you use? I only have a small food scale.
What do you use to "blend" 2 gallons, (approx), of water and salt combo? Could I use my ninja blender to dissolve the salt then mix it with the remaining water or just stir the entire 2 gal and salt in the bucket. That may be a chore.
I'm sorry but this keeps locking up on me. Ugh.
I will leave it at this for now. Thank you for your patience and much appreciated support tallbm.

 

[tallbm]

That's a great explanation tallbm. I actually get it.
Questions,

I'm a bit of a dummy when it comes to stuff like this.

What type of scale do you use? I only have a small food scale.
What do you use to "blend" 2 gallons, (approx), of water and salt combo? Could I use my ninja blender to dissolve the salt then mix it with the remaining water or just stir the entire 2 gal and salt in the bucket. That may be a chore.
I'm sorry but this keeps locking up on me. Ugh.
I will leave it at this for now. Thank you for your patience and much appreciated support tallbm.

I got ya covered here.

I use a simple food scale. Its accuracy is only 1 gram but that is fine enough when we are talking about pounds and pounds of food to brine or make lol.

I also use a bathroom scale because when I get over 10lbs of stuff to weigh the food scale maxes out. Again, the accuracy is fine when we are talking about such heavy stuff and being off by 1 gram here or there.

For dissolving salt I take a simple approach.

1. I figure out how much water I need before hand (place still bagged frozen turkey big brining bucket, then use a 64oz pitcher and add water until lit covers by about 1-2 inches and write down how many pitchers it took then I know amount of water).
2. I use my blender, a nothing special about it blender in my case haha. So your Ninja will work just fine.
   I fill half way up with water (32oz) and put in a good amount of salt. Then blend.
   Pour that over the turkey while in the brine bucket.
   Repeat until all salt blended. Finish adding water without salt if all salt has been blended and added with the previous blender runs. I don't try to even it out I just try to get it done.
   Usually I can dissolve all my salt in about 1-4 blender runs in a situation like yours. Then I just keep adding the water and stir a little.
   I also usually use my meat syringe and start drawing the brine and injecting at least into the breast of the chicken so it brines inside and out. Speeds things up greatly. I usually inject all over especially when using cure but I at least do the breast well.

That's it!

 

[hooked on smoke]

Ahh.
Will kosher salt work?
You mentioned cure a couple times. Will I need that as well or was that referring to other brines you've done?

Can I add seasoning to the brine, herb d province, being one of them? Or should that wait until after the brine?

I keep forgetting to ask, what if I don't have spare refrigerator to store it in while brining.
I will be eating so much to clear my fridge I won't have room in my stomach for the turkey when it's done. Am I screwed?

Thank you for taking the to share. You are great.

 

[tallbm]

Ahh.
Will kosher salt work?
You mentioned cure a couple times. Will I need that as well or was that referring to other brines you've done?

Can I add seasoning to the brine, herb d province, being one of them? Or should that wait until after the brine?

I keep forgetting to ask, what if I don't have spare refrigerator to store it in while brining.
I will be eating so much to clear my fridge I won't have room in my stomach for the turkey when it's done. Am I screwed?

Thank you for taking the to share. You are great.

Kosher salt is fine and actually preferred.

You can add herbs and stuff to the brine but they may not uptake as much. I would stick to just adding all of your other seasonings and herbs after you pull the bird from the brine. No guessing at how much is needed with water + bird when you are simply seasoning the bird directly :)

You absolutely must refrigerate while brining. You will have to clear your regular fridge to store this while brining lol. If you can put in some kind of ice chest and cover with ice and keep it on ice during the brining period then you would be ok. Or if your ambient temps are the same as fridge temps and you don't have pesky wildlife to mess with it then you can put outside. I can't do this in TX, way to warm here.

If you cannot make the room in your fridge and have no cooler/ice/outdoor temp optins, then I would simply switch gears to an injectable marinade and not brine at all.
I can't tell you how much or how little injectable to use, you just have to guess hahaha.

As for cure#1, that turns your turkey into the kind of turkey meat you get when you buy a smoked turkey drum at the state fair or at a place like Disneyland.
It's the only way I do my turkey's these days, I love that flavor!!!

Once you get your fridge situation sorted out you will know if you can brine or not lol.

 

[hooked on smoke]

On

Kosher salt is fine and actually preferred.

You can add herbs and stuff to the brine but they may not uptake as much. I would stick to just adding all of your other seasonings and herbs after you pull the bird from the brine. No guessing at how much is needed with water + bird when you are simply seasoning the bird directly :)

You absolutely must refrigerate while brining. You will have to clear your regular fridge to store this while brining lol. If you can put in some kind of ice chest and cover with ice and keep it on ice during the brining period then you would be ok. Or if your ambient temps are the same as fridge temps and you don't have pesky wildlife to mess with it then you can put outside. I can't do this in TX, way to warm here.

If you cannot make the room in your fridge and have no cooler/ice/outdoor temp optins, then I would simply switch gears to an injectable marinade and not brine at all.
I can't tell you how much or how little injectable to use, you just have to guess hahaha.

As for cure#1, that turns your turkey into the kind of turkey meat you get when you buy a smoked turkey drum at the state fair or at a place like Disneyland.
It's the only way I do my turkey's these days, I love that flavor!!!

Once you get your fridge situation sorted out you will know if you can brine or not lol.

Once again, Thank you. I will keep you posted on what finally works out.