Wild turkey breast.

[Cj7851]

Just shot a turkey this morning and I am thinking about smoking some. I just skin take off the legs and the breast meat. I'm wondering how would be best to go about smoking it. Should I brine it rub reccomendations etc.View attachment 441533

 

[poacherjoe]

I would brine it. The breast only . The legs are okay for soup . Use Pop's brine or just google a simple brine.

 

[tallbm]

I would definitely wet brine. Minimally in a salt + water solution.
Add up the weight of the water with the weight of the turkey both in grams and multiply that number by .0225 and the value you get is the number of grams of salt you want to dissolve in that water. This will make a 2.25% equilibrium salt brine.
Brine over night or as long as you like. The beauty of an equilibrium brine is that the salt will distribute evenly between the water and the meat so there is no over salting no matter how long you leave it :D

If you want to kick it up a notch to make more of smokehouse turkey flavor add cure #1 at 1/4 teaspoon for every pound of water + turkey weight.
And to really put it over the top take the water + turkey weight in grams and multiply by .001 and add that many grams of sugar.
This will give you the cured smokehouse turkey flavor :)


With any of the brine approaches mentioned above I suggest that after you are done curing to pull the meat out, lightly rinse off and then season with Pepper, Garlic, and Onion then smoke away!

You will have amazing turkey either way that is NOT dry :)

 

[olecrosseyes]

With any of the brine approaches mentioned above I suggest that after you are done curing to pull the meat out, lightly rinse off and then season with Pepper, Garlic, and Onion then smoke away!

You will have amazing turkey either way that is NOT dry :)

Assuming a 225 cabinet smoking temp, What IT would you go to? The usual for my on a domestic bird would be 157 to 160 IT and remove from the smoker tent for a half hour before serving.

 

[tallbm]

Assuming a 225 cabinet smoking temp, What IT would you go to? The usual for my on a domestic bird would be 157 to 160 IT and remove from the smoker tent for a half hour before serving.

I would likely do the same. Depending on the size of the bird I might go to like 161-162F if it was small to make sure it carried up to 165.

Curing a bird doesn't really change the cooking approach it just adds the amazing flavor you get like state fair smoked turkey legs :)

 

[olecrosseyes]

Thanks my friend!