Finney said:
Larry is the Turkey Smoking King. =D>
Talk to him. :!:
He's an Ass :-X , but you have to suffer for your ART.
All kidding a side. He can, and will help you. :!:
Gee Finney thanks for the kind words.....I think? #-o
Dog,
I gotta lotta flack that last time I said you must brine a turkey, so I'm not gonna say you must brine a turkey for a good finished product. What I will say though, is this. "IMO" a brined turkey will come out very moist and will let you cook to a higher doneness (if you prefer) without drying out, than an unbrined turkey will. Again, just my opinion. Becareful when choosing your turkey if you decide to brine. If it's a turkey that already contains a "solution", adjust the amount of salt you use in your brine. If I use a turkey that has been injected and the sodium is less than 300mg, I'll use my standard brine recipe. If it's more than 300mg, I'll adjust the amount of salt in my brine.
Another thing, there's two different ways people smoke turkeys. Either over a medium high heat (275-325) or low and slow (225-250). It's not necessary to cook a turkey low and slow, because it doesn't have the fat and the connective tissues other pieces of meat that you typically cook low and slow do. However, I cook them low and slow because that's the way I like them. The only draw back I've found from cooking them low and slow is the skin turns out pretty chewy and not very palatable IMO.
One more piece of advice, if you get a turkey with the "pop up timer", take it out of the bird before you cook it. They're garbage and do not work, and if it were to work it's set to go off at 180* in the breast, which IMO is over done for a turkey breast. I pull my turkeys off the cooker when the breast is between 165*-170* and the thigh is 180*. I then loosely tent with aluminum foil, the internal temperature will continue to climb a couple degrees during this time. If you plan to eat the bird that day, let it rest at least 20 minutes before slicing. I've found the turkey is even better if you let it rest and cool, and then wrap it up tight and let it rest in the refridgerator overnight. It kinda matures overnight and is even better the next day.