Christmas turkey

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ronbeaux50

Head Chef
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
1,559
Location
Louisiana
I'm tired of the plain ole turkey cooked on the Primo, or the Backwoods, or in the oven. This year I decided to do something different and had the chance to try it for Thanksgiving. A cured turkey cold smoked. I had just bought my electric smoker so I struggled with it to get it right and it still was far better than any turkey I've had.

1st attempt
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(Had to finish it in the oven due to a F-up in timing)

This time I got temp control down pat and it's been at 140F for 3 hours now waiting on the ramp toward 190F. It was cured using this method:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/cure_smoke ... urkey.html

It's hooked up to life support now and in one hour I will start the ramp up to 190.

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14 or so hours from now it will be done.

The first one actually squirted juice when I pulled the probe and was the moistest turkey I have ever had. There were 3 turkeys cooked at our gathering. One was fried, one baked, and one from the Primo. This one was picked clean with nothing left. The others got set aside and frozen for gumbo.

Gonna be a long night!
 
Good looking bird ronbeaux50.

Do you have any concern with the bird being in the "danger zone" too long by cooking it at such a low temp?
 
No worries. This brine mix includes curing salt, (sodium nitrate), and it was stitch injected at 10% by weight of the bird to facilitate the curing of the meat.

This was not a normal brine where you let it sit to get flavor and help retain moisture.

I trusted both Rytek Kutas book Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing and the University of Georgia for the method of curing a turkey and followed the directions to the letter. The only additional ingredients I added were Molasses and some aromatic herbs.
 
May just be me, but a turkey done in the oven just makes the kitchen smell so good when its cold out. Sorry Griff, but your a pro cooking below zero.
ronbeaux, that looks great! Great color, Bet it was tasty indeed. :D

Pigs
 
ronbeaux50 said:
No worries. This brine mix includes curing salt, (sodium nitrate), and it was stitch injected at 10% by weight of the bird to facilitate the curing of the meat.

This was not a normal brine where you let it sit to get flavor and help retain moisture.

I trusted both Rytek Kutas book Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing and the University of Georgia for the method of curing a turkey and followed the directions to the letter. The only additional ingredients I added were Molasses and some aromatic herbs.


Sounds like you you know what you're doing with this method. 8) :) Enjoy!
 
After 14 Hours it is sitting at 163 and needs another hour or so to get to the recommended temp of 165 to 170.
 
I'm really looking forward to THIS finished bird Ron!!!! Keep us posted with more pic's please!
 
Here she is guys. Perfect if I say so myself! 15 hours to complete the cook. Juice squirts out. Won't get to eat it until 1300 but if like the last one it won't last long.

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Looks good Ron. Tell us about your smoker. I am into electric big time these days. I got one which was on sale at WW for 50 bucks but aint got around to using it yet. Now tell me please how do one maintain 140 whilst still providing enough heat to fire off the chips? Thanks.

bigwheel
 
bigwheel said:
Looks good Ron. Tell us about your smoker. I am into electric big time these days. I got one which was on sale at WW for 50 bucks but aint got around to using it yet. Now tell me please how do one maintain 140 whilst still providing enough heat to fire off the chips? Thanks.

bigwheel

I bought the 4 shelf Bradley, not the digital one, the one with the slide temp control and it has a smoke generator that feeds wood pucks onto a hot plate to make smoke. You hold it a 140 for 4 hours with lots of smoke then ramp 10 degrees every 20 minutes until your steady it out at 190.
 
We had a great time and the turkey was a big hit.
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The cure and smoke make the white meat pink and moist.
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My sweet little nieces. They are old enough now to pass out the gifts. I kept telling them the biggest one was mine but they wouldn't go for it. :roll:

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My MIL must love me
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I'm heading out to the Man Cave to have a kegger. :D
 
Great looking looking Christmas your working on there. Had a long post about Bradley's but it apparently got stole by Space Aliens again.

bigwheel
 
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