Thanksgiving Turkey Thread

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I made sure to get a natural, un-enhanced turkey. It's soaking now but like I said before, I only use half the salt the recipe calls for.
I've got the nuclear turkey roaster pre-heating now. Well, actually it's cooling now. It should be just about right by tomorrow, mid-morning.

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Bird is coming out of the brine, a 13 pound free range that was butchered Monday.

Drying it off, rubbing under the skin with some seasoned butter, and into the smoker!

Happy Thanksgiving.
 
Gotta get the turkey going to be done by 5PM or so. Son has to work his other job till 3PM. Did pies yesterday.I made my apple cranberry pie & wife made pumpkin. Got real cranberry sauce done too. Apple pies usually go together pretty quick, since we have one of those Amish-style things that peels, cores & slices all at once. Cut the spiral sliced apple in half & put in pie, sprinkled with cranberries. I sprinkle each layer with a mixture of 2 parts sugar to one part flour. Then add cinnamon, nutmeg & a pinch of ground cloves to taste. The flour helps make a thick sauce out of the juices so they don't soak the crust.
 
13lb bird, smoking at 250F.

7:50AM start
60 minutes in breast temp 86F
120 minutes in breast temp 124F
180 minutes in breast temp 144F
240 minutes in breast temp 154F
300 minutes in breast temp 163F
 
About 11/2 more hours on the smoker then it's feeding' time! Well... more like grazing time since we put everything out and nibble all day.
 
We opted out of turkey this year. My 7 year old son raised some ducks. We slaughterred them yesterday and they have been in a brine till this morning. We are cooking them sous vide in the brewing rig. Once they render out, I will broil them to get the skin crispy. He is pretty excited to see if his work pays off. He raised them on a food blend that included a lot of spent grains.

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Our 15 pound bird is currently swimming merrily in 350°F oil outside. It will be done in about 20 minutes. I'll let it "rest" for a while before I hack into it. My, I'm getting hungry!

glenn514:mug:
 
Some nice looking and sounding action going on here. The wood fired oven is awesome!
We had a 14lb brined & roasted bird at our daughters. Quite good, and moist. Turkey day was at our house for many years, and brining never came up. I may well try this in the future.
Worst part is I'm apparently allergic to turkey, but it's sooooo good. I just have to go easy on it, and skip the leftovers. Growing up we had ham most of the time, so I don't recall issues back then.
It took me close to 10 years of discomfort to finally realize the reason. After a few years of red and itchy hands the next day, I started wearing gloves to cleanup. Then a more years of gastro issues before I realized that it started on turkey day and lasted into Dec (when the leftovers were gone!), then back after Christmas turkey. Mr doctor just rolled his eyes when I made the connection, yet he had no answers over the years. I keep wondering if a free range, or other unprocessed bird might make a difference. A store roasted chicken can affect me, too. Anyone else have issues like this?
 
That is really odd, jleiii. Have you switched up a few of the other variables that might be served during these times that could cause this issue? Or is the leftovers you are referring to, just the turkey?

As for brining, mine dropped into the juice about 12 hours ago. Going to smoke it today (Friday). The wife and I took a one day vacation from the family to go gambling and I planned to have this turkey Saturday at my mother's. My first brined/smoked/me cooking it turkey EVER.
 
Finally got pics uploaded. Here's one with some of the stuff we had. Not pictured is my wife's mandarin orange salad with sour cream & crushed pineapple. Home made cranberry sauce & green bean casserole, dinner rolls, etc. That's my dampfbier V2 in the glass. Sage sausage in sage stuffing.:rockin: Turkey dripped juices when carved.
 
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