ERD - do you have a good brining method/recipe you can share? Been thinking about trying this, but had never seen it done nor heard of it before.
Oh, BTW, smoky turkey gravy is actually pretty good as long as it is not oversmoked...then it can be nasty.
R
Here is what we have been doing, refining the technique over the past 5 years. This is a combination of the Alton Brown and Cooks Illustrated processes. Alton called for vegetable broth for the brine, which is big bucks for gallons of stuff you throw out. I wasn't convinced it made any difference, but we stuck with the spice/sugar combo and plain water and Kosher Salt. They say you can cut the salt in half and brine overnight, 10-12 hours - but since we put the bird in the oven @ 1PM, this would mean brining at 1AM the night before - rather do it in the AM.
25# bird, so 4 gallons to assure we can cover, I use a big garbage bag and set in a cooler lined with some blue ice things or frozen water bottles to take up space so the bird is covered.
5 C Kosher Salt
2 TB Peppercorns
1 TB Allspice berries
1 TB Candied Ginger
1C Brown Sugar
The night before, bring salt and spice to boil in 1 gallon water. Let cool overnight.
Add 3 Gallons iced water to turkey in double bags (13G) in cooler. Turn after 3 hours.< don't ask how much of that is ice, they didn't say, and I just do a 'good amount' - probably 3-4 trays worth? >
After brine; rinse the turkey in and out and pat dry.
4 TB butter on bird
1 cup onion, celery, carrot, some thyme in pan w 1C water; bring to boil, drain, add to Bird
425F first hour; 325F 2 hours, breast up;
Foil over breast when turned down to 325. Take foil off when meat hits 145F
165F breast; 170 thigh - rest 40 minutes.
Took about 3.5 hours to reach temperature, then 40 minute rest. That thing is still too hot to handle after 40 min!
It always comes out very moist, there is some salt in the meat, but I don't find it to be too salty at all, and I am not a big salt user - can't stand most processed foods, even the 50% less salt stuff is pushing it for me.
Here was last year's rough target schedule:
Guest to arrive 3:30; DW wants to serve 4:30 - 5:00, so turkey out at 4:00 - 4:30; Plan to get Turkey in @ 1:00.
Need to get Turkey out of Brine @ ~ 12:30; half hour to rinse, pat dry and butter. 4.5 Hour Brine, so IN Brine @ 8AM
-ERD50
. 5 people.
