Ugh. This is turning out horribly. So. I buy the turkey on Monday. It's a farm fresh turkey, never frozen. Immediately I stick it in my fridge. Today sneaks up on me and I start reading on how to brine the turkey. I decided to use the slaughterhouse brine since it works for everyone else. I though I had every ingredient except the Tony Chachere's cajun seasoning so I think to myself, I can take the long way home around the Baltimore beltway and hit horrible traffic. I manage to get to Wegmans in 35 minutes. This a 15 minute trip from work. Unfamiliar with Wegmans, I asked a number of employees for the seasoning. Of course, none of them have ever heard of it. They couldn't find it even though the product is on their website. Ok, back on the road through the same holiday traffic. Another 25 minutes takes me to the Giant in Rosedale. A little bit down the street from home. I search and the closest thing I could find was Zatarains. So I say, it shouldn't be that bad. I start looking for a line and every line is packed. I get to an express line and wait as people get checked out. Finally one person in front of me and of course they got the wrong product so everyone had to wait until she got back. I saw what was happening so I got out of that line and moved to another line. Lucky me picks a line with another issue. So after waiting for another 10 minutes and seeing people that were standing behind me being checked out, I give up and put the zatarains back on the shelf. After that, I go home, drop off the girlfriend and pick up my car. Head back out to a grocery store right down the street and there lies the Tony Chachere's waiting the whole time.
So I get home and realized I don't have anything large enough to hold my turkey while it's being brined. I run out to target looking for something large enough to hold my brine. More stressed workers give no help. So I buy a turkey fry. It has a 30qt pot.
So I get it home, start with 4 cups of water in a small saucepan and add the salt, sugar, cajun seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder then start looking for celery seed. Nope. None to be found. So back out to the grocery store I go. That's only a 5 minute trip.
So I add the celery seed and a little bit of cayenne for some heat. Bring the saucepan to a good simmer. I start to get my 30qt stockpot to 3 gallons, just eyeballing. I figured 30qts is 7.5 gallons, if I needed 3 gallons, just fill it up less than half way. So, I fill it up half way, add the saucepot and a bunch of ice to get the temp below 40. I pull the turkey out to get ready to add it to the stockpot, open it up and am overwhelmed with the stench of rotten fowl. Yep. The turkey is spoiled.
So i run out and buy a frozen turkey. Drop it in the stockpot and submerge it by placing the small saucepan.
Questions, the new turkey that I bought is 16 lbs. Is there any chance of it thawing by tomorrow morning? Also, is the bring going to work? IS there any safety issues that I should be worried about?
I plan on smoking this tomorrow....if possible.
So I get home and realized I don't have anything large enough to hold my turkey while it's being brined. I run out to target looking for something large enough to hold my brine. More stressed workers give no help. So I buy a turkey fry. It has a 30qt pot.
So I get it home, start with 4 cups of water in a small saucepan and add the salt, sugar, cajun seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder then start looking for celery seed. Nope. None to be found. So back out to the grocery store I go. That's only a 5 minute trip.
So I add the celery seed and a little bit of cayenne for some heat. Bring the saucepan to a good simmer. I start to get my 30qt stockpot to 3 gallons, just eyeballing. I figured 30qts is 7.5 gallons, if I needed 3 gallons, just fill it up less than half way. So, I fill it up half way, add the saucepot and a bunch of ice to get the temp below 40. I pull the turkey out to get ready to add it to the stockpot, open it up and am overwhelmed with the stench of rotten fowl. Yep. The turkey is spoiled.
So i run out and buy a frozen turkey. Drop it in the stockpot and submerge it by placing the small saucepan.
Questions, the new turkey that I bought is 16 lbs. Is there any chance of it thawing by tomorrow morning? Also, is the bring going to work? IS there any safety issues that I should be worried about?
I plan on smoking this tomorrow....if possible.