All Natural - Minimally Processed Turkey

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thadius65

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Aug 2, 2007
94
13
Well, I sent the Misses out to get "my" turkey breast today for my first attempt at smoking one. It is one of three (two are full blown 25lb turkeys), so no pressure.

Anyways, I asked her to get a minimally processed turkey, which she did. On the back, it indicates that it "contains up to 15% basting solution".. So much for minimally.. Now what? Should I brine or not. It is frozen and in the process of fridge thaw (no fresh non-frozen around).

Thanks for the help.

Ted
 
Ted -

You do have the option of setting it in plain water to reduce some of the salt and starting over to some degree.

If I were you I'd do a very light salt brine and just add your spices for a few hours or * just skip the brine and go straight to injecting!
 
thad.........i am doing as debi suggested RIGHT NOW...........

deb sez soak for a hour of two.....which i am doing........i will let drain for abit..........flush well, to make sure all blood and such is rinsed off.......my thawed turkey had lots of blood in the plastic wrap........so watch for that when you open it..........

as i said........rinse well after pulling it outta the water.......drain a bit......then stick in brine...........but as deb mention.........use only half of the salt recommended in your brine recipe.......its easy to add salt to the meat when its on your plate........hard to make you piece of turkey UN salty

hth

d88de
 
Thanks for the advise. Will give it a shot. Was hoping to brine in a cooler outside tomorrow night, but it is going to be 47 degrees, so a bit warm. Have to drink some beer to make room I guess....
PDT_Armataz_01_29.gif


Ted
 
A 15% solution already...just do an injection of any additional flavors ya want...soaking in apple cider will add a nice touch as well...any fancy rub you put the bird will only help the skin...won't do anything for the flavor of the bird itself...
 
If your sensitive to salt you can remove some by soaking in plain water. Don't you just hate paying for 15% extra water?
 
vulcan.......even if you DON"T soak to get the salt out......its STILL a waterlogged bird.......15% water ADDED.......already sounds waterlogged



d88de
 
Think I am going to let it thaw in fridge tonight, soak in water all day tomorrow til about 4pm. Then get into an apple based soak of some sort. Juice and/or cider (sorta like Dutch's) all night, then smoke on Thanksgiving morning.. Apple/black cherry wood mix...
PDT_Armataz_01_36.gif
 
Is that what you think...that all they add to the bird is salt??? read the label...it doesn't say 15% water added...or 15% salt added..it usually says .. a flavoring enhancing solution..which I'm sure contains a % of salt..as well as other flavorings they surly aren't going to tell you what they are... all trade secrets...you can't sit there and tell me that before you ever got into smoking that you never did a turkey in the oven and wished you had soaked the thing in water, because it came out too salty... or wasn't moist enough..how many do you think they would sell next year????
I must say, that I am in no way connected with any store/ turkey brand/ or anything else...just trying to add a little logic to the whole dilemma...of brine or not to brine...
If it has an 8% or above solution already...do an injection to add any more flavor ya want...
Don't want to start a war here...just adding my $.4.1/2 opinion on the matter..
 
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