Cured?? I didn't even know it was sick...

[nate_46]

Well I wanted to try curing and smoking a full turkey. I got the idea from Rytek Kutas book. I had a turkey in the freezer for over a year so what better piece to try it out on? I thawed it out in the refrigerator for a week and then made a brine of TQ, white sugar, brown sugar, onion powder and garlic powder. In the turkey went for 6 days. I pulled the turkey let it dry for a day and pulled it out this morning to smoke.

Here's the patient pulled from the brine, washed and skin pulled from the breast.

I melted a stick of butter and mixed in pepper, thyme, Sage, Basil, and onion powder. Put the bowl in the freezer for a few minutes to make a paste. The paste was then put under the skin as deep as I could go.

Here she is rubbed with canola oil and dusted with seasonal so it wasn't nekkid.

Of course I couldn't leave her alone, so I prepared a bird of prey (chicken) with salt and pepper for a snack.

And finally on the smoker for the duration.

I should get a better picture of the smoker when the sun passes over the house. I found out that my snp likes to cruise at 300 degrees. First time smoking at that temp.

Thank you for looking and more to come.

 

[richtee]

Yer gonna like that boid. :{)

 

[beer-b-q]

Good Luck and keep us posted...

 

[nate_46]

Three hours in and I pulled the chicken. No qview cause the camera was no where to be found. Found it and snapped a shot of the turkey and the sausage I threw on an hour ago.

I'll get a pick of the bird of prey when it is finished resting.

 

[pops6927]

Looks delicious! Was it a nice ham/turkey flavor?

 

[nate_46]

Only at 147 degrees. The chicken was pulled and resting. Can't wait to answer your question. It's okay to have a before dinner snack right?

 

[irishteabear]

Looking good.

Of course it's ok to have a before dinner snack, lol.

 

[mballi3011]

Everything is looking sooo very good. That turkey looks great nice and tanned cann't wait till the finishing Q comes out.

 

[nate_46]

Well everything is off, and boy am I full. I started to slice the meat off the turkey, but that didn't work too well. It was so tender that it would just fall apart. I think that I might of cooked it a little long. I pulled it at 165, but I must of had the probe too close to the keel bone. Either way it real good.

The breast was a little dry, but not that bad. The dark meat was absolutely heaven. It had a distinct hammy flavor (in a turkey sort of way). The breast meat tasted similar, but not as strong. I will be doing this every once in a while fer sure.

Didn't even unwrap the chicken. It went directly in the freezer for later. I might even give it to a coworker (cousin) just for kicks. I know he really likes smoked chicken, but thinks its too hard to prepare.

The sausage was great. i ate a quarter of it before dinner. Just couldn't keep my hands off of it. Anyway, here are a couple of the finished pictures. There aren't too many cause I wanted to hurry up and eat and after dinner I was too full to get off the couch.

Here is the turkey, mostly pulled. The white meat just fell apart.

My wife made some instant potatoes and instant stuffing. Wish I had the real thing, but I felt too tired (lazy) to cook them myself.

Can you tell I like gravy. By the way I cracked open the Sweet Baby Ray's Raspberry Chipotle Barbecue Sauce today, and man it is good. Everyone has to try it. It is one of my new favorites.

Thank you for following me on my quest.

 

[benjaminr]

wow that looks fan-freaking-tastic!

 

[bassman]

Good looking turkey! Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[wutang]

Looks good from here too. Nice looking bird.

 

[ronp]

Good job Nate. I guess you DO like gravy, lol.