Early Fall Smoke of the "Wild Turkey" variety. w/Qview

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coloradosmoke

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 12, 2009
21
10
So, I have a co-worker that is a big hunter and he asked me the next time I fired up the smoker if I could smoke a couple or three wild turkey breasts that he had in the freezer. I was excited to try a different brine from what I had tried in the past.  My brine consisted of brown sugar, apple juice, kosher salt, and maple syrup.  Here is my Qview of my smoke.  Enjoy!!!

Three Turkey Breasts, washed and cleaned...

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Ready to mix up the brine...

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Bird in the brine overnight....

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Ready for some rub, gonna fill up the smoker with three racks of BB and a small ham.  Jeff's rub on ham, BB's and two of the

turkey breasts, I have another buddy from way back that has this his own blackening rub for wings, so that is going on one of

the breasts. Check him out at DrOp dEaD ReD  http://bestwingsauce.com/

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Rubbed up, the blackening rub is on the breast in the upper right corner (has a darker red to it)...

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Turkey breasts wrapped in bacon to keep them moist in the smoker...

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I forgot to snap a pic of everything in the smoker....duh!!  Oh well, BB's went with the 2-2-1 method, pulled the ham at the same time as the turkey breasts once they hit an IT of 140. (just a little over 4 hours).  Smoking temp of 225.

(This is where the picture should be of the loaded smoker. Ha!)

Left and middle are with Jeff's rub and the one on the right is with the blackening rub...

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Ribs done...

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A well balanced meal...Ha!!

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So, the turkey breasts went to work and and I presented the smoked breasts to "Hunter Mark", he wrapped one of the breasts up to take home and left the other two (one with Jeff's rub and the other with blackening rub) out for our fellow co-workers to snack on....  That's a joke!!!

...and the vultures attacked!!!

bc31bf97_TurkeyScraps.jpg


As you can see everyone like them.

All in all, they turned out pretty well, I still think they were on the dry side, so I need to figure that piece out.
 
Looks really good. Especially the wild turkey breasts.

Maybe next time you might try injecting them instead of brining. Then the rub.

Ain't sure, but someone will be along to let ya know that really knows.

Happy Smokin'

Mike
 
Looking good there. You said they were a tad dry. That is usually the challenge when you are cooking with wild meat  as it is usually very lean compared to commercially purchased meat. Wrapping it in bacon usually helps like you did but maybe an injection or other methods could help you out. Its usually a challenge until you figure out what you like. Looks like it went pretty quick so I wouldn't be to worried. We are usually our worst critic. If  people don't get smoked food very often and they like it they usually rave about it even though we may think it isn't up to our standards. Looks like you did very well.
 
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It All looks great !!!!

I agree---As much as I usually avoid injecting, wild meat can often use it.

It's so much better for you though, because it isn't all plumped up & full of antibiotics.

LOL---I would have been happy with the Bacon you had wrapped around the breasts!!!!  
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Thanks for showing,

Bear
 
I'd eat that in a heart beat... and then eat some more....

I love the smokey flavor of Wild Turkey....
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 ...

Anyone ever use a larding needle on wild meat ??? I been thinking of gettin' one for just that purpose....  Dave
 
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I use caul fat to wrap lean meats in before going in woodfired oven,regular oven & now my MES. I recently used it on a chunk of water buffalo which I  posted,I use it to wrap kangaroo after I  sear it then finish it in the oven. Age old method,it doesnt have a lot of flavour itself,& it keeps things really moist.You can do it part way through cooking process if you want more smoke contact with meat surface first.

Ive seen it used in Italy & France especially "up country" they wrap terrines in it all sorts of stuff. My butcher still uses it to do specialty things so I get it from him.
 
Ive seen larding needles on tv,havent used one but wouldnt you get same effect by just poking hole with skewer,then putting some lard or lard combo in.Say rosemary,garlic,kidney fat or even rendered duck fat. Last attempt with butchers needle was to attempt to sew up my version of zampone,my skin softer than pigs!
 
well, thanks, I totally WANT SOME RIBS NOW.  
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never had a shot at wild turkey, I bet it's good.  Never smoked the breast by itself either; they're hard enough to keep moist when it's a whole bird, I can't imagine doing them solo.  The bacon's a good start, I always cover our Thanksgiving turkey with it when it goes on the grill.

tried brining a couple times, it didn't impress me as being worth the effort.

I gotta get better about the QView thing, y'all are really good with it.
 
Just inject it's sooo much quicker.When you inject pull your needle half way out and go back into the same hole at diffrent angles to spread the flavor.Stuff i inject  have spices on the inside .Just make sure you have a fine power that you mix with your liquid.A brine will never get spices inside of the meat tissue.Here a yard bird i injected.http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/109632/whole-chicken
 
Do you also brine it then or just inject?
 
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