# Skinless wild turkey



## marcj (Apr 20, 2021)

This year I bow shot a wild turkey and since I didn't have a lot of time to pluck, I skinned the bird out whole.  Now I'm wondering what the best way to smoke it might be?  Should I cover the bird in bacon to preserve moisture?  What temp? How long?  Thanks for your supportive input!


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## Wurstmeister (Apr 20, 2021)

Welcome to the SMF Marc.  Take a look at the search feature - upper right.  There is a *LOT *of information on the SMF ~446 hits for this topic in this Forum alone identified in Goggle! Here is one of them to get you to that thread.  Hope it helps. 

First Whole Wild Turkey and Whold Breast | Smoking Meat Forums - The Best Barbecue Discussion Forum On Earth!

John


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## SmokinVOLfan (Apr 20, 2021)

With no skin I don't think you could go wrong covering it in bacon to preserve the moisture. Might also consider a brine. Check out Tips slaughterhouse brine for poultry. Very good. I prefer to spatchcock my birds for a faster cook time at a higher temp around 300-325. But then again that is with the skin on. You might can do a longer cook at a lower temp if you brine or inject without drying it out.


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## rc4u (Apr 21, 2021)

i usually skin one of my geese and pluck the other. with no skin it will absorb more smoke so i wrap it after it looks good. i know raised geese have more fat ,and when shot wild turkey its very lean. so its just a thought. and i do brine..


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## tallbm (Apr 21, 2021)

marcj said:


> This year I bow shot a wild turkey and since I didn't have a lot of time to pluck, I skinned the bird out whole.  Now I'm wondering what the best way to smoke it might be?  Should I cover the bird in bacon to preserve moisture?  What temp? How long?  Thanks for your supportive input!


Hi there and welcome!!!
Congrats on the wild turkey, I wish I could snag me one while hunting but the seasons don't exactly line up well or when they do I don't have turkey's I can take come around.

With that said I've never cooked a wild turkey but have cooked many turkeys and chickens without skin.

#1 I highly recommend you wet brine using an equilibrium brine so you cant go wrong.  An equilibrium brine ensures you never get too salty

#2 With the equilibrium brine liquid mixed up I highly recommend you inject that brine into all of the turkey especially all into the breast deep down and all over

#3 Smoke it anyway you like until it hits about 162F deep in the breast, it should coast up to 165F provided you put the probes in properly.  You can go any temp you like but I think the faster the better to avoid prolonged moisture loss due to less time exposed cooking.
If you are going to wrap with bacon I would suggest you do a smoker temp of 325F+ so that the bacon can maybe get crispy but should be edible.

That's the info I have.  Let us know if you would like to know more about an equilibrium brine.  Once you learn what/how to do one you can brine and wet cure any meat with confidence and no risk of ever being too salty or worrying about going too long with the brine time :)


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## marcj (Apr 21, 2021)

tallbm said:


> Hi there and welcome!!!
> Congrats on the wild turkey, I wish I could snag me one while hunting but the seasons don't exactly line up well or when they do I don't have turkey's I can take come around.
> 
> With that said I've never cooked a wild turkey but have cooked many turkeys and chickens without skin.
> ...


Thanks for input!  I am not familiar with an "equilibrium brine" but I'd like to learn more about it!


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## tallbm (Apr 21, 2021)

marcj said:


> Thanks for input!  I am not familiar with an "equilibrium brine" but I'd like to learn more about it!



Equilibrium brine is where you take the weight of the water.  You take the weight of meat.
Add them together and convert to something simple like grams or ounces (grams is way easier to do math with).

Then with chicken and turkey I recommend like 1.8% or 2% salt.

So 1000gm of turkey breast and water weight doing a 2% salt equilibrium means you put 20gm of salt.  (1000gm x .02 = 20gm).

You dissolve the salt into the water.  Add the meat (turkey in this case) and you can brine it for 24+ hours and never worry about it getting too salty because there is never more than 2% salt evening out amongst the water and meat.
Salt wants to distribute evenly.

Simple equilibrium brine for ya.  
Just remember the magic of it all is that you will never have more than 2% of salt in your meat in this case no matter how long you brine it.  Depending on the meat (fish) I may go down to 1.8%.
If I add cure#1 to the brine for curing I go down to 1.8% as well since cure#1 is also salt.

Let me know if any of this makes sense :)


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