Turkey Brine

[MrBlue]

Being in tune with the festive season, can anyone post a good Turkey brine recipe please??

[keith157]

Here are a selection from the Good Food Network.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/deleg ... ype=recipe

[derekmiller]

http://virtualweberbullet.com/turkey6.html

is my favourite one.

[MrBlue]

cheers chaps - will check them out!

[slatts]

hi all

is a brine a must or can a turkey just be smoked, I wanted to do one xmas day (always think of turkey as dry) and thought it might be better smoked but my bbq fridge has just died and I don't really have room in our kitchen fridge for a turkey in brine.
would injecting it be just as good for flavour and moistness?

the way its going at the moment it might be for next year due to a house of flu and the wife has flu and sickness, I wanted to do one before xmas but looking after 2 and 4 yr old boys I haven't even got to a shop yet

any thoughts would be appreciated

slatts

[Chris__M]

For the past few years, I've smoked a turkey crown without brining, having asked the same question here in 2010.

The first year I cut the skin back, and covered the breast in bacon. Subsequent years, I have simply put butter under the skin. Both methods gave excellent results.

I'm actually with friends for Christmas and Boxing Day this year, but I still like a bit of turkey. I'm planning to leave it until after Christmas, and see if I can get a bargain.

[slatts]

Ive just popped round my mums and she has brought a turkey for me, its a self basting one though.

so........
is it a problem smoking a self basting turkey
does it not need brining now
would anyone put a rub on the turkey?????

any thoughts

thanks

[Toby]

I dont brine or inject..... like living on the edge

[slatts]

aaah but do you dry rub your turkey

[smokeyBandit]

I had a crack at a turkey a couple of weeks ago in prep for christmas day.

I used a self basting turkey and injected it with butter, also did an underskin rub, i did this on a pro q excel and made a basic stock with some herbs water and veg, which I placed on the rack under the turkey to collect the juices.

The turkey cooked extremely well and was very moist.

I used cherry wood, but didn't find this complimented the turkey very well for my pallet, anyone else have any recommendations on wood type for this?

Also word of warning if you are doing this for the first time, chicken/turkey drink smoke so its really easy to oversmoke.

I used about 2oz of chunks which seemed a good balance