Dry Brined, Herb Rubbed, Oak Smoked Turkey. It. Was. Perfect.
Dry Brined, Herb Rubbed, Oak Smoked Turkey. It. Was. Perfect.
Nice, but it just makes me think "damn the lengths people will go to so the world's worst poultry tastes decent"
2No way, turkey is a lot tastier than chicken, it's just the commercial breeding/farming has taken the flavor out of everything in the US. Once you leve those boarders (or know small farmers) you find it has a very robust flavor compared to the frozen bowling balls currently on offer.
6Or just go turkey hunting, one of the most popular sports in the country. Wild turkey tastes worlds different than farmed.
Commercial farming is all about feeding as many people as possible for as cheap as possible. Not about taste or quality. That’s why you can get a turkey on sale for under $1 per pound, and even cheaper on sale after the holidays. I got two of them earlier this year after the new year for 27 cents per pound when they were trying to get rid of them.
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Wild turkey and/or small farm raised turkey is delicious. They’re smaller (this one was right about 10lbs), but they are significantly more flavorful.
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Looks delicious. How does the skin come out? I've heard it's rubbery, but never smoked one myself.
1If you do smoke it too low the skin can turn out rubbery. You’re looking for temps around 250-275° and raising it to about 350° for the last 30 minutes or so. I also pull the bird off the smoker at 158°, and I don’t tent it while resting.
Also, and this sounds counterintuitive, but five years (and about a dozen turkeys smoked) has proven it true: don’t baste. If you dry brine the turkey, basting it during cooking doesn’t make the meat juicier, it just makes the skin gummier. A dry brined, smoked turkey will be plenty juicy if not basted.
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Looks good enough to eat ;-)
But what I'm really waiting for are the applications for the "Deep Fried Turkey Failure of the Year" video.
1Looks fantastic. Need to try a turkey soon!
I'm a big fan of breaking the turkey down into white and dark meat, since they're done at different temps. Turchetta for the breast, deboned + stuffed for the leg quarters.
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