Giving ‘em the bird

I was cleaning up last year’s photographs and remembered I meant to post this one.

The Thanksgiving bird.  22 pounds.  Brined overnight in my usual mixture of kosher salt, brown sugar, molasses, leftover coffee, cracked peppercorns and fresh rosemary.  Then rinsed off and smoked over mesquite for about 15 hours.  Ever since the leftovers ran out about a week after turkey-day the kids have been begging me to make another.

To pre-answer a couple questions:
1) No, the coffee/molasses/etc. does not come through strong at all.
2) The brining is the secret to keeping it moist and wonderful despite the long, slow (~210F degees) cooking time.
3) Cooking times vary quite a bit depending on outdoor temperature and wind cooling the smoker.
4) Next year I think I’ll take the wings off at about 4 or 5 hours—they were the one part that got overwhelminingly smokey and dry.
5) The smoked meat keeps about two weeks in the fridge (and far longer if frozen), far longer than a regular turkey.
6) I doubt we’ll ever bake another “traditional” turkey again.

Posted by 'mouse on 01/13 at 11:13 AM

  1. Kids schmids!  What about me?!

    Posted by Keith  on  01/13  at  02:02 PM

  2. That is one beautiful bird, and I love smoked turkey. However, brining is out for us, as my husband has to be on a very low-sodium diet.

    Although I was concerned about our 23.5 pound bird, we had no trouble finishing off the meat, as the free-range bird had heavier bones than your average butterball. Those big bones made for really lovely stock.

    Posted by Kimberly  on  01/14  at  11:03 PM

  3. Wow.  Your bird is the complete opposite of mine (dry rub, high heat, out of the oven in just over two hours), and while I love mine, there really is something to be said for a nice slow-smoked bird.  That’s just beautiful, ‘mouse.

    Go ahead and make another one, already.  Your kids deserve it, don’t they?

    (Note to Self:  Next year we are not having Czech Thanksgiving, which was great fun but was marked by a palpable lack of leftovers.  Buy the damn bird, already.  No, the workload of a first-year law student is no excuse.)

    Posted by Bakerina  on  01/17  at  10:48 AM
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