I volunteered to do the bird for Thanksgiving this year and wanted to do a practice run. So my wife got the neighbors together for a Friendsgiving at our place.
I got a frozen 16.3lb turkey. It had been processed with an 8% solution. I debated whether or not to dry brine and decided to go for it.
After thawing, I dry brined with 8tsp of salt for 14 hours. Rubbed the turkey with olive oil and my own rub:
I lit using a 15-10-10. When I hung the turkey, I threw a good handful of apple wood chips on.
I placed the thigh probe very badly and the readings were a good 30 degrees higher than the breast probe for the entire cook. At around 2.5 hours, I pulled the thigh probe and just used it to monitor the barrel. From that time on, the probe showed between 290-310.
At the 4 hour mark or so, even though the breast probe was reading 150, I went and checked temp with an instant read. It was showing 160-ish in the breast and 170-ish in the thigh. I pulled the bird and wrapped in a couple layers of foil, then a bath towel and put it in the faux cambro. It ended up resting in there for 3 hours or so and was still hot when I took it out to carve!
The turkey was fantastic! My wife who is very salt-sensitive said that it wasn't too salty. Personally, I think that the dry brine was necessary but I can probably reduce it by about 1/4. It was very moist and smokey. The dark meat was tender, but the breast seemed a tiny bit overdone. Not dry, but the texture wasn't 100%.
Next time, I am going to work on probe placement, check temp a little earlier and pull just shy of 160 in the breast and let carryover in the cambro take it the rest of the way. Great first try.
I got a frozen 16.3lb turkey. It had been processed with an 8% solution. I debated whether or not to dry brine and decided to go for it.
After thawing, I dry brined with 8tsp of salt for 14 hours. Rubbed the turkey with olive oil and my own rub:
- 1 part each of: Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Dried Parsley, Dried Thyme, Rosemary Powder, Rubbed Sage
- .5 part white sugar
I lit using a 15-10-10. When I hung the turkey, I threw a good handful of apple wood chips on.
I placed the thigh probe very badly and the readings were a good 30 degrees higher than the breast probe for the entire cook. At around 2.5 hours, I pulled the thigh probe and just used it to monitor the barrel. From that time on, the probe showed between 290-310.
At the 4 hour mark or so, even though the breast probe was reading 150, I went and checked temp with an instant read. It was showing 160-ish in the breast and 170-ish in the thigh. I pulled the bird and wrapped in a couple layers of foil, then a bath towel and put it in the faux cambro. It ended up resting in there for 3 hours or so and was still hot when I took it out to carve!
The turkey was fantastic! My wife who is very salt-sensitive said that it wasn't too salty. Personally, I think that the dry brine was necessary but I can probably reduce it by about 1/4. It was very moist and smokey. The dark meat was tender, but the breast seemed a tiny bit overdone. Not dry, but the texture wasn't 100%.
Next time, I am going to work on probe placement, check temp a little earlier and pull just shy of 160 in the breast and let carryover in the cambro take it the rest of the way. Great first try.
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