So the week before Thanksgiving I sought advice from the wise pitmembers. Is there a difference between brands of frozen Turkeys. My hypothesis was that the more expensive brands like butterball were more injected and therefore more forgiving for the inexperienced cook who overcooks the bird. While I did get much good advice from my fellow pitmembers, I decided to leave this one up to science. When I told my daughter about my science experiment she asked if I was going to get a backboard and glue pictures to it. Lol
The showdown was between Butterball ($0.97/lb) and Honeysuckle ($0.67/lb). I was not able to include meijer brand ($0.37/lb) due to capacity on the cooker. The following info was noted on each label.
Butterball: 12.72 lb, containing up to 8% solution of water, salt, spices, and natural flavor. (What is natural flavor and how does it differ from salt, water, or spiced? No wonder most on the Pitt told me to get fresh all natural organic)
Honeysuckle: 12.63 lb, containing up to 9% broth, salt, sugar, and natural flavoring. (Again with natural flavoring...)
I purchased both on Sat morning and let the in the fridge until Tuesday evening. Both were still a little frozen in the middle. I spatchcocked both birds and dry brined with 1/2 cup of salt and left uncovered in the fridge. I did not break the honeysuckle breast so it would fit on the baking sheet.
Butterball on the white platter, honeysuckle on the baking sheet. Those pics are actually Wed after sitting in fridge uncovered.
Wed evening I made a spice rub with everything but the kitchen sink. I dry rubbed under the skin and made a paste with olive oil to rub on the skin.
Same Turkeys on same trays.
Thanksgiving day. Dinner at parents at 530. But I had to go to my girlfriend's grandma's for a different dinner at 1. I knew I would be cutting it close, but these were under 13 lb birds and I spatchcocked them. I got back home shortly after 2 a d immediately started up my pitboss pellet smoker set to 300 degrees. In s hurry I forgot to inject until they were on the smoker so I injected each equally with a garlic herb injection.
Butterball on the left honeysuckle on the right. Oops I was in too much of a hurry to break the honeysuckle breast. 1st possible variance.
I then learned that there is a significant temperature gradient across the smoker. The left probe was consistently 50 deg hotter than the right so I switched sides midway through the cook. I also know that the middle heat shield is directly over the fire so it radiates and the thighs positioned over it cooked faster than the others. Luckily switching halfway through the cook evened that out.
For the last 30 min or so I cranked it up to 450 deg to crisp up the skin. This made the honeysuckle that was on the right cook a little faster than the butterball. The thighs were also cooking much faster. They were at 170 already and the breast was only at 145. So I seperated them and stuck the breast over that middle hotter section and the thighs far off to the sides. The honeysuckle was done about 20 min earlier than the butterball. (Another variance) so I tented with foil while waiting on the butterball.
Honeysuckle
Butterball
I brought both the turkeys to my parents and carved about 30 min after taking off the butterball. Sorry no pics of the carved product.
The general consensus was that they were both very good and there wasn't much of a difference but Butterball might be a tad more juicy. I agreed that they were even but thought butterball was a bit juicier but honeysuckle had a tad better flavor.
My conclusion was there isn't much of a difference and it is possible that the fact that the honeysuckle sat 20 extra minutes than the butterball could had played a role in butterball being more juicy.
The showdown was between Butterball ($0.97/lb) and Honeysuckle ($0.67/lb). I was not able to include meijer brand ($0.37/lb) due to capacity on the cooker. The following info was noted on each label.
Butterball: 12.72 lb, containing up to 8% solution of water, salt, spices, and natural flavor. (What is natural flavor and how does it differ from salt, water, or spiced? No wonder most on the Pitt told me to get fresh all natural organic)
Honeysuckle: 12.63 lb, containing up to 9% broth, salt, sugar, and natural flavoring. (Again with natural flavoring...)
I purchased both on Sat morning and let the in the fridge until Tuesday evening. Both were still a little frozen in the middle. I spatchcocked both birds and dry brined with 1/2 cup of salt and left uncovered in the fridge. I did not break the honeysuckle breast so it would fit on the baking sheet.
Wed evening I made a spice rub with everything but the kitchen sink. I dry rubbed under the skin and made a paste with olive oil to rub on the skin.
Same Turkeys on same trays.
Thanksgiving day. Dinner at parents at 530. But I had to go to my girlfriend's grandma's for a different dinner at 1. I knew I would be cutting it close, but these were under 13 lb birds and I spatchcocked them. I got back home shortly after 2 a d immediately started up my pitboss pellet smoker set to 300 degrees. In s hurry I forgot to inject until they were on the smoker so I injected each equally with a garlic herb injection.
I then learned that there is a significant temperature gradient across the smoker. The left probe was consistently 50 deg hotter than the right so I switched sides midway through the cook. I also know that the middle heat shield is directly over the fire so it radiates and the thighs positioned over it cooked faster than the others. Luckily switching halfway through the cook evened that out.
For the last 30 min or so I cranked it up to 450 deg to crisp up the skin. This made the honeysuckle that was on the right cook a little faster than the butterball. The thighs were also cooking much faster. They were at 170 already and the breast was only at 145. So I seperated them and stuck the breast over that middle hotter section and the thighs far off to the sides. The honeysuckle was done about 20 min earlier than the butterball. (Another variance) so I tented with foil while waiting on the butterball.
Butterball
I brought both the turkeys to my parents and carved about 30 min after taking off the butterball. Sorry no pics of the carved product.
The general consensus was that they were both very good and there wasn't much of a difference but Butterball might be a tad more juicy. I agreed that they were even but thought butterball was a bit juicier but honeysuckle had a tad better flavor.
My conclusion was there isn't much of a difference and it is possible that the fact that the honeysuckle sat 20 extra minutes than the butterball could had played a role in butterball being more juicy.
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