I decided I should smoker some turkeys for all the people that have helped me through this deer season. I bought 8 turkeys from the grocery store this morning. I have them soaking in water to thaw and probly desalinate the brine injected at the factory.. I plan on curing them this afternoon then smoking them tomorrow.. anything to keep from dealing with deer for a day!! 
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Just the fact that you can fit 4 birds in each sink is pretty impressive. Talk about a big kitchen :-) -
Neat idea.Comment
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I'm pretty sure I have the same brand of turkeys as the ones you have in the green and white bags.
The nutrition label says a 4 oz serving has 210 mg sodium. That's about half of the sodium that would be in the meat if you dry brined a plain bird. Using a dry brine of 1/2 tsp salt per pound would result in about 400 mg sodium per 4 oz serving.
So I think you could apply a half-strength dry brine to these "basted" birds even without soaking, and not be too salty,
At least that's what I'm going to do.
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That is an interesting way of looking at it!! I guess I never thought of it that way. Thanks for pointing that out. I am going to cure these on my vacuum tumbler though so I am figuring on using about 70 percent of the normal amount of salt that I would use in my ham or bacon cure. Then use the same amount of cure and other stuff.
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Cook a single first. If too salty after the cure resoak to desalination further.Comment
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This would be ideal!! However I don't have the time to do it that way,. This is just a hairbrained idea I had this morning because I am sick of cutting up deer. We have done 114 deer in the last two weeks with 15 more still hanging in the cooler. I have 6-7 thousand pounds of deer sausage to make in December so this has to get done today. Here goes nothing!!😁😁
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And here I am fussing over one 14# bird. LOL. One thing I make it a habit of is sourcing a fresh turkey, takes the guesswork out of the pre-brined ones. I prefer to wet brine on my own. Some of those pre-brined birds have up to 12% per volume. Leave the brining to me I say !!!
Good luck with the deer, that's pretty impressive stuff Backroadmeats !!Comment
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I would much prefer a turkey with nothing injected also but can't find one 🕠n my local store ,. I do live in the middle of no where too so that doesn't help. These one were pebrined at 9.5 %. So I will just use 70 percent of the normal amount of salt and see what happens. This is the first time using my vacuum tumbler to cure a turkey,. I am hoping it doesn't bust it up to much. I quit taking deer this weekend I am pretty sure if I filled the cooler again all my help would quit Monday!! -
Last year I ordered a turkey from my local butcher. Turns out when I go to pick it up it's none other than a Buttereball. So I start to complain, why the hell am I paying for this? Then he shows me it was fresh and never brined. I've you're really looking for one in the middle of nowhere you might want to check and see if they deliver fresh ones. I know Amazon through Whole Foods is doing so (can get a bit pricey however).
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Finally got time to smoke these turkeys.. lessons n learned about using a vacu tumbler for curing turkeys.. put them in ham bags or something,. Only 3 of the 8 remained whole through the process.. it took a nice color and is surprising almost not salty enough even though it was pre injected at the factory.. they are resting in the cooler right now waiting for the help to ce get their Thanksgiving meal!! Thankfully I only have a few helpers so they can pick out on that didn't fall apart!!Comment
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