Turkey is in the brine!

[Mills]

How long did you guys brine for? I think my wife went 12 hours this year.

Mills

[snowcapt]

I usually go about 36 hours. Same brine for pork butt, chicken, and turkey.

[Dr. Bubra]

Mornin BN

I'm ready to do some cookin! Got a duck & 2 pheasant still brining from last night. Duck will get a port wine, dijon mustard & garlic baste. Pheasants will get a white wine, tangerine, honey & thyme baste. All 3 will be slow roasted in the folks' weber kettle! My lady's makin potato salad, kale greens with shallots, and roasted corn on the cob tossed in butter, crumbled feta & fresh mint (the corn is insanely tasty, try it sometime. You will wonder where it's been all your life). Mom's makin a savory herbed rice with dried cranberries and sausage cornbread stuffing as well as the clincher...lobster tails...damn Ma!

For dessert Mom made both sweet potato & pumpkin pies, and yesterday I churned out some homemade vanilla bean & salted caramel swirl ice cream to go with them. Dad? Well, Dad will just drink beer & watch football... Ufortunately, no homebrew this Turkey Day. Then again it's a no turkey Turkey Day over here as well! Good thing is we got plenty of beer, cider, bourbon & limoncello to keep the night (and day) plenty warm.

From all of us up here at Redwood Manor, Happy Thanksgiving BN! Wishing you & your loved ones all the best.
Dr. B

[Ozwald]

How long did you guys brine for? I think my wife went 12 hours this year.

Mills

I go about 24, sometimes a little longer. I'm really sensitive to sodium so I halved the amount in the Paxton recipe. I did try full amount with a shorter brine (12ish), but it was still too salty for my taste & the beer didn't come through at all.

[mike____]

Did 24 hrs for a 23 lb bird. Turned out very good. Had to double the volume of brine as the bucket I have was too big, and I went a little lighter on the salt (about 3 c for 4 gals of brine).

[DannyW]

I did Alton Brown's brined roasted turkey again this year. Thought I would be clever and cook it on the grill to leave the oven for the wife to do casseroles and such. Even with all 4 grill burners on high thermometer only read 325 and I needed 500F. WTF? Eventually decided the dial thermometer I was using was wack and it must be hot enough so I put the turkey in for its 30 min high temp browning.

6 minutes later the turkey and drip pan were on fire. I was afraid the fire extinguisher would ruin the bird totally so tried a half box of baking soda first and thank goodness that worked.

After resetting everything I decided the skin was quite brown enough and I could switch to 350F for the remainder of the cooking. Found out 2 burners on their lowest setting gave about 350F. WTF? 4 burners on full only gave 325F! Then the light came on and I figured out the thermometer from before was not messed up, it was working fine and had spun all the way around past max and then back around to 325F. Wild guess is that grill was 750F.

Eventually the thermometer told me 161F, we rested, cut, served, and it was tasty and moist. I discarded the wing with baking soda all over it.

[spiderwrangler]

I got 2 hearts!

One in the package and one just sitting in the cavity.
That's gotta be a good sign...

Time Lord Turkey?

[PorkSlapper]

I did Alton Brown's brined roasted turkey again this year.

I followed his recipe for deep frying my turkey. I added a 22oz of Irish death, from Iron horse brewery to the brine. Turkey was in the brine for 16 hours and deep fried for 50 minutes. Came out amazing!