What to use to brine a turkey?

Brined it last night. Started at 7pm. Used 2 gallons water, 2 cups of kosher salt, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of Tony C. creole seasoning. Took it out of the brine at 9am. Washed the turkey off, dried it off. Put it in the fridge to dry out. I am plan on taking it out around 1pm (probably should have it out of the brine in the fridge longer). Then putting on a rub of black pepper, garlic and more creole seasoning. I am also going to stuff some orange slices inside and tie the legs together....

I am taking pictures, will have to upload them later.
 
The new jumbo ziploc bags are fantastic to use too.

We have the luxury of having two refrigerators. If it is a 20lb bird, I have a huge stainless steel stock pot that will handle it. I can rearrange the shelves in the 2nd fridge to put it in there for two or three days.

They recommend stainless or plastic containers only. Do not brine it in an aluminum stock pot. It needs to be a non-reactive vessel.
 
Question about the recipes on these websites:

Are the recipes for one gallon of brine each? If I need three gallons do I need to triple the amount of whatever ingredients it calls for?
 
They recommend putting the bird in a pot or container and then filling it with water until the water is completely submerged. That is the amount of water you need. I bought a 11 pound turkey and 2 gallons was right. I used 2 cups kosher salt, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup of Tony C. creole seasoning.
 
Put my turkey in the brine this morning. Used a Home Depot bucket, filled up with water, salt, and sugar. Stirred until the salt and sugar dissolved. Added turkey and put a bowl on top upside down to keep turkey from floating to top. Placed in fridge.

I will take out tonight after 12 hours in brine, and let sit overnight in pan in fridge.

12 pound turkey. I plan on smoking 3-3 1/2 hours in pan on pit. Plan on using oak and smoking at 300 degrees. I will post pics once I'm done.

Does anyone use a rub on their turkey? I was thinking just some salt and pepper.
 
This was the first year I was going to attempt a traditional turkey meal for Christmas. After reading this thread and other I decided brining was the way to go.

I found a recipe, bought my ingredients, and away I went. I brined my turkey for 24 hours. Let it set for 8 hours before cooking it this morning. I used a brining recipe that was on here to I was ready to follow the directions this morning.

The family wakes up, eat breakfast, open gifts and off to cook the turkey I go. Stuff turkey with said ingredients bought earlier and in the oven it goes. After one hour I rotate the turkey and its looking good. Hour two comes and the basting continues.

Hour 2 1/2, cell phone rings (I cringe) its probably just friends and family calling to wish me and my family Merry Christmas. I mean who uses home phones anymore. I pick up the phone, look at the caller ID and ****, its the boss. My wife can tell by the look on my face its not good. I pause because he called me last Christmas to wish me a Merry Christmas and even though I told him that was not funny and not to do it this year maybe he is trying to be funny. I answer and the tone in is voice is serious:

Sgt: "Detective"
Me: "Merry Christmas Sgt" with a sarcastic tone
Sgt: "We had a killin. I need you to goto......" (yes "killin" is just like he says it)
Me: "on my way"

Hang up phone giver directions to finish turkey and leave.

Wife calls 2 hours later, the best turkey she has ever had.

Does turkey warmed in the microwave taste as good as right out of the oven?

4 out of 5 Christmas I have been called out.
 
wow Bradford, crazy.


I brined with rosemary, thyme., brown sugar, soy sauce, orange and lemon. Stuffed the turkey with onions, rosemary, sage and cinammon.
 
Turkey Perfect

Saw this in the store the other day and after reading this thread a few weeks back, decided to try it. Brined the turkey for about 24 hours and set it out to dry for about an hour. Then stuffed and into the oven.

The meat was juicy and flavorful as everyone said. The stuffing was saltier tasting than usual, as was the gravy. Next time I will try some of the recipes here rather than the package. But for a first time, the package was good.
 
I did one on Friday last week and it was the most moist turkey I have ever had in my life. My only complaint is that it was a bit saltier than I would like although everyone who tasted it said it wasn't salty. I might have used too much kosher salt the first time. This was actually a practice run before the Holiday Bowl...

So I got a 12 pound turkey. I am making the honey brine from the Weber website (2 gallons water, 2 cups kosher salt, 2 cups honey, some garlic, some basil). I actually prepped the brine tonight and the turkey is in a cooler on my back patio outside. I plan on taking it out tomorrow afternoon to let it dry out in the fridge longer than before. I only let it dry out about 3 hours last time.... Smoking it on Thursday afternoon to finish a few hours before the Holiday Bowl and taking it over to a buddy's house where we are watching the game.
 
tried this as well for the first time. Brined the turkey for about 14 hours then washed and dried it off; leaving it in the fridge overnight.

This was a 21lber, so I was not sure how long it would take to smoke it. Started at 6:30am in the big green egg.

I should have lowered the grill level a little as the thermometer mounted through the lid actually poked into the bird when I closed the lid (did not find out till I checked 2hours later). this was a huge bird!

Th bird finished in about 4.5 hours (170F internal temp). Meat was great! I really wanted to smoke it this year because I though the last turkey we did in the oven came out way too dry.
 
I just took the turkey out of the brine and washed it off. Smelled damn good (honey I guess) which is interesting since it is still a raw turkey. Dried it off and it is sitting in the fridge drying off. Going to smoke it tomorrow.
 
Here is a picture of my first turkey! Brined in salt, brown sugar, lemons, oranges, thyme and rosemary. My family said it was the best turkey they had ever tasted. I dont know if they were trying to rub it in that I was not there to enjoy it or make me feel good for all the effort I put into cooking it. Thanks for all the advice from the posters on this board. No one in my family had ever heard of brining before this turkey. It will now be standard.

After reading how to post a pic it will be a little bit before i post the pic
 
I smoked one yesterday for the Holiday Bowl. Started the fire at 12:30pm, put on the bird at 1:30pm. Smoked it at 270-320F for ~3.5 hours. I stopped when the breast was 165F. I used a salt and honey brine.

I took the turkey to my buddy's house and carved it up there. Everyone said it was the best turkey they have ever had. There were 8 of us and there was nothing left. Also had some raw sausages that I smoked that were better than any I have done grilling.
 
Took me a while to figure a good place to host the pics.

This is after brining the turkey for 12 hours and then letting it dry overnight.

TurkeyChristmas2007001.jpg


This is the smoker. It is an offset smoker. My brother in law is a welder by trade and he made this for me. My father in law bought the material, BIL made it. He made it on a center pole, we dug a hole 1' in diameter 3' deep and then buried an aluminum pole that the smoker center pole fits over so I can turn the thing 360 degrees.

I used Kingsford standard charcoal as well as mesquite wood I bought at Doughterys (sp?) in Oak Hill. I started up the fire over an hour before putting the turkey on. I use a chimney starter and it took about 30min to get going and then another 30-45 min to get to the temp I wanted in the smoker.

TurkeyChristmas2007007.jpg


I used a rub of Zatarin's (sp?) creole seasoning and cracked black pepper. 2 to 1 ratio of Zatarin's to pepper. I sprayed some pam on both sides before putting on the rub to make it stick and did so maybe 30min before putting it on the smoker. I also cut up a sliced up a whole orange and stuffed the inside with that for more flavor.

TurkeyChristmas2007009.jpg


This is the turkey right when I put it on. The smoker was at 400F when I put it on.

TurkeyChristmas2007012.jpg


Of course I need some beer. This is going to take me 3.5 hours and I was on vacation. Come on, it's not like I'm heading to the office.

TurkeyChristmas2007017.jpg


This is the turkey right about the point I took it off.

TurkeyChristmas2007021.jpg


This is right when I took it out. I had both sides open, turkey is done. Game is in 3 hours.

TurkeyChristmas2007024.jpg


The next 2 pics are of the turkey. It looks burnt but it wasn't. See how the meat is literally coming off the leg bone. I let the turkey cool down for 30 minutes and then we took off for my friend's house who hosted the Holiday Bowl. I carved the turkey there. Everyone said it was the most moist turkey (due to the brining) that they have ever had. I have to admit it was very good. There was not 1 piece of turkey left after the game and there 7 dudes and 1 girl.

TurkeyChristmas2007030.jpg


TurkeyChristmas2007031.jpg
 
Nice work Fied! That looks GUD!

pic tip - when you use the photobucket code, you don't have to use the image button on here. That's why the extra
 
They turkey looks good.
Sorry to break this to you, but your BIL didn't make that pit. I have the same pit. That's a pit from Academy that has been slightly modified. Not that any of this matters if it does the job for you.
 
Luke, I saw him make it. I went to his place outside of Burnet at Thanksgiving last year and it was halfway done and then he was done just after Christmas (he was working on other jobs).

I could take some more pics of it and you could tell. He definitely didn't buy it at Academy and modify it, not that there is anything wrong with that. Actually I will post some more pics b/c I'm bored and finally found a place to host them.

He has made some other smokers as well that you need a truck to pull. He even made another smoker for a friend of mine identical to mine but even thicker steel than mine.
 
Luke, I emailed my FIL (he paid for the materials) and asked where they got the kit and materials. He replied - Alamo Iron Works in SA.
 
It's nice. He should have used the same paint on the shelf and the pole as the rest of the pit. He did a good job rolling the doors. First nonmanufactured one I have seen like that.

Bird looks awesome, MMMMMMMMMMMMM
 
He used the same paint but it is rusting a little bit. I have a can of furnace black paint that my FIL gave me to retouch at some point.

I ended up getting a cover for it for my birthday one of those black ones with felt type fabric on the inner liner.
 
The bird looks good, it's supposed to look like that on the outside. This ain't no oven-baked turkey.

And the paint is fine, just needs some re-touching with high-heat flat black paint. I wire-brush and re-paint mine every couple of years.
 
I smoked 2 turkeys over the break. One before Christmas (took some to the in-laws) and the other the day of the Holiday Bowl. Both looked very similar. I used different brines for each. The 1st one I used a brown sugar/kosher salt brine. The 2nd I used a honey brine (of course with kosher salt) that I found online. I think the honey brine came out the best.

I'm smoking my 1st brisket this coming weekend. No brine for that obviously. I plan on smoking it at ~250F, starting up the fire at like 5am, putting the brisket on around 6am. Smoking it 1 hour per pound, about halfway through going to wrap it in foil. I don't plan on using an oven out of laziness. Just going to keep it on there until the internal temp gets about 5 degrees below done.
 
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