I just dropped a 13.5lb turkey into apple brine for a 24 hour soak and thought it would be interesting to hear how others are progressing with preparation and cooking. (assuming of course you have time to post occasionally during your cook).

The temperature outside his hovering around 35 degrees so I am able to leave it outside (garage) in an ice chest with a small bag of ice on top to insure it stays well below 40 degrees. Since this is my first Turkey on the WSM, I will be following the directions closely and make any adjustments next year.

So far, so good. My only concerns are if I will be able to bring the smoker up to the 325-350 range, but I figure I can put it in the oven if not.

My bird has been in the garage fridge since Sunday......checked it last night and it's still hard! Gonna have to soak it in the kitchen sink tomorrow night!

Larry,

You must not brine your Turkey...how do you cook it?

By the way, I'm originally from Dallas but currently live in a town full of Packer fans so now I'm getting bashed from all sides

Kevin, my bird is here at work with me in the fridge. I am taking it home this evening. Last night, I made the apple brine and stored it in the fridge. I went today and bought some of the 4 gallon Ziploc bags. When I get home this evening, I will bag this bird up and put it in a cooler outside. We are still hitting 70's here, so I will have to be sure there is plenty of ice in the cooler. I plan on grilling mine Thursday.

Jeff...taking your turkey to work is serious dedication to your thanksgiving meal...I'm impressed!

I have 2, 13 pound natural birds down in my beer-fridge... unfortunately I had to move some beer into the garage to make room for the turkeys....

I picked up some turkey oven bags today at lunch, and will be mixing up the brine and loading the turkeys into the bags tonight.

They will sit in the beerfridge until tomorrow night & then I will start the drying process until they go into the WSM on Thursday morning.

I'll also be putting a turkey sausage roll on for a few hours to use as our base for stuffing.

Very much looking forward to my first smoker turkey!

Picking up my fresh turkey this afternoon and getting her drunk in Jack Daniels and Maple Syrup brine through Wed. night, air dry through noon on Thursday and then on the WSM over cherry wood. Will take lots of pictures!

Patrick,

Those turkey oven bags worked great for me (so far). That's what I used to line the cooler for the turkey and brine.

I also read that you can add water to the cooler (outside the turkey oven bag) to help take up space if the brine does not completely cover the turkey.

Yes, Kevin. I like to keep him close to me. I just found out that I have to make a run on an appointment on my way home. Luckily, I had a cooler here, so he is now in the cooler packed on ice until I get home!

Great plans and ideas guys. I got lucky this year or unlucky in one sense. Some of my wife's younger relatives just built a new house and they offered to do Thanksgiving at their house so I don't have to do any cooking this year but I don't get to do any cooking either and it will be a oven cooked bird I'm sure. I will just have to plan bigger and better next year. All I have to do is eat, lay around all day, watch football, and play in a poker game. What a hard day planned for me. I will miss the cooking though.

Everyone have a great Turkey day and be sure and get me some photos to look at.

Randy

I was making my Apple Brine (substituting 4 pounds of ice for 2 qts of cold water, quickly cools the hot apple juice/sugar/salt) when I noticed it is 3PM - and that my friends is 'tini time.

I'll finish the brine then put my 14.25# fresh turkey in it - gonna rotisserie it on my performer on T-day

Last year I was invited to two Thanksgiving feasts. I thought it would be great as I didn't have to cook. Unfortunately, it also meant I didn't have any leftovers to make those wonderful turkey sandwhiches with! New game plan this year...

I'm smoking two 12 lbers to eat at my sisters on Thursday, and another 12 lb bird & a ham for the in-laws at our house on Friday! The first two birds are going into the drink tonight. The next one will brine tomorrow night while the first two dry in the fridge. They'll hit the smoker at 4AM Thursday and be eaten at noon!

This is going to be a great (long) weekend full of turkey, football, and family!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Smoking to All!

Got an 18 LBS bird into the Apple Brine last night. Comes off around 7PM for drying in the fridge tonight.

Smoke tomorrow starting around noon. Will start the stock tonight as well for the gravy.

Plan is to Vacuum pack Tomorrow night and transport to Cousins house for consumption on Thursday.

2 turkeys in basic brine, one for Thursday, one for Saturday. Just got new apple wood and alder wood for flavor...oh, the blackberry brandy is in the freezer...chillin...

BBQJEDI.com
4-WSM
2-18" Kettle

Larry...Jack Daniels and maple syrup brine???!!! That sounds great, can you tell us more about it?

quote:

Larry...Jack Daniels and maple syrup brine???!!! That sounds great, can you tell us more about it?

Here's a LINK to the recipe. One key addition however, as the original post states, I've done in the past being un-informed regarding salt being the key to brine so you'll want to add salt water to the recipe. I'm using 1/2 cup table salt to each gallon of water I use.

It's a great recipe and and I always get rave reviews on it. This will be the first year I'm doing it in the WSM (in the past I've done on my gasser) and with salt. Should be great!

I also do some Jack Daniels yams too that go well with the bird.

Hey Brad,

How do you vacuum pack an 18lb turkey?

Fresh bird in the fridge, will go into some kind of brine Wed AM. Sourdough and Potato bread cut up into cubes drying out overnight. I'll make the sausage, portabella mushroom dressing Wed night and put that in the fridge so that'll be one less thing to do on Thursday.

Cooking mine tonight for one part of the family.Heading out of town tomorrow to spend with the other part of the family.

I do one inside, one outside. Neither has arrived yet so I'm rethinking the original dry brine for one, wet brine for the other plan.