T1B

An old buddy of mine is a firefighter. He often works on THanksgiving. Says if they get a call for an exterior fire on T-Hanksday, no more questions are asked, and upon arrival, they head straight to the back deck (which is of course wood). No need for a detailed investigation into cause. He says there's only one cause of an exterior fire on Thanksgiving Day (since it's generally cold and/or wet around these parts... today being cold and sunny).

Funny, that -- one of my friends has been known to deep fry a turkey or two. When I've been at his house, the fryer is as far away as possible from the house while still on concrete, and there's a fire extinguisher within reach and a garden hose charged and ready to go between the fryer and the house... makes for less FAIL videos, I guess.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:

you heartless monster

:x :x :x

Having a nice smoked turkey breast here.

Amazing the stupidity you find on the Internet. If your pot is full and you add a turkey to it where is the oil going to go?

Left Seater wrote:
Amazing the stupidity you find on the Internet. If your pot is full and you add a turkey to it where is the oil going to go?

To the Firmament?

Drops off the parabolic horizon?

Still doing the traditional oven roasted bird. Brined overnight and stuffed with lemons, onions, carrots and celery to get a goof start on flavoring the gravy.

There is a BBQ savant here in Phoenix named Stacy, who has had several establishments for his craft. At one point or another, one closed as a better version opened. I posted pics a few years back of his first, purple painted, god-awful first building. The one thing it had going for it was his amazing smoker.

On THanksgiving, Stacy features his specialty deep-fried turkey. I have never tasted a more flavorful, jucier bird. Perhaps Stacy just knows his technique and it will remain his family secret, but damn, his beer infused, deep fried bird is amazing.

Enjoying it now and it is his best effort yet.

No Scott, he just preps the bird by injecting it with brew and letting it marinade before the fry. I'm sure it's got more going on than just that, but he is keeping the recipe close to the vest.

For all I know, he's being a little deceptive, but he advertises it as beer infused, deep fried turkey.

All I do know for sure is it is the best turkey I have ever had.

Do you keep the recipe in your purse for safe keeping?

We did the traditional oven roasted bird in the new double oven equipped kitchen that came out perfect. I really do want to get a fryer though and do a deep fried bird for xmas which will be done on my concrete sidewalk a minimum of 20 ft from the house because, well, I really would rather not burn my house the fukk down after putting in a new kitchen.

On to more impotent topics

What are you cumstains drinkin' tonight?

We did a Bermuda themed dinner in honor of our recent trip to said island.

And I am about 4 deep into rather well fortified rum swizzles and dark n' stormies and I am drunk enough to think poptart's flat earf theory is making sense.

Rack the hell out of Gossling dark rum!!!!

smackaholic wrote:We did the traditional oven roasted bird in the new double oven equipped kitchen that came out perfect. I really do want to get a fryer though and do a deep fried bird for xmas which will be done on my concrete sidewalk a minimum of 20 ft from the house because, well, I really would rather not burn my house the fukk down after putting in a new kitchen.

Do it in your backyard. No risk of damaging anything back there...

Na, too much fuel in the backyard. Will do it on the front yard cement sidewalk.

Kept it simple and smoked the birds the other day when everyone was out of the house. Carved out the legs and breast and vacuum sealed them to reheat today. Super easy, less cleanup and still came out juicy.

Stopped doing oil fryer a couple years back and now do the Char-Broil Big Easy oiless fryer.

Much cheaper, safer, and easier clean-up.

My brine:
Ice Water
Brown sugar
Cayenne
Salt
Lemon Pepper
Garlic cloves - minced
Sage
Thyme
Rosemary
Onion powder

Dry it, inject a little garlic and herb sauce, and season it
with Slap Yo Mama's cajun seasoning.

Cook for 2:20 and it's just as good as a traditional fried Turkey

Go Coogs' wrote:Stopped doing oil fryer a couple years back and now do the Char-Broil Big Easy oiless fryer.

Much cheaper, safer, and easier clean-up.

My brine:
Ice Water
Brown sugar
Cayenne
Salt
Lemon Pepper
Garlic cloves - minced
Sage
Thyme
Rosemary
Onion powder

Dry it, inject a little garlic and herb sauce, and season it
with Slap Yo Mama's cajun seasoning.

Cook for 2:20 and it's just as good as a traditional fried Turkey

That does sound slap yo mama worthy. Rack you.

KC Scott wrote:OK, he's using beer as the brine - there's a recipe for it here: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/turkey/beer-brined-turkey/

May try it next time I fry one up (like next Thanksgiving)

My brine is apple cider, brown sugar, garlic, onion, kosher salt, pepper & orange slices

He said injected not brined. You can read, right?

Go Coogs' wrote: My brine:
Ice Water
Brown sugar
Cayenne
Salt
Lemon Pepper
Garlic cloves - minced
Sage
Thyme
Rosemary
Onion powder

I have to admit that I have been a big turkey brining aficionado for many years. Lately I have begun to suspect that it is largely pointless. Yes, you will have a lovely smelling brine but that's about it. The only active ingredient on that list is salt.

This year I said fuck it and dry brined by generously dusting the turkey with kosher salt, let it set for about 12 hours and then slathered it with herb butter and a nice dry rub and smoked it at 250-325. I was definitely pleased with the results. I'll tinker with it a bit more.

Those ingredients you have listed make an excellent poultry rub/paste. I would add some chopped parsley. Mix them up with some softened butter and that'll be some good shit.

mvscal wrote: I have to admit that I have been a big turkey brining aficionado for many years. Lately I have begun to suspect that it is largely pointless. Yes, you will have a lovely smelling brine but that's about it. The only active ingredient on that list is salt.

This year I said fuck it and dry brined by generously dusting the turkey with kosher salt, let it set for about 12 hours and then slathered it with herb butter and a nice dry rub and smoked it at 250-325. I was definitely pleased with the results. I'll tinker with it a bit more.

Those ingredients you have listed make an excellent poultry rub/paste. I would add some chopped parsley. Mix them up with some softened butter and that'll be some good shit.

Is it because the temperature of the turkey isn't exactly soaking any of the ingredients in? My stepdad doesn't brine, but he uses his own rub and goes overboard with the injection sauce. I feel (and other family members as well) that my turkey has a better overall flavor. Could just be the salt.

I'll definitely try that paste/rub on a whole chicken in the oiless fryer. I highly recommend purchasing the infrared fryer as you will never cook a pork tenderloin any other way. I'll post recipe in Cooking forum.

Go Coogs' wrote:Is it because the temperature of the turkey isn't exactly soaking any of the ingredients in?

No. It's just the nature of a wet brine. 24 hours isn't long enough for anything other than salt to penetrate very deeply. I haven't ever been able to get a crispy skin on a wet brined bird either. Just the basic salt dry brine worked very well for me.

I'll definitely try that paste/rub on a whole chicken in the oiless fryer.

Or maybe do a control experiment. One bird in the fancy brine and one in just water, salt and sugar. I might have to do something like that. Get a bunch of people together and do three or four birds each prepped differently.

mvscal wrote: I haven't ever been able to get a crispy skin on a wet brined bird either.

I pat down dry the turkey as soon as I take it out of the brine and have always had a crispy skin. And with the oiless fryer, about half way through the cook I'll slightly brush it with oil to really get that extra crispiness.

mvscal wrote:

Go Coogs' wrote:Is it because the temperature of the turkey isn't exactly soaking any of the ingredients in?

No. It's just the nature of a wet brine. 24 hours isn't long enough for anything other than salt to penetrate very deeply. I haven't ever been able to get a crispy skin on a wet brined bird either. Just the basic salt dry brine worked very well for me.

The salt is taken up by the turkey through diffusion. Some people think it's osmosis, but it isn't. Just the tendency of a solute to migrate from a volume of higher concentration to a volume of lower concentration, seeking a uniform concentration. This process doesn't work the same way for any of the other ingredients, except maybe for sugar if you add that to the brine.