20 pound bird.

[JeffB]

Hi all, I,m going to try my luck on the brine recipe in this forum but I'm not with my smoker so I'm doing it in the oven.

Question - I have a 20 lb bird and the recipe calls for a 12-14 lb bird. Will I need to adjust the recipe for a larger bird and if not, will the flavor fall flat?

Thanks.

 

[Marc]

You need to have enough brine to completely submerge/cover your turkey. Consequently you will need to scale up your quantity.
Might be easiest to just double everything.

 

[JeffB]

I was concerned more about ratios than having enough brine. I put my 20 lb. bird in my ice chest, filled it with water until the bird was totally submerged and then pulled the bird out. I measured the amount of water and it was about 5.5 quarts, or about 1/2 quart more than the recipe calls for (2 quarts apple juice and 3 quarts water). I can add another 1/2 quart of water or with the additional displacement of water from the oranges, I should be close enough.

Just finished step one (boiling apple juice, brown sugar and salt) and it smells terrific already! I'm psyched!!