Cured Turkey Breasts


 
B

Bryan S

TVWBB Olympian
I made up a cover pickle cure with the help from Kevin Kruger. I would like to thank him for his help with that.
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All the recipes I found, seemed like they were using too much pink salt, and Kevin agreed. So here's what I did for 2 Turkey breasts both right around 5.5 lbs.
2.5 gals of water
1.5 lbs. of Raspberry flower Honey
1 lb. Morton's Kosher Salt
5 ozs. pink salt.

I heated 1.5 gals of water and put the other gal in the freezer. While that heated on the coal stove, I weighed out the pink salt, K salt and the honey. I added them to the warmed water. I was carefull not to take the water over 140º as that really hurts the flavor of the honey. After everything was dissolved, I poured in the gal of water that was in the freezer. Once cooled to 38º I put the breasts in the pickle cure to cure for 4 days. They went on the WSM at 12:30 PM today. Trying to keep the temps below 150º but it's a struggle. Not really worrying about it any more. Tel-Tru in the lid is reading 150º so I'll just go with that. I put the breasts into stockinette bags. I'm using Dragon Breath Lump, and apple wood. Here's a link to the original recipe and the method.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I had my 16" pizza stone in for this cook sitting on the tabs where the water pan would normally be. I use it for helping block the heat when trying to keep the temps low when smoking cured meats.
Cured Turkey Link.

Here's a link to some pics of the event.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
How is the smoke going? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well almost 6 hrs in and the temp's have been between 150º-200º. Temp shoots up when I add some burned down apple wood chunks from the fresh coals and the door being off. Breast temp is 120º and I'm bumping up the heat to 200º to get them done. Made a Ribeye and a Bella over the Chimney since the WSM is tied up. Just got finished with that and it was mighty Darn tasty. Med well, with Amish butter of course.
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EDIT: 8:00PM Update.
Took the temp up to 225º. Coming up on the 8 hr mark and I just want to get these done so I can get warm.
 
Bryan, you have peaked my interest. Why place the breasts into a stockinette bag? Why smoke the breast at such a low temp. (150°-200°) even though the desired temp. is 160°? Lastly, do you know why the original recipe recommends powdered dextrose (as opposed to any other sweetener, e.g. sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, molasses, cane syrup, etc )? Thanks buddy.

Erik
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Erik G:
Bryan, you have peaked my interest. Why place the breasts into a stockinette bag? Why smoke the breast at such a low temp. (150°-200°) even though the desired temp. is 160°? Lastly, do you know why the original recipe recommends powdered dextrose (as opposed to any other sweetener, e.g. sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, molasses, cane syrup, etc )? Thanks
buddy.Erik </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Stockinette is for even/uniform color and holding it's shape. Low temps because the meat is cured and really just wanting to dry the meat in the begining and then add smoke, like they do with hams, very long proccess. I guess you could speed it up, but the end product might suffer. Then cool down to at 100º and then fridge to finish. I guess you could take it off the smoker and serve right away, but most directions say to cool and then place in the fridge. This should make some good lunch meat, or warmed and sliced up on a plate. Not sure why the powdered Dextrose, maybe Kevin can answer that one. I went with Honey so... guess it's all about the flavor you're looking for. If these come out good (fingers crossed), next time I'm going to try Maple Syrup/sugar in place of the dextrose.
 
After thinking about this for a bit here's my thoughts on the low temps. It would seem that with these low temps, you would get a uniform cook through out the whole breast. If you were to cook at higher temps, the outer part of the meat would be harder and drier from the higher heat. Like on turkey when you pull the skin off it has that thin layer of hard meat. Once you get past that them the meat is more tender and juicy. Right next to the bone is the most tender and juicy meat. Seems to me with real low temps, and the cured meat, it should be very uniform from the outside to the inside. Just my Guess.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Erik G:
Bryan, you have peaked my interest. Why place the breasts into a stockinette bag? Why smoke the breast at such a low temp. (150°-200°) even though the desired temp. is 160°? Lastly, do you know why the original recipe recommends powdered dextrose (as opposed to any other sweetener, e.g. sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, molasses, cane syrup, etc )? Thanks buddy.

Erik </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

A couple guesses on the dextrose: It's less sweet than many other common sweeteners. Readily promotes Maillard reaction browning--think golden color. And, has a pretty decent water binding ability.

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Ok, just pulled the twins off at 9 hrs. I cut a piece of the loose wing meat that was still attached, tasted really good. They are cooling down now. Here's a pic.
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Bryan, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Best wishes to you and the family.

The uniform cooking makes sense, however it seems as the breasts aren't large enough for it to cook unevenly. Again, that's pure speculation on my part. When I smoke an entire turkey, it's always high heat (325°-400°) and I never have an issue with even parts of the breast being dry.

I know dextrose isn't as sweet as sugar, however I don't know why that would be needed for any cure.

I understand you were following the recipe, but could you have used a dry cure for the breasts? I must say I love the whole idea of homemade lunch meat. Sounds damn good. Please be sure to take pictures as I might be using the recipe, depending on your opinion of the results.

Erik
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by D. L. Whitehead:
A couple guesses on the dextrose: It's less sweet than many other common sweeteners. Readily promotes Maillard reaction browning--think golden color. And, has a pretty decent water binding ability.

### </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Didn't see your response. Thanks for the reply.

Erik
 
I've often wondered why I never saw cured poultry recipes ... they look good Bryan, still waiting to hear what ya think.
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Me too.

The low temps are indeed for more uniform cooking, and for lighter-but-steadier smoke adherence. Dextrose is common in sausage making and curing because it is finer than standard sugar and dissolves much more quickly, and it is less sweet, something that (these days) I'm not sure many makers care about.

Erik, sweeteners are not required per se for wet or dry cures. One often sees sugar referred to as 'necessary to reduce the harshness of the salt', a claim I find dubious despite its ubiquity. Still, sugar and other sweeteners can add flavor and, importantly, can boost or add needed nuance to other introduced flavors, be they from aromatics, spices or herbs, or from the smoke itself.
 
Bryan, that is a classic! Well done.

A Krugerrand?

Years ago, pre-wsm, I smoked on a Lil Chef electric smoker in those sub 200 temps. One Christmas I smoked six or more breasts (at the time I did not have much guidance) and one or more was 'bad'. I lost the whole batch not knowing which was bad or why it was bad. Good technique is best foe everybody concerned and the sanity of the cook. That one bad cook caused me quit smoking for far too long. We are fortunate to have you and others show how and why. I know what happens when poor technique is used.
 
I remembered I used to buy 'smoked' turkey breast in cryo from Costco, years before I started smoking. Ran them through the slicer for sandwich meat. They must have been cured as well.

Come on Bryan, stop torturing me, slice pics!!
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Would you consider deboning prior to curing, or just leave as is?
 
Thanks alot guys.
Larry, internal of 160º. I sliced a few pieces off a breast for a quick pic. Tatse is very good, and has a nice texture like ham would have. Firm and moist, well worth the time involved, will do again for sure.
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Made a sandwich from the above slices for dinner tonight. Here's the blueprint. Sourdough bread, Hellmann's mayo, Cooper sharp cheese, and some sliced Honey cured, apple wood smoked Turkey breast. It was mighty Damn tasty I tell you. Give this a try sometime if you can, well worth the effort IMO.
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