I had success with a crisp turkey breast skin, last Sunday. I apple brined a fresh bone in "3% basted" breast (the most natural I could find) for 36 hours. I patted the breast dry, and let it air dry in the fridge for 6 hours. I smeared butter on the skin, and added salt and pepper. No additional moping or basting.
I used the standard method, to get 3/4's of a ring of Kingsford hot, and then added some 'Real Flavor' lump on top. After the lump started going some, I assembled the smoker with all of the vents open, a dry water pan, and added apple wood for smoke.
The outside temperature was 69,? mostly cloudy, with little wind. I have a dial thermometer mounted thru a bolt hole at the top grate, and the temperature went up to over 450.? I added the breast, and the temperature started falling.
To maintain 450? over the next half hour, I had to keep opening the access door for a few seconds, every few minutes. The apple wood would ignite into flames right away, and would boost the temperature back to over 450.? I lost a lot of apple smoke thru the door doing this, but there was enough apple wood to compensate.
After 1/2 hour, I let the temperature come down, and inserted a Polder probe into the breast. The grate temperature settled in at 350? with all of the vents open. I pulled the breast when it hit 160? internal. Total smoking time was about 1-1/2 hours.
The breast was plenty juicy. I didn't move the Polder probe, but near the end of the cook, I used an instant read thermometer in several areas. When I removed it the first time, a stream of juice shot out.
My only other attempt at this was a smaller 'boneless,' apple brined turkey breast. I brined it for 24 hours, and used exactly 1/2 of the brine recipe. I smoked it at around 325? the entire time and the skin was ok, but not very crisp. However, the overall flavor was more to my liking.
This time, I wanted to be sure I had enough brine to cover the larger bone in breast, so I tried to make a full batch of brine, but I didn't have a large enough container. Thinking it wasn't rocket science, I used all of the called for apple juice, but didn't have quite enough room to add the last 1 quart or so of water, out of the 3 quarts called for. The other spices were as per the full batch recipe, but I added some extra ginger.
In the end, it wasn't mushy, too salty, or too smoky, and overall very good, but it was a little too sweet for me. Not sure if the sweetness was caused from the more concentrated apple juice, the extra ginger, the longer brining time, or a combination of all three, but the skin DID turn out on the crispy side.
After adding the breast to the brine, I found I didn't need nearly so much brine after all. So next time I'll use the same heat, but make less brine, and follow the recipe proportions exactly.
Here are a few pictures...
http://community.webtv.net/pictures400/SmokedTurkey
I used the standard method, to get 3/4's of a ring of Kingsford hot, and then added some 'Real Flavor' lump on top. After the lump started going some, I assembled the smoker with all of the vents open, a dry water pan, and added apple wood for smoke.
The outside temperature was 69,? mostly cloudy, with little wind. I have a dial thermometer mounted thru a bolt hole at the top grate, and the temperature went up to over 450.? I added the breast, and the temperature started falling.
To maintain 450? over the next half hour, I had to keep opening the access door for a few seconds, every few minutes. The apple wood would ignite into flames right away, and would boost the temperature back to over 450.? I lost a lot of apple smoke thru the door doing this, but there was enough apple wood to compensate.
After 1/2 hour, I let the temperature come down, and inserted a Polder probe into the breast. The grate temperature settled in at 350? with all of the vents open. I pulled the breast when it hit 160? internal. Total smoking time was about 1-1/2 hours.
The breast was plenty juicy. I didn't move the Polder probe, but near the end of the cook, I used an instant read thermometer in several areas. When I removed it the first time, a stream of juice shot out.
My only other attempt at this was a smaller 'boneless,' apple brined turkey breast. I brined it for 24 hours, and used exactly 1/2 of the brine recipe. I smoked it at around 325? the entire time and the skin was ok, but not very crisp. However, the overall flavor was more to my liking.
This time, I wanted to be sure I had enough brine to cover the larger bone in breast, so I tried to make a full batch of brine, but I didn't have a large enough container. Thinking it wasn't rocket science, I used all of the called for apple juice, but didn't have quite enough room to add the last 1 quart or so of water, out of the 3 quarts called for. The other spices were as per the full batch recipe, but I added some extra ginger.
In the end, it wasn't mushy, too salty, or too smoky, and overall very good, but it was a little too sweet for me. Not sure if the sweetness was caused from the more concentrated apple juice, the extra ginger, the longer brining time, or a combination of all three, but the skin DID turn out on the crispy side.
After adding the breast to the brine, I found I didn't need nearly so much brine after all. So next time I'll use the same heat, but make less brine, and follow the recipe proportions exactly.
Here are a few pictures...
http://community.webtv.net/pictures400/SmokedTurkey