Todd Randall
TVWBB Pro
My wife requested a turkey for my sons 1st birthday party this Saturday. A while back I found and hung onto Bryan's Apple Honey Poultry Brine recipe, posted here. It just sounds so good and I love everything in it, the apple juice, honey, oranges, ginger and cloves. I can't wait to try it, but I have some questions.
I picked up all the ingredients yesterday and I also found a 12.5 lb all natural fresh young turkey.
Bryan calls for a 12-24 hour brine, and says he does 24 hours because he wants to get the flavor more pronounced. So do I. But he says he cooks it low and slow, 235-250. I'm just guessing here, but that brine has a ton of sugars in it and I'm wondering if he does that (low temps) so the bird doesn't start to char up and so the skin doesn't get blackened too bad. I would like to cook this bird at the more traditional 350 temp range. Should I adjust his brine in any way or do I need to worry about it at all? Should I do 12 hours, 24?
The brine calls for whole cloves. Just toss them into the brine solution or do I work them into the turkey? I've read some posts where people work the cloves into the turkey itself. I would not prefer to do that, will I still get some clove flavor by just tossing them into the brine solution?
Smoke wood. I have on hand cherry, apple, maple, grape vine, birch, oak, and hickory. I was thinking cherry or maple.
Thanks for any advice.
Todd
I picked up all the ingredients yesterday and I also found a 12.5 lb all natural fresh young turkey.
Bryan calls for a 12-24 hour brine, and says he does 24 hours because he wants to get the flavor more pronounced. So do I. But he says he cooks it low and slow, 235-250. I'm just guessing here, but that brine has a ton of sugars in it and I'm wondering if he does that (low temps) so the bird doesn't start to char up and so the skin doesn't get blackened too bad. I would like to cook this bird at the more traditional 350 temp range. Should I adjust his brine in any way or do I need to worry about it at all? Should I do 12 hours, 24?
The brine calls for whole cloves. Just toss them into the brine solution or do I work them into the turkey? I've read some posts where people work the cloves into the turkey itself. I would not prefer to do that, will I still get some clove flavor by just tossing them into the brine solution?
Smoke wood. I have on hand cherry, apple, maple, grape vine, birch, oak, and hickory. I was thinking cherry or maple.
Thanks for any advice.
Todd