Cold smoke, then hot smoke turkey?

[jrnewton]

The last few years I have gotten a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving, Wet brined for two days, then smoked on my stick-burner. This year, I am thinking about doing the brine, then cold smoking for 10-12 hours, putting back in the fridge for 2 days or so, then putting on the smoker to cook. Just curious if this sounds like a good idea or not, and if I would gain any “smokiness” in the flavor. Suggestions?

[Jonathon]

jrnewton I’ve never done that before, if you were planning on doing it I might suggest either an injection and then holding it in a cover brine for at least 24 hours or a longer hold time. Reason being that since you aren’t going to be doing any thermal processing you want to make sure that it is perfectly cured.

I am going to talk to a few people here and will update this post later.

[Jonathon]

jrnewton I spoke with our application specialist and he said if it stays below 40° then it will be fine but you’ll have to find a way to make sure that you keep it under 40°, and thats not just internal temp, that’s on the skin and everywhere between. So, if it’s cold where you are and you have a way to add smoke without heat then go for it, but I wouldn’t even trust something like the Flip Professional Smoke Box, you’ll want something where the heat source is totally separated and you’ll need to do it on a cold day.

[jrnewton]

Thank you for the reply!! That should not be a problem, as I am in Michigan, where it has not exactly been warm lately. I have the A-Maze-In maze, so if I put that in the firebox of my offset, I should be good to go. I have various Thermoworks thermometers, so I may do a test run to see how the temperature works out. Thanks again, I have the “hot smoking” down pretty good, but since I received your catalog, and have poked around this site, I am getting excited and more and more ready to try my hand at brats and snack sticks soon. I will report back how all this worked out after Thanksgiving!

[Jonathon]

jrnewton Glad we could help, no matter how things turn out please take some pics and let us see!

[YooperDog]

I was able to get my hands on a half dozen turkey wings and drumsticks. I figured I would cure and smoke them to use for beans and soups. Brined turkeys in the past. Looking for thoughts on if an injection pump of 10% is needed or if penetration can be achieved by sitting in solution.

[Jonathon]

YooperDog Generally prefer injection but that doesn’t mean a simple brine won’t work, it just takes longer and can be a little dicier. However since you are doing wings and drumsticks I don’t think that is a factor. Generally a brine will penetrate 0.5 to 1" a day so just plan for that. Any idea what you are going to use? Do you actually want these cured or just looking to get the flavor in there?

[YooperDog]

Jonathon I am going to cure them. I was going to order the turkey cure, any suggestions? Smoking wise looking at Pecan or Hickory.

[Jonathon]

YooperDog I generally prefer pecan on everything but especially on poultry. Yes, if you’re going to cure it I would recommend the Walton’s Turkey Cure. I’m sure it will come out good!

[YooperDog]

Jonathon Thanks again. Putting an order together, spending the stimulus. LOL

[Jonathon]

YooperDog That’s what the money was for…I guess? Both my wife and I are lucky enough to be considered essential so we have pretty much continued on as normal with the exception of our gym closing down. So, I used most of our stimulus check on building a home gym! I built a power rack in the garage out of 4x4s and 2x4s and 2x6s first. The places where you set the bar are eye bolts I drilled through, then I added some upper and lower pullies to allow us to do any cable exercise we wanted…it’s pretty sweet set up honestly. You might think I got some push back for spending all the money on stuff like that but my wife is a far bigger work out fanatic than I am so she was cheering me on!

[YooperDog]

Jonathon the wife and I are a bit frustrated when the gym closed. The weather up here has been cold and snowy and have a little bit of work out equipment. Just making do with what we have and have been looking at TRX style of equipment. Learned a lot of body weight exercises from my previous career of being on the road.