Talking Turkey

[All-American]

What do you guys use to brine in? I had been planning on using a cooler rather than a 5 gallon bucket-- I don't have a food-safe bucket.

[Donuthole]

What do you guys use to brine in? I had been planning on using a cooler rather than a 5 gallon bucket-- I don't have a food-safe bucket.

I have used a cooler before. Now I just make sure to pick up an extra 5 gallon bucket at Lowe's in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Is it food safe? I don't know. But a little soap and hot water makes it food safe enough for me.

[falafel]

I don't have a "food safe" bucket either. I just wash out a bucket and then line it with a garbage bag. I pour all of the brine and ice in the bag. Never seems to leak.

[old_gregg]

I have used a cooler before. Now I just make sure to pick up an extra 5 gallon bucket at Lowe's in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Is it food safe? I don't know. But a little soap and hot water makes it food safe enough for me.

yeah i don't know what makes a bucket food safe but i've just used one with a lid that has a rubber gasket.

[Jeff Lebowski]

WTH is a food-safe bucket?

[All-American]

WTH is a food-safe bucket?

I guess that answers my question.

Supposedly, your run-o-the-mill Home Depot bucket is not guaranteed to not leak carcinogens and the like. I thought about using a garbage bag, but those are supposedly lined with anti-odor chemicals. They do sell food-safe plastic liners that will fit in a 5-gallon bucket, but I'm not super inclined to go pick up a whole pack of those for a single turkey.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I guess that answers my question.

Supposedly, your run-o-the-mill Home Depot bucket is not guaranteed to not leak carcinogens and the like. I thought about using a garbage bag, but those are supposedly lined with anti-odor chemicals. They do sell food-safe plastic liners that will fit in a 5-gallon bucket, but I'm not super inclined to go pick up a whole pack of those for a single turkey.

Last year I went to Walmart to pick up some turkey brining bags ($1 each). A guy there told me they were discontinuing them so I bought 15 of them.

[LiveCoug]

Uggh.. So I've only made a turkey a couple of times and every time my turkey is still a bit too frozen come thanksgiving. I put the turkey in the fridge earlier than usual, and now it looks like it will be mostly thawed by tomorrow night. Should I be concerned?

[old_gregg]

Uggh.. So I've only made a turkey a couple of times and every time my turkey is still a bit too frozen come thanksgiving. I put the turkey in the fridge earlier than usual, and now it looks like it will be mostly thawed by tomorrow night. Should I be concerned?

no. it's fine in the fridge.

[All-American]

So this will be my first time doing the Thanksgiving turkey, smoked or otherwise. I've got a good-sized group coming for dinner, so I'm extra nervous about getting this right. I'm going to lay out my plan here so the brain trust can tell me where I'm going wrong.

We have a 20-pound bird thawing in the fridge now-- has been for a few days. It looks like it will be ready to go. I'm going to boil about the brine on Tuesday night-- four gallons of water with four cups of salt and two cups of sugar, as suggested by the graphic on this page:

http://www.traegergrills.com/blog/turkey-brine

I see a lot more complicated brine recipes that get good reviews, but I'm opting for simple for two reasons: fewer variables, and mixed reviews on whether anything but salt and sugar really has any effect on the bird anyway.

The brine will go in a fridge to cool overnight. On Wednesday morning, before I go to work, I'll put the turkey, the brine, and some bags of ice in a cooler with a temperature probe set to alert if the temp goes above 40 degrees. That will give me about 24 hours of brining before I pull it out to smoke on Thursday.

I'll have a homemade rub made of salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, and garlic powder, following this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/p...ub-recipe.html

Brush with oil, rub on and under the skin, and stick on the Traeger to smoke, using applewood. I was going to follow this recipe:

http://www.traegergrills.com/recipes.../smoked-turkey

But it calls for three hours of smoking followed by 4 hours of cooking at 350. That strikes me and not possibly being right-- four hours at 350 seems like an awful lot even if we weren't smoking it to begin with. I'm shooting for a four o'clock dinner time, so my current plan is to smoke for 5 at the smoke setting, then finish it off at 300 (figuring it will take about two hours). So putting it on at about 8 (just before the turkey bowl) should give it enough time to cook, hold, and get carved up.

Any suggestions?

[Pelado]

So this will be my first time doing the Thanksgiving turkey, smoked or otherwise. I've got a good-sized group coming for dinner, so I'm extra nervous about getting this right. I'm going to lay out my plan here so the brain trust can tell me where I'm going wrong.

We have a 20-pound bird thawing in the fridge now-- has been for a few days. It looks like it will be ready to go. I'm going to boil about the brine on Tuesday night-- four gallons of water with four cups of salt and two cups of sugar, as suggested by the graphic on this page:

http://www.traegergrills.com/blog/turkey-brine

I see a lot more complicated brine recipes that get good reviews, but I'm opting for simple for two reasons: fewer variables, and mixed reviews on whether anything but salt and sugar really has any effect on the bird anyway.

The brine will go in a fridge to cool overnight. On Wednesday morning, before I go to work, I'll put the turkey, the brine, and some bags of ice in a cooler with a temperature probe set to alert if the temp goes above 40 degrees. That will give me about 24 hours of brining before I pull it out to smoke on Thursday.

I'll have a homemade rub made of salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, and garlic powder, following this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/p...ub-recipe.html

Brush with oil, rub on and under the skin, and stick on the Traeger to smoke, using applewood. I was going to follow this recipe:

http://www.traegergrills.com/recipes.../smoked-turkey

But it calls for three hours of smoking followed by 4 hours of cooking at 350. That strikes me and not possibly being right-- four hours at 350 seems like an awful lot even if we weren't smoking it to begin with. I'm shooting for a four o'clock dinner time, so my current plan is to smoke for 5 at the smoke setting, then finish it off at 300 (figuring it will take about two hours). So putting it on at about 8 (just before the turkey bowl) should give it enough time to cook, hold, and get carved up.

Any suggestions?

A 20-pounder might take that long. I did a 15-pounder yesterday. I put a bag of ice over the breasts of the turkey in the fridge about an hour before I started cooking. I set the Traeger to high (450) but was worried it was taking too long to preheat, so put the bird in at about 350. Left in in for about an hour and a half since the smoker never climbed up to temperature. Then covered the breasts with a double layer of heavy duty foil. Went for another hour and a half before pulling it. Rested it in a thoroughly insulated box (made for easy transport to my sister's place) for about an hour. There were two other turkeys there. Both of the other turkeys had plenty of leftovers.

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[Moliere]

So this will be my first time doing the Thanksgiving turkey, smoked or otherwise. I've got a good-sized group coming for dinner, so I'm extra nervous about getting this right. I'm going to lay out my plan here so the brain trust can tell me where I'm going wrong.

We have a 20-pound bird thawing in the fridge now-- has been for a few days. It looks like it will be ready to go. I'm going to boil about the brine on Tuesday night-- four gallons of water with four cups of salt and two cups of sugar, as suggested by the graphic on this page:

http://www.traegergrills.com/blog/turkey-brine

I see a lot more complicated brine recipes that get good reviews, but I'm opting for simple for two reasons: fewer variables, and mixed reviews on whether anything but salt and sugar really has any effect on the bird anyway.

The brine will go in a fridge to cool overnight. On Wednesday morning, before I go to work, I'll put the turkey, the brine, and some bags of ice in a cooler with a temperature probe set to alert if the temp goes above 40 degrees. That will give me about 24 hours of brining before I pull it out to smoke on Thursday.

I'll have a homemade rub made of salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, and garlic powder, following this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/p...ub-recipe.html

Brush with oil, rub on and under the skin, and stick on the Traeger to smoke, using applewood. I was going to follow this recipe:

http://www.traegergrills.com/recipes.../smoked-turkey

But it calls for three hours of smoking followed by 4 hours of cooking at 350. That strikes me and not possibly being right-- four hours at 350 seems like an awful lot even if we weren't smoking it to begin with. I'm shooting for a four o'clock dinner time, so my current plan is to smoke for 5 at the smoke setting, then finish it off at 300 (figuring it will take about two hours). So putting it on at about 8 (just before the turkey bowl) should give it enough time to cook, hold, and get carved up.

Any suggestions?

Yes, but a smaller bird and fry it


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[Jeff Lebowski]

So this will be my first time doing the Thanksgiving turkey, smoked or otherwise. I've got a good-sized group coming for dinner, so I'm extra nervous about getting this right. I'm going to lay out my plan here so the brain trust can tell me where I'm going wrong.

We have a 20-pound bird thawing in the fridge now-- has been for a few days. It looks like it will be ready to go. I'm going to boil about the brine on Tuesday night-- four gallons of water with four cups of salt and two cups of sugar, as suggested by the graphic on this page:

http://www.traegergrills.com/blog/turkey-brine

I see a lot more complicated brine recipes that get good reviews, but I'm opting for simple for two reasons: fewer variables, and mixed reviews on whether anything but salt and sugar really has any effect on the bird anyway.

The brine will go in a fridge to cool overnight. On Wednesday morning, before I go to work, I'll put the turkey, the brine, and some bags of ice in a cooler with a temperature probe set to alert if the temp goes above 40 degrees. That will give me about 24 hours of brining before I pull it out to smoke on Thursday.

I'll have a homemade rub made of salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, sage, and garlic powder, following this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/p...ub-recipe.html

Brush with oil, rub on and under the skin, and stick on the Traeger to smoke, using applewood. I was going to follow this recipe:

http://www.traegergrills.com/recipes.../smoked-turkey

But it calls for three hours of smoking followed by 4 hours of cooking at 350. That strikes me and not possibly being right-- four hours at 350 seems like an awful lot even if we weren't smoking it to begin with. I'm shooting for a four o'clock dinner time, so my current plan is to smoke for 5 at the smoke setting, then finish it off at 300 (figuring it will take about two hours). So putting it on at about 8 (just before the turkey bowl) should give it enough time to cook, hold, and get carved up.

Any suggestions?

I love smoked turkey. I do a long brine and then cook at 225 degrees until done (160 in the breast). Takes 8 hrs or so.

[myboynoah]

Please, please, please. Enough. This needs to stop in Trump's America.

A vegetarian main so epic, you won't miss the turkey

[All-American]

I love smoked turkey. I do a long brine and then cook at 225 degrees until done (160 in the breast). Takes 8 hrs or so.

Just straight up smoke, without going to 300+? How big a bird do you have that you can do that in 8 hours?