Thirdeye Turkey Drumsticks Results

TomM24

I have to start this post that my photos do no justice to how good these drumsticks tasted. My goal was to duplicate those huge smoked turkey drumsticks I get at many Nascar races. My first attempt I used smoke but without a curing agent. Not even close the Nascar drumsticks are much more hammier. Thanks to Thirdeyes blog I learned I had to cure the the legs. So starts the eggsperiment. Thirdeyes website says that the longer the meat is in the brine/cure the hammier it will be so this is what I did. I mixed up a half recipe of the recipe on day one as put one drumstick in, The next day I made another half batch and added another leg. The next day I got lazy and just added a third leg. Then next day I took all three legs out rinsed them and put them in the frig to equilbrate. Today I put them on the egg indirect at 230 with cherry and hickory and cooked to 180F. My wife doesn't like dark meat or heavily smoked food so I put another leg completely unseasoned wrapped in foil. 3.5 hours later the foiled leg was 190 and I pulled it. Cooked the rest until they were at least 175. Here is a picture of the three cured leggs.
Here is my plate with a few slices of each


I took the rest and tossed in in a DO with some stock and braised it for an hour thn pulled it and got this


I was surprised the lever of hamminess wasn't that differnent among the three cured legs. My wife and I were agreed the leg that was in the brine/cure the longest was a little salty.

What surprised me and my wife was the fourth leg. It was uncured and unseasoned and just wrapped in foil 100% of the cook. I was just cooking it because they came two to a pack. It was braised to a fall of the bone succulent consistnancy and was darn good. Not what I was looking for but a pleasant surprise. My wife was very happy and that a good thing because I thought she would be hungry tonight.


I think the unbraised smoke legs were great they just needed a ittle more smoke. All three were plently hammy. The braised leftovers are to die for. No offense intended but if you don;t eat pork for what ever reason and turkey is ok smoke one of these up and braise it.

Beli

Tom
Great to learn something different...TKS for sharing..

EGC

Looks great to me. Maybe a little better for me than pork, too.

thirdeye

That's a good lookin' plate. What a great way to experiment and get the brine time to your liking....I'm glad you were pleased, I sure like them.

I do a lot of recipe testing before posting them.....Speaking of turkey, in the next month or so, a pastramied turkey breast method will be up on my site. I have been working on it for a while and it's almost where I want it.

lowercasebill

looks like a great meal for a yucky day... wow .. i am coming to your house next time they call for snow...
and thanks for the experiment..i am thinking the braised leftovers served over some homemade zippy noodles would make some real comfort food

Gunnar

More dedication than me for the length of the experiment. For New Years I bought a couple of already smoked turkey legs and braised them per Thirdeye’s method. I pulled the meat and put it in the black eyed peas, but it would be good as BBQ sandwich or most anything. Looking forward to the turkey breast pastrami.

TomM24

That sounds real good. I'll have a sammy with it today.
My wife is doing weight watchers and has now hit her target weight. Funny thing is pasta doesn't have many points so we are eating it more often. It been a few years since she's made it from scratch.