My 1st Turkey, used Mad Max recipe. A+++

my 1st cook was this 12# turkey. i've only cooked one turkey before and it was on my propane smoker last year. basically, didn't do anything to that one (no brine, no seasoning, etc.) and it was not impressive.

this turkey was using J Appledog's Maple Brine, and Mad Max's Turkey Recipe. it was fabulous... i've never seen white meat like that before.

i didn't have ALL of the brine ingredients (no ginger or thyme), and on the cook side, i didn't have a trivet so the bottom of the turkey was in the juice, as opposed to 1 inch above the juice. i didn't really get any "crud" in the bottom of the pan but did have a ton of juice for my gravy.

variations from Mad Max:
. did not tent this at all
. did not baste this at all... couldn't find the baster and was away for the final 2 hours, so just let her rip.
. did not rub any oil on the skin (forgot)
Everything else was per Mad Max.

Questions/unclear about Mad Max:
. final temp I'm looking for in the breast? I used 161, but its not specified. Once it rested while i made my gravy, i did rotate the leg and it almost fell off.
. can i eat that stuff inside the turkey? he said to discard the apple in the roasting pan, so i don't know if the apple & onion inside the cavity are ok to eat.

GRAVY... ummmmm, yummy.
was absolutely fantastic. I put a lot of celery, onion & carrot in my stock but didn't use it all at the end. i cut up all 3 plus the meat and tossed it all in the gravy.
when i was making it with two sticks of butter, 1/2 cup of flour was nowhere near enough... i'm sure i ended up with a whole cup or a bit more. I used 16 oz of wine and that taste (was a cheapo white Rhine) stayed with the gravy - i wish it was a different tasting white - the Rhine seems a bit bitter, but i don't know jack abut wine. Maybe I should have used some MadDog 20/20 for MadMax Gravy :laugh:

time was about 4 hours around 325.
primo setup:
. drip pans had tin foil on them as a deflector
. main grate was set to low position
. roaster pan was on the grid extender
. i had 3 small rectangular cake pans (my wife wasn't happy I used them) filled with water under the roasting pan, kinda per Mad Max cause i didn't want the roaster to get really hot and possibly char my drippings. in retrospect, i don't see how this could have happened anyway as that pan was full of juice and the tin foil was making this indirect. will skip that next time.

i was going to try the turkey on the raised grate, but that would take me off Max's recipe, so I'll have to try another one per CharWoody's recipe posted on the primo forum.

can't wait until the next one - which will be next week.

jaymer...


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