Practice Turkey Cook

dsleight

Have some family coming over for the upcoming holiday and thought I better do a test run on spatchcock turkey.  Turkey was factory injected (didn't read the fine print on the package), but that did not turn into a problem.  Brined the bird in a maple syrup/salt/apple juice mixture overnight.  Cut out the back and used Dizzy Dust on and under the skin.



Bird cooked about 2 hours or so since it was a 10 pounder.  The final product smelled great, but the presentation needs a little work.



Even though it looked a little crusty, nothing but delicious moist meat underneath the skin.



The new thermoworks Smoke worked great.....but that is another topic.

Dwayne

bgebrent

What temp were you running.  This was indirect cook yes?  And always add butter under the skin, just my 2c.  

dsleight

bgebrent said:

What temp were you running.  This was indirect cook yes?  And always add butter under the skin, just my 2c.  

It was running around 325-340 degrees raised direct, just a little higher than the felt line (1").  I will try the butter next time, thanks.

tikigriller

Is there something that caused the "presentation" looks?  Is it from cooking direct?  Would indirect make a difference?  Sliced up, that bird looks like it was incredible!!!  My wife will freak out though if I put a bird without the stupid picture perfect tv style presentation on the table. We are going to do two just in case. One in the oven so she is guaranteed a table picture. Bet everyone eats the egg version though no matter how it looks. 

I think your your bird looks awesome. Looks like food I want to chow down upon, so your presentation gets a thumbs up from this belly anyways!!!!

Gulfcoastguy

I will be doing one for the family reunion November 20th. I'm going to hack the leg quarters off and cook them separate so that I can cook them to a higher internal temperature. I'll just put them on the same platter afterwards.

Carlyn2828

That is exactly what mine looked like last year. Delicious though. Going to do a practice run in a week. Didn't brine mine last year. Def going to do that and try for a different look. I did mine indirect...hmmm...

dsleight

Doing the bird indirect would prevent the extra dark bottom........It really didn't matter as the blackened portion was mostly just the internal breast bone.  I only mention the presentation due to the splotchy dark brown areas on the skin, does not look like an oven roasted bird if that is what someone was going for.  I did not have a problem as most of my group peel off the skin anyway.