Final thought on Thansgiving turkey methods?

Meathead1974

I was curious as to what y'all thought about how your turkey finished out.  More specifically did all of the brining, injecting, rubbing with butter, oil, cooking on it's breast, flipping, spatchcocking etc.....make that much of a difference over just cooking it out of the package, seasoning and smoking?

I pulled my 20 lb prebrined turkey out of the package yesterday morning, spatchcocked, seasoned and smoked with a chunk of applewood.  No muss, no fuss, little prep / cleanup and it was amazing and I'm wondering, in your experience if you've done it both ways how did the no frills prep compare to the other?

500

For me, it was best I've done. http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2062386#Comment_2062386

JohnnyTarheel

I typically do two bone-in turkey breast for Thanksgiving. This is the third year with my egg. I decided this year to brine and was not disappointed as they were the best yet. Everyone eating could not believe the difference in how moist they were. I will continue to brine them in the future. 

stevez

I did a 14.8 lbs turkey brined for about 20 hours in 1 gallon of apple cider, water, brown sugar/salt.  Rinsed and let it rest in fridge for 4 hours to dry out a bit. Smoked at 350 with one chunk of Cherry wood.  After two hours it was registering 170 in the breast and 180 in the thigh.  I was skeptical and left it on for another 30 minutes.  This turkey was done directly on the grate with a drip pan beneath.  It turned out awesome and everyone loved it, saying it was one of the best they ever had.  Definitely juicy.  Deep breast meat had a great deal of moisture and was so soft it appeared not to be cooked enough.  But, it was all delicious and I'll do it again.  Forgot to say that I applied a coating of compound butter under the skin before cooking too. 

SmokeyPitt

I do a pretty standard cook and it has turned out great.  I also use a pre-brined bird (trader joes).  Salt and pepper, rub it all over with herb butter, into a v-rack over some veggies.  I start it breast side down and then when I think I'm about half way through I flip it over.  This seems to work good to end up with 160 breast, 180 thighs/legs.  Also nice even browning.  

I have done spatch as well and it is also great.  I usually do about a 20 lb bird and not sure it would fit on my large.  I might try it direct one of these days. 

Meathead1974

I had a 20lb Trader Joe's pretty brined spatchcocked bird on my large and it fit with room to spare 

Botch

I screwed up this year.
I've always had a recipe I've wanted to try, brining with Dr. Pepper instead of a salt solution; finally did it with a turkey breast this TG.  I was at work Wednesday, with the breast Peppering away in the frig, when I realized that recipe was for a ham, not turkey!  I botched it up!
The breast was pre-brined, I added maybe a 1/4-cup of salt to the Dr. Pepper just to maintain equilibrium (maybe, without the salt, the osmosis would've pulled more Dr. Pepper into the turkey).  
Regardless, it was fine.  I couldn't detect any Pepper taste, the turkey was delicious; the skin darkened just a bit too much, probably all the sugar in the soda.  
I'll go back to a simple brine in the future, no sense paying $1.50 for the soda.  I still want to try a ham soaked in Dr. Pepper, maybe Christmas?  
 
 
@JohnnyTarheel , I see you stuffed your breasts, I had spatchcocked mine but I'll try that next time, too.  

Gulfcoastguy

Marinated/brined, spatchcocked 12 pounder, with the legs and thighs separated and laid beside the breast(so as to pull off each piece as it reached the proper temp), done indirect with white meat at 155 and dark at 165, no smoke. The relatives attacked it like a pack of hungry hyenas working from the inside out. Gone except for wings and drumsticks in two hours.

Great_EGGspectations

Fresh 27-pound turkey from the local farm.  Brined it for 28'ish hours (gallon apple cider, 1.5 cups kosher salt/brown sugar, and a bundle of various herbs) and added some herb butter under the breast skin.  Rave reviews from everyone (including picky children) and it was incredibly moist.  I all for keeping it simple, but it really didn't feel like it was too much work or required a crazy amount of clean-up.

Botch

^^^ Wow, didn't know they came that big!  What sized Egg did you cook your 27-pounder on?  

Great_EGGspectations

Botch said:

^^^ Wow, didn't know they came that big!  What sized Egg did you cook your 27-pounder on?  

Cooked it on an XXL in a roasting pan with 'plenty' of room to spare.  Oh, they come bigger - there were 30+ pound birds available at the place (http://www.maplelawn.com/) that is local to me in Maryland.

Legume

I was happy, cooked two that I injected with brine the day before.  Brine was salt, water, better than boullion, crab boil, butter.  It was thin, not like a butter injection.  One I fried with a coating of slap ya mama seasoning and the other I spatched, jammed a ton of fresh herb butter under the skin of the breasts, thighs and drums then coated with baking powder and a very liberal dusting of ancho coffee rub, then cooked just under 400, indirect, raised about 4" above the felt. Toss up which was best.  The butter and high heat gave me some almost fried crispy bits on the spatched turkey.

JohnInCarolina

We did the turkey sous vide this year, followed by an Egg finish.  I'll never do them any other way.  Relatively easy to do, and the moisture level was off the chain.  The meat is cooked absolutely perfectly with the sous vide.

Jameson19

16 pound turkey. Rubbed with Weber honey garlic under the skin, lightly coated skin with canola oil, applied rub to outside of skin, tied the legs and wings with string. 

Large egg at 250° with Rockwood and a chunk of pecan (estimated 2"x5" pecan chunk).

Adjustable rig, stone, drip pan with water, one miller lite, some dry rub and the turkey neck. V-rack on top of drip pan, turkey in v-rack. 

Turkey breast hit 160° after 6.5 hours. Pulled and rested for 20-30 minutes. Sliced. Served. No finished pics, too many people circling the kitchen hungry... 

Result: very tender and moist. Rub gave it a nice sweet garlic flavor. Pecan smoke was SUPER light, but we could tell it was there. 

Our 1 year old daughter stuffed herself with the turkey, so I call it a success!