The Meatwave

Thanksgiving has come to represent not just the tradition of my family coming together for a meal we're bound to eating for days, but also the pre-Thanksgiving meal I share with my friends where we enjoy the spoils of my seasonal recipe testing. While I'm keen on keeping a set of solid recipes I make every year with my family, the friends meal is consistently different, which breeds comfort in its own way. For one thing, there will always be a smoked turkey, but the need for a different variety each year makes this an incredibly fun part of the meal to experiment with, most which turn out great, like this honey-brined and smoked turkey.

Although I've walked through my steps for great smoked turkeys before, a passing year seems to call for a quick refresher.

First, when brining a bird, you want to always start with a "natural" turkey, which is one that has not be pretreated with salt of additives. This provides the perfect bird to impart excess moisture and flavor using a brine.

While the medium and cooking method have stayed steady for years, brining is the part where things get creative. A brine is a salt solution that adds moisture to the meat via osmosis. At it's simplest, this is a mixture of salt and water, but adding flavors here will result in those flavors being implanted into meat during the brining process.

I started this brine with honey, and a lot of it. Then to build on that, vegetable stock, salt, thyme, and peppercorns were added to complete the flavor profile I was looking for when thinking about making a sweetened holiday bird.

The turkey was then submerged in the brine—in a food-grade plastic container—and set in the fridge for 12 hours to let the salty solution do its magic. The turkey was then removed, patted dry with paper towels, and it was all ready for the smoker.

Some people scoff when I say I smoke my birds hot, at around 325 degrees, since this is not true barbecue. This immediately puts me in defense mode and I quickly respond with what I believe about smoking turkey:

1. The turkey does not have the fat and connective tissue that necessitates low-and-slow cooking to properly render.

2. Turkey easily and quickly absorbs the smoke, sometimes too a fault. Shorter cooking times slightly aid in helping avoid an over-smoked turkey (not adding too much wood is the best way to avoid this).

3. While I've only had mixed results with smoked turkey skin in general, doing it low-and-slow has never produced a skin that's even close to edible, while going hotter does help here.

So it goes, I cook my turkey hot, and depending on the size of the bird and the temp of the smoker, this only takes 2-3 hours.

In the end, this is what emerges—a bird so beautifully browned it's a sight for sore eyes. While the skin on this particular bird did get tough and chewy, as can be the case with smoked turkeys, the meat was outstanding. The brine left the bird incredible moist, while the honey imparted a sweetness that's all too fitting for a celebratory holiday meal. The best part is the kiss of smoke, which can really transform what can be a rather dull meat into something surprising and bursting with flavor.

Eating this bird, I was pleased with yet another year filled with an array of pre-Thanksgiving awesomeness, which I know I can look forward to again next year, where my turkey adventures are bound to find me someplace else new and exciting.

Published on Tue Nov 15, 2011 by Joshua Bousel

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