Today our large turkey went into the brine. This brine is a bit different than the one I use for smoking the bird. For this brine I used:
- Peppercorns
- Whole sage
- Fennel seed
- Oregano
- Thyme
- Several sprigs of fresh Rosemary
- 2 gallons apple cider
- 2 gallons water
- 2 cups Kosher salt
- 2 cups Brown Sugar
- 2 oranges, quartered
- 2 lemons, quartered
For the brining container I am using a large ice chest. It was a sqeeze to get him in there but it will work just fine. Once the cool brine is poured over the bird, I weigh him down with bags of ice.
Today I also pulled the turkey that is to be
smoked from it's brine and rinsed it well. You want to get as many of the herbs and spices off as possible, plus make sure that it is rinsed of the salt completely. Once rinsed and patted dry, he is retured to the brining bucket that is now full of apple cider. He'll spend the afternoon in there before going into the smoker later this evening....
As for the fryer chicken and turkeys........they got the special treatment this morning....
That whole jar of injection sauce was put into the two birds. The chicken on the left is a home grown bird....the turkey on the right will be our deep fried turkey.....
Here they are after injecting. I also pour the sauce into the body cavity. These guys will each be deep fried in the morning.
I have also assembled 2 pans of candied sweet potatoes, 1 with 1 without marshmellows.
Other things to do today...
- Assemble green bean casserole
- chop veggies for stuffing
- bread bread for stuffing
- boil eggs (for devilled eggs that I will make in the morning)
- Mom is making the pumpkin pies
- Make an apple pie
- Make green stuff
- Wash and iron the tablecloth
- Put leaves in the table
- Clear the buffet table
- Clean and sanitize the turkey fryer
- Chill the cranberry juice cocktail
- Put turkey into smoker
Our oldest son is back in town to celebrate with us....and it looks as if Bekah will be here as well!! If Bekah is here there will be one mean lemon merengue pie on our dessert table for sure!!
I am getting excited about our friends and family coming together on this day of Thanks. What a blessing!
1 comment:
Isn't it funny how wonderful those meat birds are. When we tell folks that they are the size of a turkey they just look at us like we are nuts! Sounds like you'll have a very blessed day! How is the great ChiXperiment coming? Is that bird one of those?
Post a Comment