Xmas01-turk

This is the turkey on the SECB right before I closed it up. You can see the sirloin roast peeking out from underneath the turkey on the lower grill. The probe thermometer is in the beef to start with and once it hits 130 it was pulled off and the probe was put into the breast of the turkey.

This is at about 6am, the SECB is fired up and it's just about time to get the meat going. After 36 hours in the brine, the turkey was dried with paper towels and then rubbed with oil. The reddish blob that appears to be laying in the mulch below the turkey (in the blue dish pan on the footstool) is actually a 3 lb sirloin tip roast that was rubbed down the night before with Wild Willie's (from Smoke 'n Spice.) We were planning on a 1pm feed, the turkey was done and rested right on time, the sirloin roast was done a couple hours early but rested nicely wrapped in foil in a slightly warmed oven until time to try it. The sirloin roast was juicy, slightly pink in the middle and easily and by far the best roast beef I've ever cooked personally and close to the best I've ever had (that's roast beef, not including rib roast/prime rib.)

There it is, a 13 lb fresh-frozen turkey swimming in about 2 gallons of apple juice brine that I got from The Virtual Weber Bullet website. BRINE RECIPIE The brine was premade at home without adding the water and then made the trip to my in-laws for use later. The brine was brought to the correct concentration by adding water and poured over the turkey in an oven roasting bag. The air was mostly removed and the bag put into the cooler along with 2 bags of ice to keep everything nice and cold.

This is the turkey sometime after the sirloin roast was pulled off and before the turkey hit 165. The foil pack is the neck and gizzard that had already been parboiled slightly to be used for gravy, I was attempting to put a little smoke flavor in them as well.... the gravy didn't really taste smokey but it turned out very good anyway! You can also see my recent modification to the SECB, the addition of a thermometer 'port' on the side of the cooking chamber (this is the same deep fry thermo that I used in my SnP.)

I pulled the turkey at about 12:15 when the breast hit 165. The turkey rested about 30 minutes wrapped in foil and then I started carving. The apple/brown sugar/citrus brine gave a slightly sweet taste to the turkey, it seemed more apparent to me in the dark meat than in the white. The meat all had a nice smoked color to it as can be seen in this picture of the turkey with a leg/thigh removed. It was all VERY tasty. I will pull the bird off when the breast hits 160 next time, I feel the white meat could have been juicier than it was (but was still not what I would call dry.)