THE FLIP SIDE

Get brining for best Christmas turkey

After years of smoking enough Christmas turkeys to fill a grocery cart, we’ve finally learned the secret to cooking the perfect bird.

That ah-ha turkey moment occurred on Thanksgiving with the first bite of our holiday bird. Brining your bird before smoking or roasting it in the oven is the ticket to a moist, delicious turkey.

Brining is simply soaking your turkey in salt water and some seasonings for several hours. A good brine is a cinch to make, only takes a few minutes and helps the meat come out moist and loaded with flavor.

I finally gave brining a try after years of cajoling from my buddy Hog Ears, the best outdoor chef I know. The fabulous fare he whips up over a campfire or on the grill is haute cuisine.

Every Christmas day, Hog Ears smokes a turkey where he lives in Alaska, and I smoke one here at the shackri-la. Christmas evening, we send each other pictures of our finished turkeys.

Hog Ears has always preached the virtues of brining. I finally gave in and tried on Thanksgiving day. Friends and neighbors, from now on, I’ll always brine.

Search around, and you’ll find as many brine recipes as there are concoctions for chili. I took an idea here and another there to create my own brine. The result was the best turkey we’ve ever cooked. Here’s all you do.

Add two gallons of water, a cup of salt and two cups of brown sugar to a large pot. Pour in a pint or two of apple juice. Slice up an unpeeled orange and add it to the pot.

Toss in five or six bay leaves, three or four cloves of minced garlic, half a handful of dry rosemary or three sprigs of fresh. Add some pepper. Leave out, substitute or add any seasonings as you wish to make your own recipe. The water, salt and brown sugar are the base ingredients. Bring everything to a boil, then let it cool.

Next you’ll need a bucket, pot or similar container large enough to hold your turkey. A small ice chest was perfect for soaking our 11-pound Thanksgiving bird. Pour the brine over the turkey so the bird is submerged. Soak in the ‘fridge or other cool place for 16 to 24 hours. We soaked our turkey for 20 hours with good results.

Take your turkey out of the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. Discard the brine and smoke or roast your turkey as you normally would. Hog Ears and I both use a kettle-style charcoal grill to smoke our Christmas turkeys. Get a good sized pile of briquettes going on one side of the grill. Use plenty of charcoal.

Soak some hickory chunks or whatever smoking wood you like in water for 15 or 20 minutes. Set a chunk or two on the hot coals. Place your turkey on the cool side of the grill grate. Secure the lid so the vents are over the turkey to draw smoke over the bird.

How long to cook depends on how hot the fire is and the we smoked on Thanksgiving was done in about 3 1⁄2 hours with the temperature inside the grill around 350 degrees.

Most turkeys come with one of those pop up things that tell you when it’s done. Our bird was done before the gadget popped up. A digital thermometer registered 165 degrees when inserted into the breast. We took our turkey off the grill, let it cool for 30 minutes and enjoyed the best turkey ever.

Just a side note: If your favorite outdoor chef doesn’t own an instant-read digital thermometer, it makes a dandy Christmas gift. No more guess work knowing when food is done.

That Thanksgiving turkey was so tasty it vanished by the weekend. Can’t wait to smoke another on Christmas and send Hog Ears a picture to keep our holiday tradition going.

Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected].

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