brine or no brine?

I would loosen the skin and rub underneath directly on the meat. Rub the skin with oil, we like to use sesame oil.

There are many ways to cook a turkey....

Brining isn't a necessity, it just creates a moister and sometimes more flavorful bird depending on what spices you add to the brine.

I prefer to brine using Patio Daddio's Ultimate Thanksgiving Brine..

We got a 10# butterball also, rub under skin with butter, herb mix (thyme, sage, parsley), canola on skin. Cook at bout 325. May do a spatchcock.

I've always done Butterball turkeys for Thanksgiving, that is what I was brought up on and that is what is easily available for me to find around here. Since I started smoking them a few years ago I have always brined them. I add a few spices I like to the brine, and I figure it couldn't hurt to brine for ~24 hours.

Yes...

+1 Yes...

I feel it also provides some level of forgiveness of the bird tending to dry out if cooked too high. IE: the dark meat versus white meat being done conundrum.

Yes to brine and no to mop

Brine. I add extra flavors to my brine.

I never brine and they are always juicy.

Cooking at 350+ thou.

What he said^

I did one no brine with cherry wood chips and charcoal on my weber kettle it was awesome and was gone. I seasoned with with weber kicken' chicken seasoning and basted it with olive oil to brown the skin. It was good and looked like a tv turkey you know golden brown skin. The skin looked good but was junk for eating but the meat was the most juicy and tender turkey I ever had and my family demolished it there were no left overs and it was a 22lb bird

I've smoked Butterballs for years. Love 'em. No need to soak them in all that nasty stuff. Just smoke'em and eat 'em.

Hint: ALWAYS turn the bird breast side DOWN. All the juices will run down and stay in the breast. Moistest meat ever. And don't cook the fool thing too long.

I know Alton Brown says not to brine turkeys that already are fortified (butter ball honeysuckle) because they will be to salty. I would only brine a fresh turkey.

revkab said:

I've smoked Butterballs for years. Love 'em. No need to soak them in all that nasty stuff. Just smoke'em and eat 'em.

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Compared to the nasty stuff companies use? Wouldn't you rather know what it is soaked in? That being said, see my comment below.

Hint: ALWAYS turn the bird breast side DOWN. All the juices will run down and stay in the breast. Moistest meat ever. And don't cook the fool thing too long.

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From AmazingRibs:

Breasts up!

Some people like to cook breast side down because they think fat and juices will percolate down and keep the breast moist. But juices simply can't travel much through muscle fibers which confine them. They are not straws and the breast is not a jug of juice that flows with gravity. When you sleep on your stomach, your chest doesn't swell does it? Especially since the fibers in the breasts run horizontally, not top to bottom. And if they could flow, pressure would push them up, away from the heat, like the liquid in a glass thermometer.


And where would these juices come from? Visualize an upside down turkey. The breast is maybe 3" thick at most. What is above it? The cavity. No juices there! Even if the cavity was filled with liquid, there are no pipelines for juices to travel through. In fact, the breasts sit on the rib cage and beneath that is the pleura, a semi-permeable membrane that would hamper flow.


If you turn your bird upside down because you want fat to baste the breasts, alas, breasts have little fat. It's in the skin, which would be below the breasts if they were upside down, so melting fat would just drip out, not bathe the meat.


Finally, if you cook breast down, you smush the breasts and put marks on the skin, and if you put the bird in a roasting pan, the skin will probably not brown properly. Ugly.

BigTSmoker said:

I know Alton Brown says not to brine turkeys that already are fortified (butter ball honeysuckle) because they will be to salty. I would only brine a fresh turkey.

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I love AB. But, I have a hard time finding a bird that is not enhanced. All seem to have an 6-8% solution. I still brine them. Scientifically, it is not like you will be doubling the salt by brining. The osmosis will balance out the salt so there is equal outside the bird as is inside the bird.

Brine it, inject it, dry it, rub it, cook it (to the correct temps), slice it (right), and eat it.