To brine or not to brine, THAT.... is the true question of life

[LJ3]

My smoked turkey breasts have reached a popularity that I did not expect. Now it's to the point where I have to bring one to each home I visit on Turkey Day. That makes four 8lb breasts i have to smoke. I usually bring them with very nice results. I've read lots of differing theories on whether or not you should brine at all, or dry brine, or never with frozen breasts that already have salt injected in to them.

I have brined frozen, fresh, salt injected and not with very little difference, they all come out great. The only reason I'm considering NOT doing it is because it's already labor intensive enough and I have to haul these babies all over the damn state. don't get me wrong, I love bringing smoky goodness to my loved ones.

Should I brine and will my loved ones think I phoned it in this year? Oh the humanity!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I have never brined one. Started to last year and it just seemed too much work. This year I'm cooking the turkey on the BGE. It won't be a smoked turkey, at least not in the traditional sense as I'm using the BGE as an extra oven and I don't plan to add any wood chips to it. Just a long slow roast over indirect heat. The way the BGE holds moisture in food I'm hoping not to have to worry about adding anything to help it hold it in.

Just wondering if anyone has tried a turkey on theirs.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I'm a big fan of dry brining as I've done both and think it's both better and less hassle. I've never done it on the BGE as I'm never home on Thanksgiving. Everything comes out so much more juicy that, shot of the cooking getting drunk and screwing it up, I can't imagine it wouldn't be good.

I'm also a huge fan of a fresh bird, too. Frozen just doesn't compare.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Getting a fresh bird is something I've never even thought of. There's really that much of a difference?

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Umm, fresh, free range, organic, dry brined and rotisseried goodness...

[Chicken Dinner]

Barry - The process of freezing and thawing inherently dries out meat which for a turkey breast is bad news. I also think it makes the breast meat "mushier" as the fibers breakdown during the freezing and thawing cycle. Get your butt down to Whole Foods, or the Okie equivalent, and drop some coin on one of their birds and you won't be disappointed.

[Big Muddy]

One of the best-tasting turkeys I ever ate was cooked on one of these garbage can smokers....one of the guys at our old fish camp made it for about $30 bucks.





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[Thumper]

Lynn brined our last two (whole) turkeys and they came out great! I had an old Igloo (water) cooler with a broken spout. I just unscrewed/discarded the spout, screwed a bolt into the opening to seal it and that's what we use now. A regular cooler works just fine, but I had the option of finding a use for this one, or throwing it away, so we "re-purposed". It just hangs in the garage now until we need it. One'a these things:

[Niner]

I'm doing a turkey breast on the BGE this week. Hoping it turns out "real nice" (to use another Christmas Vacationism).

[Chicken Dinner]

I love that trash can smoker. #puregenuis

[BarryBobPosthole]

Reminds me of my step-grandparents (if there is such a thing). I think I was probably 16 when they finally built a house with an indoor toilet. In their kitchen, there was a fifty-five gallon barrel they used as a wood stove for heat. My grandpa had the thing all fixed up just like a pot bellied stove. The sides turned pretty red when there was a fire going in it. Yeah, they were poor folks, but hell I never knew it. Cold mornings around that stove with a bowl of oatmeal would warm anybody up. Of course you had to warm up good to take a trip to the bathroom when it was cold!

BKB

[Thumper]

I spent EVERY summer with my grandparents in the mountains of North Carolina. My "job" (I loved it) first thing in the morning was to get the old wood stove going. While it was getting heated up, it would take the early morning, mountain air "chill" out of the kitchen. Then I'd go to the hen house to gather the eggs and get 'em cleaned up (I'd many times do this the evening before). Then my grandmother would come in and get the bacon, eggs, grits and homemade biscuits going. Man-o-man, those are memories I'll never forget ... and memories most of today's kids will never have. Although she also had a "back-up" electric stove in the kitchen, she ALWAYS cooked on that old wood stove. (my other job was keeping a pile of kindling and wood cut for the stove)

My grandmother always kept an empty metal pie plate on the stove and all the eggs shells would be dropped in it as she cooked. They'd just sit on top of the stove where the heat would completely dry them out. Then she'd crush them up (they'd be so dry, they'd more or less pulverize into almost a dust-like consistency), then she'd add that to the chicken feed. According to her, that would add calcium to their diet and make their shells stronger.

[BarryBobPosthole]

My grandma and grandpa on my Mom's side had a wood cook stove but honestly I was only about five then and barely remember it. There's other stuff, like the old grey gander that used to scare the bejeebers out of me.

BKB

[Big Muddy]

Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my great aunt, just up the road a ways....she was an old maid, and had herds of chickens....yes, herds!!!

Possums would steal the eggs, during the night, and she'd go out at night, and blast the h3ll outta them with an old 12 gauge.

Many a morning, I'd wake up to the aroma of possum, boiling on the stove....she'd leave the tail hanging over the side of the pot for a "handle".

I always thought the meat was delicious....UNTIL, one day, I saw a live possum crawl outta the azz-end of one of the neighbor's dead dairy cows!!!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I've never eaten possum. I understand its tasty, but have never tried it. Folks eat coon too, but not me. I think HH eats that stuff.

Chasing possums and getting them to sull was quite a sport around our farm. If you've ever seen one do it, you know what the term 'grinning like a possum' really means.

BKB

[Thumper]

Eddie, funny you should mention that. As a teen living in Vicksburg, I was once on the other side of the river exploring a wooded area adjoining a pasture. I spotted a dead cow in the pasture and just HAD to investigate. When I got up to it, I saw it was so bloated it looked like it was about to explode. Of course I had to give it a little nudge in the belly with the toe of my boot. Then I had the bejeebers scared out'ta me when a whole fam-damnbly of possums ran out it's asshole ... errr, I mean "azz-end"!

[Chicken Dinner]

My favorite Uncle growing up was a big Coon hunter and there was always a roast coon right next to the turkey on Thanksgiving. It's okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it. I haven't ever been hungry enough yet to eat a possum. Over on the Eastern Short where I'm originally from "muskrat fries" used to be a big VFD fundraising thing. So, I've had that a couple of times and it's proof that you can deep fry a roofing shingle and it would be edible.

[Buckrub]

Mother still cooks on a wood cook stove, when she can get lazy folks to bring her wood.

I brine any white poultry meat. Water, half sugar, half salt, covered for a few hours in refrigerator. The difference is amazing. Dark meat is fine as is.

[BarryBobPosthole]

so what are the measurements there? half a cup? does it matter what kind of salt? Aren't there brining salts?

BKB

[Thumper]

Reminds me of a really cool old restaurant we used to have in town. Whenever we had out of state visitors, I always tried to take them here for "the experience". I couldn't tell you how many times I would drop in at odd hours just to sit and talk with ol' Carl. He was a simple, but fascinating guy. Not many of "him" left these days. I really hated to see the place shut down and sold after he passed away. There will never be another place like it. (Here's an article on Allen's)

A Visit To Allen's Historical Cafe

Sixteen and a half years ago, Polk County lost one of its most unique institutions. In fact, all of Florida did. There's so much you missed out on if you never had a chance to visit Allen's Historical Cafe. Cracker foods such as catfish, alligator, rattlesnake, frog legs, turtle and swamp cabbage. The wild collection of historical artifacts that covered every surface. The bluegrass music on Thursday nights.

The barn red, wood-frame building with ALLEN'S in giant white letters across the top was a local landmark. It had white-painted hitching posts out front -- and if you'd come up on horseback, I doubt Carl Allen would have minded. Allen's was founded in 1958 by Florida native Carl Allen and his wife, Jewell. It started out as a bait and tackle shop, but around 1964 Carl Allen started serving catfish dinners. "I had to take my wife all the way to Okeechobee to get a mess of catfish," Allen said. "Then one day I got me an idea: I'm goin' down there and bring me back a load, and I'm gonna cook 'em in here. And that's how I got started. I put catfish on the map."

Allen's menu was wild. As in, most of the Cracker delicacies offered were wild animals. Allen hired hunters to bring in a variety of critters including diamondback rattlesnake, soft-shelled turtle, shark and even armadillo. "I don't know why he started (cooking armadillo), but I think there was a governor at the time who loved armadillo," Jewell Allen told the Associated Press in 1998. "He was just searching for something unusual because we are unusual."

If the restaurant looked a little rustic on the outside, it was nothing compared to the historical feel inside. The walls and ceiling were covered with historical artifacts and
antique oddities that Carl Allen started collecting as a young boy. Old local pictures. One of the city's old gas street lamps. A variety of cooking implements. The keys and locks to the original county jail in Bartow. A bright green stove. Coca-Cola door handles. It was hard to just sit at one of the homemade wooden tables (each of them covered with pictures and heavy shellacked, made with a treadle sewing machine base) and not go wandering around the restaurant to see what curiosities you might notice this time. And Carl Allen could tell you stories about every one of them.

"I try not to give my customers just another place to eat, but a place where one can reminisce while taking a giant step back into the past," Allen told the News Chief in 1976.
And then there was the music. In the 1970s Allen started welcoming local bluegrass musicians to the restaurant to jam together. It soon became a Thursday night tradition, growing so much that Allen added a large music room with a stage and sound system to the back of the restaurant in 1980. "There got to be so many pickers sittin' on my tables that I couldn't serve food," Allen said. "They'd come in and sit down at five o'clock and didn't leave until 11. I don't blame 'em. They'll tell you 'If you don't jam at Allen's, you can't come to Florida.'"

Again, not that Allen minded. He founded the Florida State Bluegrass Championship in the 1970s and personally presided over it for 25 years. Carl Allen died in March 1996 at age 78. Although the Allens had a lifetime lease on their building, Jewell Allen, then 72, chose to close the doors in May 1998. That July, the more than 7,000 antique collectibles that lined the restaurants walls were sold at the largest auction Polk County had ever seen. It took four days to sell 60 years' worth of collecting. "It represents the end of an era of old Cracker Florida," Gov. Lawton Chiles, himself a Cracker and cafe regular, told the Associated Press in May 1998. "The cafe had a quality of what old Florida is really about."

[Thumper]

Reminds me of a really cool old restaurant we used to have in town. Whenever we had out of state visitors, I always tried to take them here for "the experience". I couldn't tell you how many times I would drop in at odd hours just to sit and talk with ol' Carl. He was a simple, but fascinating guy. Not many of "him" left these days. I really hated to see the place shut down and sold after he passed away. There will never be another place like it. (Here's an article on Allen's)

A Visit To Allen's Historical Cafe

Seventeen and a half years ago, Polk County lost one of its most unique institutions. In fact, all of Florida did. There's so much you missed out on if you never had a chance to visit Allen's Historical Cafe. Cracker foods such as catfish, alligator, rattlesnake, frog legs, armadillo, turtle and swamp cabbage. The wild collection of historical artifacts that covered every surface. The bluegrass music on Thursday nights.

The barn red, wood-frame building with ALLEN'S in giant white letters across the top was a local landmark. It had white-painted hitching posts out front -- and if you'd come up on horseback, I doubt Carl Allen would have minded. Allen's was founded in 1958 by Florida native Carl Allen and his wife, Jewell. It started out as a bait and tackle shop, but around 1964 Carl Allen started serving catfish dinners. "I had to take my wife all the way to Okeechobee to get a mess of catfish," Allen said. "Then one day I got me an idea: I'm goin' down there and bring me back a load, and I'm gonna cook 'em in here. And that's how I got started. I put catfish on the map."

Allen's menu was wild. As in, most of the Cracker delicacies offered were wild animals. Allen hired hunters to bring in a variety of critters including diamondback rattlesnake, soft-shelled turtle, shark and even armadillo. "I don't know why he started (cooking armadillo), but I think there was a governor at the time who loved armadillo," Jewell Allen told the Associated Press in 1998. "He was just searching for something unusual because we are unusual."

If the restaurant looked a little rustic on the outside, it was nothing compared to the historical feel inside. The walls and ceiling were covered with historical artifacts and
antique oddities that Carl Allen started collecting as a young boy. Old local pictures. One of the city's old gas street lamps. A variety of cooking implements. The keys and locks to the original county jail in Bartow. A bright green stove. Coca-Cola door handles. It was hard to just sit at one of the homemade wooden tables (each of them covered with pictures and heavy shellacked, made with a treadle sewing machine base) and not go wandering around the restaurant to see what curiosities you might notice this time. And Carl Allen could tell you stories about every one of them.

"I try not to give my customers just another place to eat, but a place where one can reminisce while taking a giant step back into the past," Allen told the News Chief in 1976.
And then there was the music. In the 1970s Allen started welcoming local bluegrass musicians to the restaurant to jam together. It soon became a Thursday night tradition, growing so much that Allen added a large music room with a stage and sound system to the back of the restaurant in 1980. "There got to be so many pickers sittin' on my tables that I couldn't serve food," Allen said. "They'd come in and sit down at five o'clock and didn't leave until 11. I don't blame 'em. They'll tell you 'If you don't jam at Allen's, you can't come to Florida.'"

Again, not that Allen minded. He founded the Florida State Bluegrass Championship in the 1970s and personally presided over it for 25 years. Carl Allen died in March 1996 at age 78. Although the Allens had a lifetime lease on their building, Jewell Allen, then 72, chose to close the doors in May 1998. That July, the more than 7,000 antique collectibles that lined the restaurants walls were sold at the largest auction Polk County had ever seen. It took four days to sell 60 years' worth of collecting. "It represents the end of an era of old Cracker Florida," Gov. Lawton Chiles, himself a Cracker and cafe regular, told the Associated Press in May 1998. "The cafe had a quality of what old Florida is really about."

[Chicken Dinner]

I've always used kosher salt when I brine fish for the smoker. But, I couldn't really tell you why. However, salt is an itneresting topic. For the table, we typically use sea salt from a grinder. However, I've got a couple of gourmet salts I'll use on different things. One is some pink Hawaiian salt my Mom brought back with her from a trip. The other is some sort of fancy fench stuff from some marsh in France. Both have very distinctive flavors which I figure comes from not having all the impurities processed out of them like a can of Morton's.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Yep, there's all kinds of salt nowadays. Smoked salt is one I get a kick out of. Haven't tried it, but I guess there's a market for everything.

Thumper there used to be some character down around Tampa too. Lots of places like Allen's. I used to eat lunch at a place down on Bayshore Drive called The Sportsman's Club. It was basically a bar, but the specialty was smoked mullet. He netted them just off the shore where the place was, gutted and split 'em and hung them over wires over a smoky fire in the back. They smoked right there in the open with the flies and mosquitos and heaven knows what else. He'd slap a piece of butcher paper on the bar and throw a couple of sides of smoked mullet on it. That, a cold beer, and a boiled egg out of the jar on the bar and you were set. It was one of me and a few buddie's favorite stops as it was close to the base and they liked GIs. Of course, most of the old farts that hung out there were retirees.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, there's a place like that just west of there (Clearwater) called Frenchy's. It's right on the beach and Lynn and I used to drive over there quite often (she LOVES their grouper sammich). We haven't been there in years ... I think we may be due for a visit.