Ben's Blog

I set out this Thanksgiving to smoke a turkey in my propane smoker I acquired this past summer.  Being my first time smoking a whole turkey I turned to the Internet for tips and tricks.  I found a couple helpful sites but had to combine information from a couple of them to get the big picture.  For anyone looking, and as a reminder for myself, I am compiling an overview here.

First – turkey selection.
Given the opportunity, a fresh, never frozen turkey is the best option as freezing a turkey can rupture cells and lead to a dryer turkey when all said and done.  Unless you raise your own turkeys this probably isn’t an option and certainly wasn’t for me.  So, find a turkey in the small 10-12 pound range and make sure it is not self basting – also do your best to find a turkey with the lowest salt solution in the packaging as this will impact the brining process.

You want to avoid larger turkeys as they take longer to cook and can leave the meat in the “unsafe” temperature range too long while cooking.  Once you bring the turkey home make sure it is completely thawed before moving on.  This can take a long time; mine was in the fridge for two days and even then I had to move to a water bath for a couple hours to finish the thawing process.  Once thawed remove the neck/gizzards and thoroughly rinse in and out.  Pat down the bird with a towel to dry and move back to the fridge while prepping the brine solution.

Next – Brining
I won’t fully explain why you want to brine, but you can read more on the subject here.  Essentially brining boils down to osmosis…when you soak a turkey in a salt solution the solution enters the turkey to bring the salt level inside and outside the bird to equilibrium.  While the salt enters the bird it brings with it all the other ingredients you include in the brine solution.  Don’t worry…this doesn’t lead to a salty flavor, in fact I couldn’t taste any salt in the finished bird.

My brine solution contained the following:

• 2 gallons of water, two pans with a gallon each.
• 2 cups kosher salt (not table salt, not canning salt, not sea salt)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup Worscheshire Sauce
• 1/2 Tbs Thyme
• 1/2 Tbs Sage
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 tsp ground pepper

I brought both pans to a boil, in one pan I mixed the salt and sugar and added all the other ingredients to the second pan.  I let both boil for a minute or two then let them cool on the stove for a bit.  Next I transferred both to a single food grade 5 gallon bucket to completely cool.  Luckily I did this when it was 30 degrees outside so a couple hours on the deck did the trick.

Once the brine solution is cooled you want to submerge the turkey and weigh it down with something heavy.  Now you wait at least 8 hours, but ideally about 12 hours, stirring the solution a bit every couple hours if possible.

The recipe above turned out great, but I think the next time I do this I will definitely experiment with the brine solution to see what kind of flavors I can add.

Prepping for Smoking
After the allotted time you remove the bird from the brine, rinse thoroughly inside and out, pat dry, and move back to the fridge for 12-24 hours if possible.  (I had to rush this part a bit in order to make Thanksgiving dinner and mine still turned out great.)  Just before smoking I cut up some butter and slid under the skin as much as possible.  Finally I loaded the turkey cavity up with a couple more cored/quartered apples and 2 stalks of celery and moved to the smoker.

Next, Smoking the Turkey
I have a common propane smoker that stands about 4 feet tall and maybe 19 inches wide.  I loaded my wood chip bin to the brim with 1/2 mesquite and 1/2 hickory wood chips that had been soaked in water for about 8 hours.  I added a couple cups of water to the drip pan, tossed in a cored/quartered apple, pepper, thyme and sage (about half as much as I put in the brine solution).

You want to measure “doneness” based on temperature, but for planning purposed I read that 40 minutes per pound is needed to smoke a turkey and this was dead-on in my case.  I basted the turkey almost on the hour with the juices in the drip pan, maybe I did this too much but I’m telling myself for now that the over basting led to a really moist finished product.  When the cooking is complete take the bird out of the smoker and let it rest for about 20 minutes to let the juices circulate – the turkey actually cooks a bit more while sitting out.

Finished Product:
I have to say, this was the best turkey I have ever had.  There was a thick smoke ring over all the outer pieces of meat – it was insanely juicy, even the wings and legs, and the taste was perfect.  There was a hint of all the flavors in the brine but nothing stood out as being overly noticeable or strong at all.  The skin was really crisp and the the meat literally fell off the bone.  Next year I may smoke two turkeys to make sure there is a bit more left over!

Good Luck with your turkey!

Sarah Palin pardon’s a turkey… She shows she can read a paper, although not very eloquently. After the pardon she steps outside to give further interviews and doesn’t realize that she is standing in front of a guy killing turkeys. The latter half of the video may be graphic.

The final stages of the year for me always starts with the preparation for deer hunting in November…after that comes a stretch of holidays and before you know it the New Year is here.  This year has been no different.

The irony of deer hunting is that I really make the trip for the camaraderie, poker, beer and the chance to spend some peaceful quality time in nature.  Sometimes this involves napping or playing Nintendo DS games in a hunting blind in the middle of a field.  Given the chance, I am not sure if I would shoot a deer – it is messy and only adds expense to the trip to have the deer processed, then comes the trouble of getting the venison home.  In the end I figure steaks and hamburger are available at Meijer for a pretty reasonable price.

This year my brother and I drove from Grand Rapids to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to hunt near the Pickford area.  The truck was loaded to the brim with garage sale furniture to fill the new hunting camp that our friend, Mark, built to replace the old camp that is showing its age.  Maybe the fact that it was built on tree stumps has something to do with the fact that it is shifting and may soon collapse.

Highlights from this trip include:

1. Arriving late Wednesday night and promptly getting the truck stuck in slippery U.P. clay/mud.  Keep in mind this is a big diesel 3/4 ton truck that is perfectly useless when not on pavement given the lack of 4wd.  Why GM would make this truck w/o 4wd is beyond me.  We used a bigger truck to pull it out and then when I got stuck again driving through wet grass we hooked a little 4 wheeler to give the truck a little “tug”.
2. Unloading a ton (literally) of wood pellets for the main cabin which uses a pellet stove as the main source of heat.  Our host figured it would take 3 tons of wood pellets to heat the house through the entire winter.
3. Going the bar (ok, 4 bars) the night before opening day and being too “tired” to hunt on opening day.  I did go out later that day and saw the only deer that I could have shot – assuming I had purchased a doe permit.
4. Helping my brother hang a rickety tree stand with a spare ratchet strap in the truck and some misc. scraps of wood to build ladder to get into said blind.
5. Breakfast at Big D’s…seriously, this restaurant has the best breakfast I’ve ever had.

My friend encouraged me to read Ms. Anderson’s open letter to Obama…I enjoyed and wanted to share with others in case she removes from her site (link to source).

Aside from the terrible grammar and spelling mistakes, I think we can all take a bit away from her sage words.  For example, I’m really in favor of the government promoting vegetarianism, and seriously…we need to forget bailouts for the automotive industry and encourage them to pick up hemp farming instead.  Thanks, Pam, for sharing your ideas with the world!

Dear Mr. Obama:
My thoughts/hopeful ideas-:
-Free Leonard Peltier- This injustice is just breeding Hate and discrimination. It would be very meaning ful to the Native American people and all of us ho have watched and been saddened by a broken system (There are too many people in jail that don’t need to be there-it IS a broken system- that enrages more people than it helps) – not saying that there aren’t people who need to be jailed while determining their fate- but Jail should be a holding cell for justice and not a lifelong waste of taxpayers money to run a spa for criminals-how does this improve society? Especially when there are real threats to our most precious citizens -our children- in most cases child molesters are walking free. Government must Castrate every molester-or potential molester- error on the safe side- if any child pornography is found in anyone’s possession-or anyone creating such atrocities-or if any child Is brave enough to come forward (at any young age to bring attention to a potential molester- listen) they need to be taken very seriously and see that justice is served-The abuse is way worse than any trial could be- our children need more protection and justice seen. It needs to be PREVENTED not just punished.

I think we should Legalize Marijuana, tax and monitor -farm Hemp etc-this would make our borders less corrupt and then I think eventually this will be more secure option and save children in the long run – we should be able to farm Hemp in America- it’s just silly— it would create jobs- and be good for environment.

Bring our Troops home safely- Stop the killing and work with Veterans to secure a peaceful way world wide-using their 1st hand wisdom lovingly across all borders together. It is not a war Economy anymore- obviously-Stop all these garbage, wasteful and ineffective ,ancient animal tests (from 80 years ago?)- create a REAL working dedicated and active group of people assigned to this issue- science is suppose to be progressive? We need to get with it- update like Europe has – it’s an embarrassment and nobody wishes this senseless cruelty to go on.

Please get rid of this private insurance and private health care system- it’s corrupt and doesn’t work-Government should take over both those areas- supplying secure government jobs where people are dedicated to their job and it is a proven system- Canada etc- supplying proper insurance to everyone – It’s much easier and government should supply these services for the taxes we pay- we would all be protected- pharmaceuticals would be affordable- to those that need it/especially our elderly- see that everyone has car insurance (there should not be an uninsured driver on the road) and health insurance- the same for everyone- isn’t this what we pay taxes for?
Promote vegetarianism-which would help end world hunger- crack down on factory farming that is killing the environment and slaughtering so many animals- wastefully and carelessly and it’s unhealthy/and it’s just impractical- to think this is monitored/regulated effectively.

Please Shut down Guantanamo Bay-figure it out- make amends/stop torture- it’s time for peaceful solutions- and cooperation world wide sharing resources and protecting each other- education, missionary work- bring the world together help each other- with resources now- its considered a very small place- We are each other’s keeper no matter what side of the border we were born-nobody is less than.

And if people are hard working why cant they work and pay taxes in America- if they have no criminal record- why do we have illegal immigration it should be made easier for people to work here- all they want to do is work- some Americans sure have a sense of entitlement that’s unhealthy, unwise and selfish at times… Thank God it’s a new day!

As of Thursday last week Holly and I still hadn’t firmed up plans for this weekend but everything came together nicely.

On the way to Allendale for a Friday morning meeting I heard an ad on the radio for the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game, featuring $1 beers and hot dogs so I called the office and invited a couple of coworkers.  It was a good game, the Griffins beat the Lake Erie Monsters 5 to 1 and the beer was cold and cheap – the hot dogs weren’t bad either.  The best part was that tickets were only $10 because we all posed as college students with our old student IDs, and the seats were really good too.

Saturday morning I woke up very early and caught a couple black and white Westerns on the Starz movie channels.  Holly woke up a bit later and began a cleaning spree so I tried to clean the basement a bit too.  By early afternoon I was a bit crazy from being cooped up all morning so I loaded a couple monitors in the back of the truck for recycling in Rockford.  I knew a coworker had a couple monitors to pitch so I picked those up and dropped off 6 old monitors in all at the recycling station – that is a lot of monitors even for two computer nerds.  I thought I was being green and sustainable until I watched 60 minutes tonight and saw a story on the pollution Americans are causing in China by throwing away electronics, especially CRT monitors because of the amount of lead in the tube.

Sunday morning I woke up early again, it must be the time change, so I had to wait a bit until the Sunday morning news shows came on in mass.  Armed with the power of DVR technology I was able to watch Meet the Press AND CBS Sunday Morning – amazing.  Several hours and a pot of coffee later I decided to replace the leaky kitchen faucet so I jumped in the car and headed to Lowes.  I found a nice Moen faucet and several other tools that were “required” to complete the project and headed home to start the project.  Everything went pretty smooth except for one one rusted nut attaching the faucet to the stainless steel sink basin.  The nut turned out to be no match for my new plumber’s wrench with telescoping handle and in no time (2 hours to be exact) I had the new faucet in place.  Before pic is on the left, after is on the right.

With that project done all that was left to do was watch football which I’ve successfully done up until writing this blog entry.  With opening day coming up I have a couple more busy days in front of me – I’ll be heading to the U.P. Thursday afternoon so I’ve only got a couple days to get everything organized.  Organization is not my strong suit so I really mean I have to find everything because it is likely strewn all over the house.