Two years, two tough turkeys

[bewdigger]

I have had the #1 for two years now and have smoked my last two Thanksgiving day turkeys in it. Last year it came out tough and I blamed the turkey. I tried again this year with a more expensive and fresh turkey. Same result. It is not dried out, it is just tough.

It was a 12 lb bird. It was a butterball so I did not brine. Used onion, carrot, celery, and granny Smith apple in the cavity.  250 degrees. It cooked very quickly (3 hours) so I let it got to 165 internal temp. Rested it and viola! TOUGH TURKEY!

Any thoughts?   

• Tweet
• 

[TX Gent]

Howdy bewdigger

Read your post yesterday and didn't respond due to time constraints and my own cooking. I received my #1 a few weeks ago and have been smoking a number of times to gain experience with the big little #1 and not to rub salt in in your "tough Turkey" wounds, I've had nothing but great results.

Sounds as though something is "off the rails" in your smoking ... Humm

Earlier this week I smoked a chicken following others posting on this forum as a trial run and it was perfect. Yesterday I smoked a turkey to the prescribed forum norms and our 9lb bird cooked @ 250 and took all of 4hrs to reach 165 ...actually one probe was 165 and the other read 167 when I pulled the bird and immediately double wrapped it. We had a 2 hour wait till dinner and it was still too hot to bare handle it although it cut smoothly and was moist but not juicy runny. Not over smoked and received kudos from all.

You say your Turkey is not dried out but "just tough" and that leaves a wide area to interpretation. It would seem it is either the turkey ... the thaw/brine/prep/wood/spices ... or a step during the smoker to table. I'm really thinking it's the birds your purchasing. Sometimes middle of the road is the most direct route to a destination. I'm not a fan of super large highly processed turkeys like butter ball's and other's who "pump them up". Ours was a young Tom and was very lean and actually my wife considered it "scrawny" ... her words. Maybe it is the birds your choosing.

So bottom line ... go with a smaller younger tom which the packaging should indicate rather than the older "Arnold Schwarzenegger" pump me up birds.

Hope you can track down the outlier in your smoke which is yielding "tough" birds.

Keep smoking bewdigger!

John

[Meight]

This is the answer to all of your questions.  Its nearly impossible to make a mistake if you follow Meathead's instructions.

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/turkey-recipes/barbecue-turkey-and-grilled-turkey-ultimate-turkey-recipe-easily

[LarryD]

My personal practice is to always brine...  I've done 3 or 4 turkeys now and every one of them has come out incredible.  I've had fresh turkey, frozen, young, old...  they all work great.  Brine, cook at 250 until internal temp of 165, pull and let rest for 30-60 minutes, slice and serve.  For resting I just put in the (off) oven.  I also include water in the smoker.

I do use a #2, so the turkey can sit higher up away from the heat source...  I'm sure I've heard of others with the #1 being successful though.

I'm going to suggest brining regardless of manufacturer prep...  more than a couple hours and less than twelve.

[pargolfr2003]

Ditto LarryD's post. I've done a lot of whole chickens and turkeys. I always brine them using DivotMaker's recipe and they've always turned out great. I'm doing one today, in fact, and will post results later tonight. Sorry to hear you've had a couple of unsuccessful runs as all of us on here want everyone's food to turn out great. Don't give up!

[SconnieQ]

Was the white meat tough? What about the dark meat? The way you slice the breast meat makes a difference. I remove the whole breast, and slice in thick chunks crosswise. Meathead's article on Amazing Ribs does have some good advice, some of which I don't bother with, and still have moist/tender results. But feel free to give some of it a try on your next turkey. I brine every turkey, even if it has been pre-injected, and have never had one turn out too salty. I would ignore people who tell you not to brine pre-injected turkeys, until you make one yourself that's too salty. Many people giving this advice have never even tried it. So go ahead and brine. I generally use Jenni-o or Butterball, because I just can't resist the practically free prices on these turkeys around Thanksgiving. I haven't had any trouble with these being dry or tough, but I do brine them. It's more likely that a free-range or heritage breed turkey will firmer texture and seem tough, but most commercial turkeys have what some people describe as a "mushy" texture, which most of us associate with moistness. I also have a #1, and I think a #1 actually does a good job with turkeys. A while back people were saying their dark meat wasn't done enough when the breasts were done. I never had this problem, so suggested people with larger smokers start putting their turkeys back side down, on the bottom rack, so the dark meat would get more direct heat by being close to the heat source (like it is in the #1). Seems like this might have helped. So I don't think it is the size of your smoker. You might want to also test your temperature probe. If it's off by 5 degrees, that could make a big difference in an unbrined bird (brined birds are more forgiving when it comes to final temperature). Don't give up.