Smoked Wild Turkey For Thanksgiving 2013

Y’all can consider this to be part two to Our Family Thanksgiving Tradition which was published on 25 November 2013. I provide the link only if y’all need to catch up, refresh, or both. Whichever y’all decide to do, just hurry up, we have allot to discuss. When I left off last time I mentioned that we dressed out our wild turkey and set it to soak in a magic recipe. But, before I give y’all those details so y’all might try it out some day for yourselves, y’all must make sure you have one very specific item, and that is a 5 gallon bucket with a tight sealing lid. I prefer to get mine from Home Depot because, to date, they have yet to ever, and I mean ever, fail me for having a leak proof tight lid. But, y’all make that call when I’m not looking. Also, for the meat haters who love to hate it when I write about meat I just want you to know, specifically you, yes, a wild turkey was harmed (killed) to complete this recipe. There, I said it, now get over yourselves and either turn tail and leave or read on. Now, wash the 5 gallon bucket and lid real well, scrub it good. When it is clean and dry place it on a chair and make sure it isn’t going to fall off of it. Place one dressed wild turkey in the bucket, neck up and tail down. Pour two 750ml bottles of Wild Turkey into the bucket with the turkey. Y’all can use the basic run of the mill Wild Turkey if you please, I had a case of Rare Breed leftover from a party when I worked at the club, so I used it, well, two bottles of it anyway.

Open two large cans of whole berry cranberry sauce and pour those in as well. Wash 4 good sized oranges and slice them into 1/4″ thick slices leaving the peels on. Take all of the slices and slice them in half then put them in the bucket. Wash and cut 1 each red, yellow, and green bell pepper. Put those in the bucket now. Wash and cut 4 jalapeno peppers and place those in the bucket. I also added 1/4 cub Tabasco Sauce, 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce,  1 cup (packed) brown sugar, and 1/2 cup (finely chopped) mint leaves. Whatever space remains in the bucked fill with cool water until the liquid level is about 1 1/2″ from the top. Securely put the lid on and I mean make sure it’s on tight or you will have a mess to clean up. Carefully remove the handle from the bucket and set it aside for now. Lay the bucket on the floor on it’s side and roll it back and forth until you think everything has blended well. As tempting as it may be do not, under any circumstances, take that lid off until you are ready to smoke it. Now, I happen to have a refrigerator that I have taken the bottom shelf out of so my bucket fits just fine, you’ll have to see what works for you as it needs to sit this way for a few days. Mine sat like this for 96 hours (4 days).

After you get your smoker up to temperature it will be time for the turkey. I began my fire with red oak until the smoker would maintain about 500F, then I added some hickory and mesquite which had been soaking in a bigger bucket for a few days that was filled with water. When you are ready for the turkey just pry the lid off the bucket, reach in there barehanded, grab the turkey, and slap it on the smoker. Do not discard the remaining contents in the bucket, some of it will get smoked and some of it will be used in a bit. The remaining contents need to be strained so all of the liquid is removed. One can also “dip” everything out as well. Split the solids in to equal portions. Take one portion and put it in a blender or food processor and puree the snot out it. If it is really thick, add a little Coke. It should come out the consistency of ketchup. Set that mixture back in the fridge. The remaining portion can be placed on a cookie sheet, covered with something, and placed into the fridge. Those will be put on the smoker when there is only about 2 hours remaining. Now, do not open your smoker to look at the turkey because it is doing just fine without you looking at letting the heat and smoke out. Mine cooked for 12 hours. At the 6 hour mark I took the puree mixture and slathered it all over the turkey. Close the smoker. Discard all remaining puree.

Now that you have around 2 hours remaining of cook time, put that cookie sheet of peppers and orange slices on the smoker uncovered. They will be removed when you remove the turkey from the smoker. When the time is up, carefully remove your smoked turkey. Use “hot gloves” so you can grab the whole turkey and keep it together. Place the turkey on your selected platter, leave uncovered, and let it “rest” for around 1 hour. The peppers and oranges can be used as garnish, ground up and put into something, or just eaten, the choice is yours. We cut ours up and make a salsa concoction out of it. Your turkey will slice very easily and should have a deep smoke ring as well as a nice crust on the outside. Now has come the time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Making a turkey this way is time consuming and requires quite a bit of patience. Unfortunately there are no short cuts if you want it to come out right. I hope everyone enjoyed this information provided here today. Feel free to share it with family and friends. The more people smoking means the more opportunities there are to explore the best ways to come up with great creations.

Now, I feel inclined to add some things for the meat haters and the anti-alcohol people. First, this isn’t the only way to make a turkey, it is however, my personal way, one that works for me. First, a note about alcohol content in the meat. Since the meat is smoked at a temperature well over 172F (the boiling point of alcohol) for pretty close to 12 hours the remaining alcohol contained in the meat is way less than 5% if any at all. You will be, however, left with all the flavor that the Wild Turkey provides when used in smoking. Don’t believe me, just look it up and the answer will be revealed to you. As mentioned, yes, a turkey was killed, in fact it was killed by my 12 y/o son using a compound bow. You may not think so, but bow hunting has become a lost art with very few in the next generation being taught the skills and techniques. It’s a way of life in my family, we are not city folks, we live in the outskirts of society where being able to provide meat for the table is a gift not a curse. I’m sorry that so many people are against killing animals to eat because it makes it hard for people like myself and my family to enjoy a passion which we have all grown up loving. Unfortunately, you bastards attacked me when I published a post about the hunt, and unfortunately some of y’all will feel inclined to bitch at me and lecture me once again. Well, make sure what you say is worth a shit so I have something worthy of writing about, because if it’s not than you’ve just wasted both of our time. I’m not writing here to offend anybody, I’m just writing about a big aspect of my life, hunting and smoking meats. I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a safe holiday and had an enjoyable time, I know we did. Until Next time, remember to eat it every day.

Rub It Before You Smoke It

Before I actually get started I would just like to remind everyone that y’all will be reading about the butchering, preparation, smoking, and consumption of a pig. So, if eating meat or reading about meat is offensive to someone this would be the place to turn around and exit. For everyone else, follow me and let’s see if I can sort all of this out for you. Doing this post was actually not planned however I was asked to do a post on this subject since I knew what I would be doing this Memorial Day weekend well in advance. Otherwise, this probably would never have happened for you to see. Let me start by saying that the pig involved was butcher house slaughtered and then purchased by my dad somewhere in Katy Texas. My dad is old school when it comes to cooking outdoors, he prefers an open fire pit which no matter where he has lived we have always dug out and built up. Oddly enough, I didn’t actually learn to much of anything about cooking/smoking/grilling from my dad. There is an exception tho, growing up I was exposed to it by him on a regular basis, however, in his words, “smokin’ is for adults” and I was barely allowed to watch anything. So, I learned most of what I know as I traveled the world. However, in the last ten years, my dad and I have gotten kinda close and therefore things we like to do sort of overlap. In the end, we have been able to show each other new tricks and twists in the way we cook. That goes in many directions tho, as y’all have read here before, we build and remodel quite a bit together as well. So, lets get this ball rolling so I can explain what the hell happened.

 

As mentioned, there was a considerable amount of preparation that took place before this pig ever hit the pit. Unfortunately, I don’t have actual recipes for everything I will be discussing, but I have faith in the cooks out there that they will understand and be able to duplicate it if they choose. First of all, there was a two step preparation to the pig, an all over injection and all over rub. What can I say, I like deep, deep flavor, flavor beyond the smoke, flavor that goes down to the bones. We will need to talk about the dehydration of some things first. As always I will let you know you are free to Google things that I tell you to because the process is too long and sidetracks the conversation. With that being said, I had to prepare my personal pork meat rub. It’s tried and true, yet very time consuming to prepare because of dehydrating the tequila. Yes, you heard me, I use a meat (jerky) dehydrator and I essentially “crystallize” or “powder” tequila. I am sure there is a scientific term for it but I have no idea what it is. What I can tell y’all is that I started with two 750ml bottles of Jose Cuervo Silver tequila and after dehydration it yields just under 4 cups. Sounds like allot of work but there is plenty to keep doing for that 5 hour process. Other ingredients in my rub include, but are not limited to, cayenne, habenaro, chiles, lime rind, orange rine, salt, pepper, and some chili powder. All ingredients are ground together with in a pestle until it has the consistency of fine grain sugar or somewhere close. I also do an injectible where pretty much every inch gets a deep flavor injection so there is flavor to the bone. Using four 750ml bottles of Jose Cuervo Silver tequila and a handful of hydrated spices the mixture becomes a slurry about the consistency of cough syrup. Some of the items used are salt, pepper, habenaro, lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice, Tabasco sauce, and some liquid smoke. Before this pig gets the rub down of a lifetime it gets injected with my concoction from head to toe.

After it has been injected and rubbed down it needs to rest for a few days in a refrigerator or in a freezer set in the 50’s F. In my case, I did all the prep work of the injection and rub the weekend before and then prepared the meat Thursday night. After that it sat until early, early Monday morning where it was placed on the open pit for 14 hours. It was cooked at an average temperature between 225F to 255F the entire pre-dawn and well into late morning. Other than flipping this pig every 4 hours nothing else was added as far as seasonings. I used a combination of two woods for this smoke, Hickory and Red Oak. I like allot of rich smoke which in turn penetrates deep into the carcass and makes the meat fall off the bones every time. If you have never open pit smoked anything then you don’t know what you are missing. However, I understand great food isn’t for every person’s taste because that is just life sometimes.

I mentioned this entire ordeal was completed at my parents house for the Memorial Day holiday. In addition to my family, my parents, both sisters with kids, a family my parents are friends with next door to them, we also had some yankees (northerners) that were in town on a break from RV’ing and also friends of my parents. In the area of the United States we live, southeast Texas, sites like this are fairly common. But, as I was informed, the yankees found it to be a ghastly site and in all their years of life and travels  have never seen anybody pit smoke an entire pig in their backyard before. Well, Welcome to Texas you traveling yankees. Their tune changed after they began eating and then the smiles were everywhere. I still don’t know if it were all the margaritas they were drinking or if they actually liked the smoked pig. Matters not to me actually because I really only about one person liking what I cook and that person is me.

 

Overall it was a fabulous weekend and holiday to spend with friends and family. We had allot of great food as well, we could have easily fed 10 more adults. Luckily, we had no injuries and no mishaps occur so that was a total bonus. I got a little sunburned according to my wife but as I looked this morning I didn’t see anything and neither did I because that is just how I tan. I am tired tho, I slept very little this past weekend and I am definitely feeling it today. As summer comes into full play now y’all can expect to see more of me smoking it up and so forth. Anybody wishing to have more details on my methods, ingredients, or additional information can comment on this post or e-mail me and I will see what I can do to accommodate those requests. Until next time……………

 

Smoked Bacon Eruption

This is my personal version of the popular Bacon Roll. There are many versions found everywhere imaginable, whether it’s called a pork fatty, bacon bomb, etc. No matter what you call it or how you slice it, it’s an insane smokey barbecue flavor in an artery clogging roll. If you have a smoker, you have to try this one. Remember, moderation is the key when eating a Smoked Bacon Eruption. Enjoy.

Ingredients

Makes: 1 roll

• 2 pounds bacon, thick sliced
• 2 pounds sausage (italian, breakfast, sage, or whichever you prefer)
• 1 cup cheddar cheese (finely shredded)
• 2 whole habanero peppers (thinly sliced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 jar dry barbecue rub, approx 16oz (I make my own)
• 1 bottle barbecue sauce (I use a Southern Comfort mixture)

Preparation Method

Prep: 20 mins | Cook: 2 hours

 

 

1.) Take 1 1/2 pounds of the bacon and do a basketweave/lattice of bacon. Sprinkle the weave with some of the dry barbecue rub. Cook the remaining bacon until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and reserve the cooked bacon for the filling.

 

2.) On a cutting board, roll out the sausage to the same size as the weave. I use a gallon ziploc bag and leave the top open a bit so the air can escape. It makes a perfect square that will fit on your bacon weave. Cut the plastic bag away from the sausage and discard the bag. Place the sausage square on top of the weave.
 

 

3.) Sprinkle the crumbled cooked bacon, the cheddar cheese, garlic and the habenaro peppers over the sausage. Pour some of the barbecue sauce on top of the filling, spreading it thin, and sprinkle with more of the dry rub.

4.) Roll up the sausage in the bacon and weave into a tight roll.

5.) Place the roll on the smoker for approx. 2 hours (give or take, depends on your heat source) or until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees F. During the last 20 – 30 minutes, baste the roll with the remaining barbecue sauce. There is no need to keep checking it after you have closed the smoker, it will cook just fine all by itself.

6.) When the roll comes off of the smoker, let it rest for 30 minutes before slicing. Serve on freshly baked biscuits or buttered Texas toast.

 

I personally like mine served with sunny side up eggs and Texas toast. However, the Smoked Bacon Eruption can be eaten for any meal with any sides you may desire. The leftovers make excellent sandwiches the next day, warmed up or cold.

 

Oddly enough I’m not a huge fan of bacon as a stand alone meat. However, I do use bacon as a wrap for quite a few things since it adds a certain quality to the taste due to the make up of bacon and it’s fats. Bacon lends excellent flavor to many other foods. Take this Smoked Bacon Eruption as the prime example, the main part of it is the bacon on the outside but get a true nature of the flavor of the sausage that gets sealed in and serves as a surprise to the taste buds because one would expect that all that would be tasted would be just the bacon. I am sure this Smoked Bacon Eruption could also be cooked in the oven or broiler, but you will never achieve the proper smokyness without putting it in a smoker to absorb the essence of the charred woods. Anyway, this is my personal version of what has become a real popular loaf for people to prepare all year round. I hope you enjoy it if you attempt to make it. This loaf gives great opportunities to explore with different flavors and textures.

 

Bacon Wrapped Kickin’ Smoked Rabbit

I recently found myself wanting rabbit. Rabbit isn’t a complicated meat to cook and there is a variety of ways to prepare and cook it. Since I tend to smoke, roast, or grill any meat cooked at my house, I chose that I wanted to get some rabbit ready for smoking. Before I begin I will tell all of you that the rabbits used to make this meal were killed by me, field dressed by me, later skinned by me, and eventually placed in my freezer by me. The rabbits were killed using a bow and arrow by me and my son on my property in late January this year. I have learned that killing and immediately eating the rabbits causes mass shrinkage to the meat, about 40% is lost due to shrinkage. However, if you dress and skin the rabbit and place it in the refrigerator for 48 hours it lets the muscles relax resulting in very little shrinkage, about 5% or less. I chose to freeze mine since I wasn’t in the mood to eat rabbit at the given time. I will assume if you are interested in preparing this recipe that you have knowledge in prepping whole animals or can adapt to get the end result.

 

With that being said, I will explain the brine I used and how to make that. For those of you who cook game or fresh kill animals I don’t need to explain that the meat must rest for at least 48 hours in the refrigerator before it can be used to reduce the shrinkage of the meat. I used the meat from three rabbits, meaning 6 straps and 6 rear legs, all cut into 6oz pieces or somewhere close.

 

Brine

 

2 cups real maple syrup

2 cups Southern Comfort whiskey

1 cup juice fresh squeezed from oranges

1/4 cup Tabasco Sauce (original)

1/4 cup Habanero peppers (finely chopped)

1/8 cup coarse sea salt

 

Whisk all the ingredients together until it is very smooth. Set aside.

 

 With the next step of preparation you will need slab bacon. I use slab bacon because of the amount of fat it contains because it keeps the meat tender and juicy. Slice the slab of bacon into pieces just under 1/4″ thick. Now, take each piece of rabbit and completely wrap it in bacon and secure the bacon to the rabbit using toothpicks. After all the rabbit has been wrapped in bacon, begin placing it in the brine, making sure to completely cover each piece. Once all the rabbit is in the brine, place in the refrigerator for 2 hours to let the meat rest and absorb the brine. I prepared mine the day before giving it about a 21 hour soak.

I personally used my medium sized smoker. I pre-soaked my wood in a watery mixture that contained salt, pepper, Southern Comfort, lime juice, and some maple syrup. After my fire reached around 480F I let it cool slowly to around 240F and then placed in the wet wood which brought my temperature down to 180F. Place the bacon wrapped rabbit on the smoker with about 1/2″ between the pieces for best smoke penetration. Now, don’t touch it for 2 to 2 1/4 hours. Don’t even look at it. There is no need to open the smoker to check on the progress, it is doing just fine on it’s own. After the time is up the bacon wrapped rabbit should be dark and smokey. Remove it from the smoker and serve with whatever you choose, you had plenty of time to make side dishes.

 

I hope you enjoy this recipe. If you do not have rabbit available, squirrel or chicken can be substituted as the meat choice. Let me know what y’all think. If you have any questions please free to ask me here or e-mail me. Just use something that refers to the rabbit recipe in the subject line.