Dry brine for Turkey

So here we are that time of year, inviting the family over to watch football, eat a large bird and hopefully not hear about Aunt Edina's varicose veins. Let's focus on the bird for now, most likely a turkey. For the last decade or so people have been stressing the soak of their Tom Turkey. I am all for the brine when it comes to smaller cuts of meat, what I have against the turkey brine is the amount of space and time it takes to make it and keep it safe. If you have a meat thermometer there is a much easier way to go in creating a tasty and moist bird. And that's a dry brine. Basically all the stuff you put in a wet brine but without the water. Here are the ingredients for our dry brine.

1/3 cup kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
The zest of one lemon
1 sprig rosemary
3 sprigs of thyme

Add all your dry ingredients in a bowl and finely chop the leaf bits of the thyme and rosemary. And then add to the dry ingredients.

Then zest your lemon adding the zest to the mix and stir to combine. The mixture is now ready for your bird, idealy the dry brine would be applied 36 hours before cooking. A night in advance would be sufficient. Generously coat the exterior of the bird and interior of the turkey.

Keep refrigerated, turning the turkey over at least once to distribute seasoning. Remove the bird from refrigeration at least an hour before cooking. And roast at 375 F, until the internal temperature of the thigh reaches 165 F. Remove from oven and let rest at least 30 minutes before carving.

Making bacon

So here we go again another week long campaign in pork products, today we are starting on making bacon. First you have to cure it and the curing ingredients clockwise from the left are kosher salt, pink salt (you can only find it at the Barbie Store), brown sugar, black pepper and a little dried rosemary. Mix till equally combined.



Spread curing mixture equally over the bacon, today I had two 2 pound pork bellies.


Mmmmm salted and sugared.



Now they're bagged and tagged and I will gently flip them daily in the fridge for the next week before we rinse off the cure and then let them air dry over night in the fridge and before we smoke them. Cue Homer Simpson, Mmmmmmmmmmm BACON!

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48 hours later

So after smoking we cooked the pork butt for 48 hours.   Then cooled down in an ice bath before separating the meat juice and fat from the bag.   I will make a sauce out of the meat juice and will crisp up some of the pork with the separated fat later.