I bought a 14 lb turkey the day after Thanksgiving last year and had it defrosting in the fridge for several days. I decided to remove the breast for one smoke, and bone out the rest for smoked turkey sausage. It would be a busy weekend with all the bacon I still had to slice from last weekends bacon smoke. So I cracked open a beer and went to work.:cool:

First I removed the breast, boned out the rest of the meat, and saved all the skin and fat in a separate bowl.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY002.jpg

The boned meat got seasonings,cure and a big glob of chinese chili paste and went in the fridge for a 2 day cure.
I did not brine the breast but it got injected with Tony Chachere's cajun butter. Then rubbed with a spicy rub.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/injectablesbutter.jpg
I smoked the breast at 300 for about 5 or 6 hours basting with left over butter marinade and then spraying with cranberry juice. I pulled it when the coldest spot I could find reached 160 degrees.

The buttery texture and moistness was fabulous. The skin was crispy and spicy.
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY001.jpg
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY010.jpg

Of course I still had bacon slicing duty with my piece of crap slicer. I felt like I was in a gun fight with a pea shooter.

But here is some more bacon porn...
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY006.jpg
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY013.jpg

Might as well make some ABT's with all this bacon laying around!:sausage:
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY003.jpg

Now onto the smoked turkey sausage. I had about 3 lbs of cured turkey chunks and about 3/4 lb of turkey fat and skin. I added 3/4 lb of pork back fat to get to a 70/30 meat/fat ratio. Ground it through my small die and fried up a little piece to taste. It was lacking flavor at this point so I added salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, and another glop of chili paste. Ground again and tasted again. Liked it this time!! I mixed in 3/4 cup of soy protien concentrate and stuffed it into 40mm hog casings.

Here's what it looked like after stuffing...
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY009.jpg
I smoked it with pecan for several hours slowly increasing the temp throughout the day until it had an internal temp of 160. Then an ice bath.

Here they are after smoking and cooling...
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY012.jpg

At this point I still had a fire in the smoker firebox, so I stoked it up with more pecan and grilled one. My crazy dogs love to fight each other. Every now and then I have to break them up. Michael Vick would be proud:eek:
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY004.jpg

This is a fine textured sausage that really plumped up when I grilled it. Here is the grilled one next to the cold ones...
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY008.jpg

And the money shot...
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY.jpg
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr267/kingudaroad/turkey/TURKEY005.jpg.

What a great weekend of smoking!! Thanks for lookin.

Wow, you were real busy over the weekend!
Great job on everything Keith!!
poi-nts

Beautiful sausage Keith! For some variation on the poultry sausage, try some celery POWDER not the seeds, rosemary, thyme, or even add diced celery, onion and carrots. Remember the carrots will add some sweet... the classic mire poix.

Last turkey I smoked (actually 3) I cured them for 36 hours in a spiced brine/cure. Boy were they good!

Outstanding smoke. Yet another post that makes me want to get a grinder. Nice work. poi-nts

Dang Keith, I can't pick a favorite picture.. It all looks amazing! Nice job.:thumb::cool:

Keith,

My wife just looked at this and said " Oh great ther goes another weekend where we don't see your father."

Thanks Gene, Rich, Wutang, Lynsey and Jeanie!!

Rich that celery powder would have been good in there. I'll have to do that next go round.

I don't know how I missed this Keith. That breast looks amazing. And the sausage.............oh my, the sausage, :drooling:. Belated poi-nts, sorry.

Heck....I missed it also! Beautiful! Do like that sausage.....:thumb:

Great look food and it makes me hungry at 11;30 at night. Great work in fact great enough for points. there.poi-nts

DITTO, what they said... ! Great Post, thanks for digging this one up again!

DITTO, what they said... ! Great Post, thanks for digging this one up again!

Ditto Scotts Ditto!

Beautiful smoke and great tutorial, sure this thread may be old but I just learned a few new things :thumb:
Pretty sure I got some points to throw at ya...

Definitely on the list to try now!

Where the hell was I when this went down. Sure am glad it got brought back to life...............................poi-nts

Edit. I owe you points for this thread.