Effects of Finishing Diet and Cure Procedures on Quality of Smoked Poultry

A series of experiments showed that acceptable cured/smoked poultry could be produced with cure times less than 50 hours when sodium nitrite and ascorbic acid were included in the cure solution. Although turkeys fed a 2000 kcal. M.E. finishing ration were smaller than those fed 3000 kcal. or an N.R.C. stepdown ration, there were no differences in percent eviscerated yield, percent change in weight after curing or percent cooked yield. Higher concentrations of salt and nitrite were found in the thigh meat than the breast meat. The low energy diet birds had the largest amount of salt and nitrite in the breast when compared to the high energy and step down diet. Smaller birds, while having no significant differences in weight after curing, were found to have a larger concentration of salt and better color development when compared to larger birds for the same duration of cure. Adequate cure ingredient absorption was obtained with 16 to 32 hours of curing by soaking with broiler chickens. However, brine injection in thickly muscled areas of medium to large turkeys seemed to be required. Cooking to an internal temperature of 76° C. gave better cooked yields than cooking to 79° C. (78.6% vs. 70.5%). Total aerobic bacteria counts of smoked turkey averaged 2.5 × 103/cm.2 after 3 weeks storage and 5.5 × 106/cm.2 after 6 weeks.