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This has been a project to get it right. I'm very picky on what we sell. Sometimes to a fault. This is one of those situations.
I was stuck on wanting a "whole muscle" turkey breast lunchmeat. This is the style we make at OCP. It's essentially like carving a Thanksgiving turkey.
Had I not explained this, you likely wouldn't even realize that turkey breast lunchmeat isn't usually whole muscle. It's what's called "chunked and reformed." The big industry has got so good at this deception that they even have created special cooking bags (pouches) that are shaped like a turkey breast, are buttered on the inside, and have a fake roast turkey coloring that's added to the surface. Those special pouches make it look like a whole roast turkey breast.
Whole muscle turkey breast is extremely time consuming. Each breast has to be individually pumped with brine, netted, hung in the smoker, and sliced. I couldn't find any processor who wanted to touch this process.
So I came up with a compromise. I'd make a chunked and reformed turkey breast, but done my way:
- Starting with turkey broth as a base for the brine.
- Using only pasture raised, non-gmo turkeys from my farm
- Chunking the turkey breast and brining it with the homemade brine of turkey stock, salt, sugar, and herbs
- Seasoning the turkey meat with fresh rosemary and black pepper before stuffing in a casing to smoke
Above is a photo of the final 7 samples. Those controlled for mechanical action (massaging the meat to activate proteins), water content, salt content, and seasoning. From there, I combined the results that yielded the best in each category. I think you'll really like this product!
Sold in 8 oz packages, sliced and ready to eat. Only 120 packages available this week, but we should have more next week.
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