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BBQ Related Topics => BBQ Recipes => Thanksgiving Meal & Turkey Recipes => Topic started by: NOVYQUE on October 17, 2010, 02:45:51 pm
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I am smoking my first turkey as I type this. Started of by placing the turkey in an apple brine. Did that for 20 hours. Then I pulled it out and rinsed it off and pat dried it. Placed it in the fridge for 5 hours or so. Around 1pm today, I started up two chimney
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Going back out to check temps and cleanup a bit.
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Wife just changed her mind...now she wants a cherry cobbler instead of peach. Off to the store to get the cherry filling.
BTW, just checked the temps...WSM is at 300F and turkey is reading 107F in the breast. Smells great out there. On our way to a good meal...
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thanks for the play by play!
cool! 8)
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WOW, you have me hungry now. Sounds like you have a great meal going there.
Thanks for the step by step & pictures.. Keep them coming..
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The TURKEY IS DONE!!!!!!
Haven't tasted the turkey yet, but it sure does look and smell good. Just waiting to the dinner guest to arrive and then I will begin carving it up. For now, it is wrapped in foil and resting in a cooler.
Making gravy now with some of the drippings.
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Looks god James. We just did a turkey ourselves Thursday. Next time melt the butter in a pan and put some seasoning in the butter and let it cool a bit. Then dunk the cloth in the pan and then wrap. Just another layer of seasoning on the bird.
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Looks great. Can't wait to smoke some up ourselves... Let us know how it tasted..
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OK, not much turkey left. Everyone loved it! It came out very moist and juicy. Best turkey I have had in a long time.
Here is the last picture, turkey sliced and ready to eat. Dark meat and white meat separated.
SmoknAZ- Thanks for the tip. I will have to try that next time. I did melt the butter this time, but I did not add any extra seasoning. Then I drizzled the butter over the cloth. Pre soaking and then wrapping it sounds like a good deal. Might have to try that next month when I do it for TDay. When you wrap it, do you keep it at a single layer or do you double or triple it? I pretty much had 1 to 1 1/2 wrapping on it and was somewhat surprised how brown the skin got. I pulled the cloth off after the turkey reached 155F and then put it back on the smoker 'till the breast came in at 165F. Skin crisped up a little bit more but not as much as I would have liked it to have been. Any ideas?
All in all, I was very pleased with my first turkey. A lot of prep work, but in the end, well worth it. Looking forward to doing my next one.
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I just single wrap with the cheese cloth.
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Great Job. Looks awesome. I also love the play by play. ;D 8)
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Looks great.T Day is right around the corner. Nice job on the pics and info.
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Anybody looking to do a turkey on their Weber kettle grill, this one is absolutely delicious:
http://www.weber.com/grillout/RecipeDetails.aspx?key=72&cid=6
Usually I'm not a turkey fan, but this one really is superb!!
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I can't see the pics. When I click on them it says link is broken. Anyone else get this or is it my computer?
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Yes, all the old links will no longer work, sorry, they were off the old server.
Please repost if you can..
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Thanks Mike, didn't mean to break the link or what ever you call it. :(
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Sorry it took so long, but I finally got the picture's back up on this posting.
I wanted to get them up this past weekend, but ended up smoking 30+ pounds of pulled pork with my neighbor. We used 2 different recipes and both came out very good. His was a little on the spicy side with a touch of agave in the sauce to help sweeten it up. I went with a more citrus side and had a peachy BBQ sauce to go with mine. Both were really good and the whole neighborhood really enjoyed it before going out to trick-or-treat.
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Now that I have one turkey under my belt, everyone say's that I am ready for Thanksgiving (they all said it was great and no extra practice was needed). Hmmm.... I sure hope so (I always think there is room for improvement). My next question is...One bird was good and there were little to no leftovers. I like many others always want turkey sandwiches the next day or two. I think I have enough room in my smoker (18" WSM) to put two turkeys in it. One on the bottom rack and one on the top rack. Does anyone think that there would be an issue doing this? The drippings from the top rack would fall down onto the bird below it before it would go into the drip pan. Would this be too much for the second bird? or am I just worrying too much?
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How is the turkey if you cook it the day before T-Day and then reheat in the oven? Still nice and juicy and moist?
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Not sure about a whole turkey. However, when I reheated some of the leftovers, I had them in a small zip lock bag. I put the bag in the microwave with the top of the bag open a little bit. The reheat was great and the turkey stayed very moist and juicy. I have done this with pulled pork too and had the same results. Zip Lock bags are a wonderful thing :)
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I'm sooooJealous...I would love to smoke a couple of turkey's I'll have to wait till I get back to the states in early DEC before I get to smoke anything......It's been a long six months!!!!
Rob
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Since the first turkey went so well, I am doing the same tomorrow! Only difference will be that I am smoking 2 turkeys. I will have one on the bottom rack and one on the top rack of my 18" WSM. I did learn an important lesson last night while preparing the turkeys/brine...Once you have the turkey in the bag to brine, put the turkey in the cooler with a layer of ice on the bottom. This will help prevent the bag from falling to the side when it is full of liquid. :( Unfortunately, I lost half a batch of my brine mixture when this happened to me. The kitchen floor and counter were a very sticky mess. The only thing I could do was add more apple juice and water and hope for the best. It was too late to make a new batch. I hope to post some more pics tomorrow as I start the smoking process. I plan on having them on the smoker by 7:45 am at the latest. Serving at 12:30 pm. I hope it goes smoothly with the extra bird and my time is not off be too much. I am giving me an extra hour and a half cushion from what it took me last time. If done early, they can always rest :-)
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James, you can also put a lg. trash bag in a ice chest and put turkey, brine ice, etc. inside, then when your done clean up is alot quicker and you don't have to wash the cooler if it's not cross contaminated ! We did 32 turkey's last year so it helped alot with clean-up!! :)
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We use new 5 gallon paint buckets like the orange Home Depot ones or from Ace Hardware. The lids pop down nicely and they can either be cleaned and re-used for turkey or for weeding,car washing etc.
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Great idea's for alternate brine bags/pails. Might use one next time.
As promised, the turkey's are on the smoker cooking away. I ended up putting a dry rub onto the turkeys this time. Thought it might help in giving the skin a little bit more flavor. I also injected the turkeys again with a mix of maple syrup, honey and butter. Wrapped them with cheesecloth that was covered with melted butter. Didn't add any seasoning to the butter since there was a dry rub already on the turkey's. Hear or the pics as they were being prepared and put onto the smoker. The smoker has been maintaining a temp around 265 this morning. I would prefer it to be a little hotter, but that is the way it goes. I still anticipate the birds being done in about 3 to 4 hours. Enjoy.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!!!!
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The lid temp has finally gotten over 300. I had to close my vents a bit and now I am holding at about 315/320 range. The bird is at 138. Looks like I should be on target for my 12:30 serving time. I hope to post some more pics when I pull them off to rest.
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The day is finally winding down and I am able to relax. Everyone loved the turkey...even my neighbor came over just to "sample" a bite. He walked out with a few extra bite's in a small bag. :-)
Here were the final two pictures that I took as I was pulling the turkeys off. They were good and I now have some leftover turkey for sandwiches this weekend.
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Looks Awesome. Great job. Thanks for the recap and pics
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I thought I saw you were using apple, but I couldn't find it. Is that what you smoked with? We butterflied our Norbest turkey--I assumed the whole time it was enhanced...8% maybe? so I didn't brine it. It's fairly moist..I took it off with breast temp of 169, so it could have been pulled earlier. Oh well. 9#, cooked in right at 3 hours, temps started @200, I coaxed an upward climb after about 1 1/2 hours to just under 250. Worked out well.
Found your response on another thread saying you were using pistachio too. Hmmm. Not the secret I thought it was...Especially since I found out about it here...
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Great looking birds. Thanks for the pics & recap. Looks like a very successful cook...
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Dave, you are the one that actually recommended me to use pistachio wood per the suggestion of Vince of Rhythm and Que. This was from your post when I first introduced my self to the club. Didn't think it was a huge secret. I used it on my test run turkey and thought that it had a very mild smoke flavor and did not dominate the bird. This was good. Would I use pistachio on other meats?? not sure...maybe fish (salmon)? Hmmm....sounds like I have a new smoking project to work on.
I will say that it was a bit challenging to find pistachio wood. However, I did find it at BBQ Island.
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Congrats, great looking bird!! :)