[Tempe BBQER]

I am going to try to smoke a Turkey tomorrow, I have never done one before and I was wondering what is a good wood to use?  A friend said cherry I was wondering if anyone has any ideas

[jmcrig]

I think about any fruit wood would be good. Be careful with the Cherry wood, don't over do the smoke. Apple might be an easier choice till you become more comfortable with smoking birds. Another good one for poultry is grape wood.

[n2dabluebbq]

WOOD FOR SMOKING AND BARBECUING

When picking out wood for smoking, the rule of thumb is to use fruited hardwoods. This may be a nut, berry or a common fruit tree like Apple or Cherry. Some of the most popular smoking woods are Pecan, Hickory, White Oak, Apple, Pear, Cherry and Mesquite. Never use Pine, Cedar, Fence posts, Kiln dried lumber or Railroad ties.
Any wood used for smoking should be cured for at least one year, although split wood does cure faster than round wood it still must be cured to burn properly.
Green wood contains all the sap and moisture that kept the tree alive before it was cut down. When you try to burn green wood, the sap produces a super strong tasting smoke and it turns your meat black after only a few hours. Also with green wood it

[tbonejc]

I'm gonna do one to.  I'm going to try pecan with maybe some maple mixed in because the injection I'm gonna use will have some maple syrup in it.  Just to try.

[AzJohnnyC]

I'm sticking with apple.

[skou]

Since a friend gave me a bag of Jack Daniel's barrel chips, I'm going to use them with Kingsford's blue.  I'm doing 4, 12 pounders,and 1, 20+ pounder in my new ProQ.  The boss gave all the employees a turkey, and a friend is getting her turkey done, too.  (I figured that it would take about 25% more charcoal to do 5 turkeys as one in this new rig, so I volunteered to do turkeys for whoever wanted, from work.)

Any suggestions for things I haven't thought about?  Yes, I'm brining them.

steve

[Quiggs]

Did apple last year with great results!!  Going to do two this year the same way......

[azkitch]

The info I've read said we shouldn't smoke turkeys larger than about 15# if we're smoking LOW. I ran my smoker at about 325--that's with the damper nearly closed. I still think I could get my offset over 400 if I tried...anyway, I did 2 12#ers in about 4 hours last year with apple. Good stuff. Apple, lemon, peach, pear, orange, grapefruit all have excellent reputations. I've heard mulberry is very good too, and I've heard cherry alone is easy to overuse. Mixed with pecan it's supposed to be excellent. I'd love to get some pistachio. Heard great things about that, too.
That'll be 6 cents, please. Inflation, ya know. And tax.

[kingbrutis]

I have a pellet smoker so haha. I'm going to use grape and pecan, cause thats what I have. I have mesquite, but thats for the brisket @ midnight. Hopefully will be ready for the Skins whoopin of Dallas!!!!

[skou]

Hopefully will be ready for the Skins whoopin of Dallas!!!!

Brutis, if anyone whoops Dallas's @$$, i'll be happy.

Sorry for the locals here, but my 2 favourite teams, the 49ers, and whoever is kicking some Cowboy butt!  Hey, I was born here, but back then, Az didn't have a football team.  They moved one in, and I'm not impressed.  I grew up in the greater San Jose area,and the 9ers took hold.

Now baseball, well, that team was born in my hometown (or, close by) so I'm a D-backs fan!  The Cards moved from Chicago, to STL, to PHX.  D-backs moved from PHX to PHX!

Enough of that, let's get ready for some football BBQ!

steve

[Tempe BBQER]

Thanks Everyone for all the great advice.. I spoke with the guys at BBQ Islands as well and took their advice also.... I am going to give cherry a try. This is just a test and several friends use cherry and have great success.. Will try to let you know how it turns out

[jmcrig]

Good luck with your bird. Enjoy it.

[Tempe BBQER]

I was also wondering does anyone know about how long it should take? I have seen everywhere from 3 hours up to like 12.. It's 12 pounds... Sorry for all the questions, I have smoked chickens, ribs, butts, brisket but never a turkey!!!

[jmcrig]

I'm very poor guesstimate's. I always go by temp.