TALKIN' TURKEY!! (The official/unofficial turkey thread)

Wampus; thanks very much for starting and bumping this thread. We had discussed smoking our first turkey this year a couple days ago and low-and-behold there is all the info I could possibly use...:thumb:

Wampus: thank you I just ordered my turkey cannon. Got my BPS west coast offense last week so I'm all set. :thumb:

spinningwheel said:

Wampus; thanks very much for starting and bumping this thread. We had discussed smoking our first turkey this year a couple days ago and low-and-behold there is all the info I could possibly use...:thumb:

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:lol: I know, right? The exact same thing happened in my house the other night. I started looking around and BAM!

I'll once again be in charge of the bird this year. The last couple of thanksgivings I did a savory brine which turned out well, but always cooked in the oven. This year I was thinking of trying it on the grill, but didn't know if it was possible as I've never done it before. All I have is an 18.5" weber kettle. Doable??

Wampus said:

I've never deboned a gobbler. Not sure how it would affect the cook really.
I've seen where people have deboned and then trussed up a turkey or chicken into a nice tight "roll" so it would cook evenly throughout. While that makes a lot of sense, I'm not sure how it would affect overall cook length.

The one cool thing about NOT deboning and just leaving it "au natural" is that you get more surface area that way which means more smoked skin! :thumb:

I've also never tried bacon at all on a turkey. Personally, I think if you brine a bird, you'll not have the "juiciness issue" that's usually a challenge for a lot of roasted or smoked turkeys. I'm a BIG proponent for brining in general, but especially for turkeys.

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Deboning would shorten the cook time, even with the bird rolled and tied into a roast. The bones seem to soak up a lot of heat and slow down how fast the meat absorbs the heat. As an example, a couple of days ago I made a boneless pork loin roast that cooked in 1 1/2 hours. The recipe I used calls for a loin roast with the ribs still attached, and it takes 2 1/2 hours. Same temp, same oven, add bones = more time.

Having said all of that, use temp as your guide for done-ness and you'll be golden.

I wouldn't worry about the bacon for juiciness. It might add flavor, which is always good. Brining is the way to go, but I usually dry brine with salt and pepper instead of wet brining. In terms of flavor and juiciness between the two I don't see much difference, I dry bring because I don't have the room in my fridge for a turkey in a pot.

Wampus said:

I think so.

I've done turkeys on the kettle before and the challenge always seems to be to prevent the sides (legs and thighs) from getting scorched due to the more direct heat from the coals on the sides.

Obviously, it depends on the size of your turkey and how you set up the kettle with charcoal. Perhaps a nice diffuser with coals UNDERNEATH is a good plan of action? You'd have to either lift your diffuser up or hang it from the cooking grate to prevent the direct heat, but I think it may be worth the effort.

ANYTHING is possible. Just depends on the prep and amount of effort you're willing to put into it.

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Never done a turkey on a kettle, but have done an 8 lb chicken. I took an aluminum pan and cut and shaped it so the sides reached all the way up to the bottom of the cooking grate. When I started the charcoal I used the aluminum pieces to corral the coals on the sides and the height acted as shields to limit the amount of direct heat to the chicken. It should work the same for a turkey with some adjustments for the size difference.

Humble Soul said:

I'll once again be in charge of the bird this year. The last couple of thanksgivings I did a savory brine which turned out well, but always cooked in the oven. This year I was thinking of trying it on the grill, but didn't know if it was possible as I've never done it before. All I have is an 18.5" weber kettle. Doable??

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I have done many on a 22.5 inch kettle. The trick is to get a bird that will fit between the coals. Trussing the bird can help. Perhaps you could practice with a large chicken to see is it will work.

smoked rotisserie turkey on the UDS

Im doing my first smoked turkey on the UDS this year, and wanted to know what temp everyone cooked their bird at. I have a brine, and truss down. From what I see everyone is cooking in the 325-400 range. Wouldnt a lower temp, and longer cook provide more smoke flavor? Thanks brothers for the info.

49erUDS72 said:

Im doing my first smoked turkey on the UDS this year, and wanted to know what temp everyone cooked their bird at. I have a brine, and truss down. From what I see everyone is cooking in the 325-400 range. Wouldnt a lower temp, and longer cook provide more smoke flavor? Thanks brothers for the info.

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In my experience, longer smoke time does not provide more smoke flavor. I is easy to over smoke poultry. Also, higher temperatures create crisper skin, if you like to eat the skin. An option would be to crank up the temperature at the end to crisp the skin. Also, how much work is it to run your cooker at a low temperature? For most people, higher temps are easier to maintain.

I'm with dasr4 on this one. It doesn't take long or much wood to get a nice smoke flavor into poultry and it's pretty easy to oversmoke it and have it come out tasting like a tire fire. A hot cook keeps everything moist and skin crispy. When it comes to turkey, put the spurs to it and run WFO!

So I should run my weber charcoal at 300 or so?

Crotonmark said:

So I should run my weber charcoal at 300 or so?

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Kettle? I run mine as hot as I can get it, I never take a grate temp because all I care about is hot. I would guess that it's in the 350-375 range, possibly as high as 400

Crotonmark said:

So I should run my weber charcoal at 300 or so?

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I aim for at least 350 degrees, but I always start with all the vents open and about 25 lit coals per side.

Thanks

I see in the post a few recommended woods for smoking turkey, but I wonder if you guys have an absolute favorite?

I've got access to some dry as a bone hickory that might not give off that much smoke, then some cherry. Haven't had luck finding any seasoned pecan or apple.

Cherry goes great with turkey and also provides a really nice color to the bird.

Butterballs instructions for cooking a turkey on a covered grill that I printed out in 2001.
This is how I cooked my first turkey and many more before I switched to the minion method. Otherwise, I still use this method for all but the fanciest occasions.
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