GatewayRedbirds.com

Ha. Well, it turned out good.

I went ahead and spatchcocked it like 33 suggested and was glad I did due to time constraints.

Brined it for 36 hours in a salt/sugar/orange/spices solution.

Got it ready the morning of with some apples in the cavities and thyme/sage/rosemary/salt/pepper/tonys seasoning.

[SHOW]

Got the smoker up to about 300 degrees.

Put the drip pan in with some apple juice/whiskey/veggies. Doing this cooled the smoker down to like 250 degrees for some reason...even about 20 minutes later.

Here's the drip pan after cooking

[SHOW]

At this point we had to put the turkey on because...time. So, at 10 am, I put it on at 250 degrees. Added two hunks of cherry and two hunks of apple wood. The smoker immediately dropped to 200 and stayed there for about 30 minutes. Then it started falling. So, at about 11, I added another chimney of charcoal to a pretty full charcoal load (which was a pain int he ass). The smoker went from 180ish to about 230.

By noon, I knew the turkey wasn't going to be ready to pull off the smoker by 1:30, so I went ahead and got the backup turkey (yeah, I wasn't too confident) ready to throw in the oven and got that one ready (dry brined 7 pound turkey breast, spatchcocked that bad boy too and cooked it in an hour).

At 1:30 or so, the turkey was getting a little closer. Internal breast temp was about 150. We took the drip pan out, and the fire got up to about 260. Ate thanksgiving meal at 2:00. After that, pulled the turkey off about 2:30. The internal temp was perfect. 163 in the breast and 175 or so in the thigh. It rose up a little higher to 168/170 in the breast and 180 in the thigh before starting to cool down. As soon as the turkey came off, the smoker shot back up to 300 degrees. Carved up the turkey around 7 or so for the second meal.

[SHOW]

totally forgot about the injector there....if you notice it was, uh, not used

It had plenty of flavor, and was extremely juicy. Probably one of the best turkeys I've ever had if I'm being totally honest. Everyone liked it, so that's all that matters. And, my family isn't one to give false praise to make the chef feel better. That said, it was worrisome that the smoker wouldn't get above 230 or so with everything fired up and turkey/drip pan on.

Just a couple thoughts in closing. It may be that the turkey/pan both being on in addition to the water pan simply choked too much of the air flow. Obviously throwing room temp hunk of 13 lb meat on will cool a smoker down, but it should eventually work its way back up. I'll keep working on it.

On Friday we smoked a 3 lb hunk of salmon and that worked out real well with no issues getting the smoker hot enough. We did it at 200, but had to shut the vents down to get it that low.

All in all, a success.

AW, that looks really great. Some thoughts on your temp/airflow on your Weber.

Are you keeping the vent on the top open? That's crucial to keeping air flowing through, and to keeping stagnant rancid smoke from collecting in the top. This is a thing I did not know until about my 8th smoke day when a buddy was over and corrected me.

How much buildup do you have in the bottom, around the wood and coals? Plenty of room down there for the wood to breathe? Nothing blocking the open vents down there?

Put the drip pan in with some apple juice/whiskey/veggies. Doing this cooled the smoker down to like 250 degrees for some reason...even about 20 minutes later

Doing that is obviously always going to act as a heat shield of sorts (and is actually beneficial in a lot of cases because the temps can sometimes spike on you). Maybe a smaller drip pan would be more ideal to allow the heat to flow around it as opposed to blocking it. Also remember that the temp on the grill itself is going to be hotter than the thermostat (assuming it's located in the lid).

Whew!! At that temp I'm surprised it wasn't a little over done. I always pull mine at about 158-160 and let it rest until it hits right about 165.

Glad to hear it was a success!! In the future try brushing the skin w/ some olive oil when you're checking the bird and the skin will come out a really nice dark golden brown.

Although, if I remember correctly you used cherry wood (I did as well) so the skin is always going to be a bit darker.

All that said, great job!

Fat_Bulldog wrote:

cardinalkarp wrote:

Fat_Bulldog wrote:carp,
That's exactly what I did and mine turned out fantastic.

I know a lot of people do multiple birds, but I'm convinced, if you're not smoking one of them you're doing your family a great injustice.

I smoked 2 big turkey breasts and 6 giant turkey legs.

We also did a ham in the oven. I love stuffing the birds with apples and oranges in the smoker.

I even smoked a pan of dressing/stuffing (sausage, apple sauce, pecans, etc.) The smoked stuffing was out of this world good.

Agreed. I've now smoked/fried/roasted turkeys and my personal favorite is smoked. I think it's the best. Smoked dressing sounds like a great idea.

33anda3rd wrote:AW, that looks really great. Some thoughts on your temp/airflow on your Weber.

Are you keeping the vent on the top open? That's crucial to keeping air flowing through, and to keeping stagnant rancid smoke from collecting in the top. This is a thing I did not know until about my 8th smoke day when a buddy was over and corrected me.

How much buildup do you have in the bottom, around the wood and coals? Plenty of room down there for the wood to breathe? Nothing blocking the open vents down there?

Yes. I did the minion method of starting the fire that I saw online a couple times (unlit charcoal with enough room to add the lit chimney). I had all the vents completely opened. I kept a stick around to stir up the charcoal through both the vents and through the little door that I'd open up about once an hour to make sure it was all good. I think it was an air flow issue due to the pan/turkey.

cardinalkarp wrote:

Put the drip pan in with some apple juice/whiskey/veggies. Doing this cooled the smoker down to like 250 degrees for some reason...even about 20 minutes later

Doing that is obviously always going to act as a heat shield of sorts (and is actually beneficial in a lot of cases because the temps can sometimes spike on you). Maybe a smaller drip pan would be more ideal to allow the heat to flow around it as opposed to blocking it. Also remember that the temp on the grill itself is going to be hotter than the thermostat (assuming it's located in the lid).

Whew!! At that temp I'm surprised it wasn't a little over done. I always pull mine at about 158-160 and let it rest until it hits right about 165.

Glad to hear it was a success!! In the future try brushing the skin w/ some olive oil when you're checking the bird and the skin will come out a really nice dark golden brown.

Although, if I remember correctly you used cherry wood (I did as well) so the skin is always going to be a bit darker.

All that said, great job!

Thank you. I really appreciate all the advice/tips from everyone on here.

One thing about the lid thermometer, I stuck a thermometer in the little hole that weber has cut out for them (in between the 1st and 2nd grate) and it was only about 10 degrees warmer than the lid thermometer. I also knocked the rubber gasket thing out and couldn't get it back in...so I ended up with this setup for the rest of the day.

[SHOW]

Also, yeah, I basted it with butter a when adding charcoal but really hesitated to even open it up because it was so cool in there. After it got up a little higher and the drip pan was out, I used that to baste it too. Added a lump of cherry the last hour as well to darken the skin up even more. Pointless, probably, but it made it look pretty bad ass.

Huh, that's a good point on the temp. I didn't even take the temp after getting it off until an hour later or so when it was at 165. I guess it's possible it spiked past that and cooled down.

Oh, and in the future just keep in mind that most meats aren't going to adsorb much of the smoke flavor after an hour or two max, so to keep tossing wood on there after that probably isn't going to change the flavor much (smokiness wise). Once the meat gets past that cooking time the layer that adsorbs the smoke flavor is already cooked and the smoke won't penetrate much deeper (hence the smoke ring you see when you cut into after it's cooked).

edit: and obviously good thinking w/ the additional meat thermometer below the cooking service, it just gives you a much more accurate sense of the temp of the fire

Haha I knocked the gasket out of mine too, it took me the better part of an afternoon and a trip through the encyclopedia of profanity to get that thing back in.

33anda3rd wrote:Haha I knocked the gasket out of mine too, it took me the better part of an afternoon and a trip through the encyclopedia of profanity to get that thing back in.

haha. it took maybe 5 minutes to put the thing together and an hour to get that thing in in the first place. I still haven't put it back in. Smoked salmon the next day with it completely out.

Worse than a rubiks cube for a color blind person

looks pretty damn good.

if i learned one thing from smoking big hunks of meat (my pig roast over the summer), its that its a freakin art and no corner should ever be cut.