Thanksgiving is a big thing on this side of the pond, no so much to a Brit who looks upon it as a practice run for cooking the Christmas Turkey!!! So, my mission (ok, order from Mrs Rat) smoke a twelve pound bird for Thanksgiving Dinner and don't make a mess of it!!
First hunt down victim, 59 cents a pound for frozen turkey (fresh would be better I Know, but by the time it's smoked you will never know). Total cost just over seven dollops for a 12 pound bird (who said Turkey's don't go cheep).
Inject victim - Kraft Italian dressing was chosen, I know it's a bit tame but had to consider other people and didn't want to go to wild on the flavour. Seasoned the outside with Everglades.
Set up Kettle for smoking, charcoal behind firebricks with a little Hickory, water/drippings pan on remaining fire grate, minion method for starting burn, target temp of 250F from gauge in dome lid for the duration of the cook.
OK, Turkey on, lid on, temp leveled out about 260f so walk away and leave it alone. There was a few gusts of wind which seemed to make the temp rise to about 275f and then drop back to the 250f mark again, but this is top of the lid temps so I am not to concerned about it.
Seven hours later had my first peek, looking good, fire holding up well, give it another hour.
At eight hours, internal temp a hair over 165F so off that puppy comes. Incidentally, fire still going strong and good for another couple of hours if needed - not bad on about six pounds of charcoal!!
The end result, injection helped keep the bird moist with the thighs being a delight, white meat good with the whole bird having the Hickory smoky taste with a bit of Italian flavour going on as well.
So to sum up, not a bad practice run for Xmas!!!