British BBQ Society Forums

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!!!

Good looking bird.

Looks great.
Planning a test run, for Xmas dinner, tomorrow.
That's if I can find a bird today.

Local butcher is going to deliver my turkey this evening.
He understandably didn't have any but rang his supplier who agreed to despatch one this afternoon and have it at the butcher's for closing time.
Top man said he would deliver it this evening after he shuts up shop.

Curlie028 wrote:Local butcher is going to deliver my turkey this evening.
He understandably didn't have any but rang his supplier who agreed to despatch one this afternoon and have it at the butcher's for closing time.
Top man said he would deliver it this evening after he shuts up shop.

Now that's what I call a good butcher, shame he's so far away.................from me that is

Turkey was delivered as promised.
Smoked it on Sunday and I'm not normally not one for "over the tops" but OMG!
If you have never smoked a turkey, try it everyone.
Didn't do a thing to the bird. It arrived oven ready and I just poped it in the WSM.
Bought a syringe this week on Amazon so will source something to inject for Christmas dinner but everyone agreed it was the best turkey they had ever tasted. The boss made the most fabulous turkey holandaise with the left overs on Tuesday night.
Best response was the boss, who always insists she is in charge of the Christmas turkey (probably in case I ruin it) and she wants me to order a second and she is going to do loads of turkey holandaise for our annual New Years Eve murder mystery dinner.

Just bought a 4.5kg turkey from aldi for £9.99 so going to give this a try.