British BBQ Society Forums

Anyone done one of these on a smoker that can give some pointers?

I usually brine my turkeys with aromatics for about 36 hours or so, then cook in the oven. Assuming I get my UDS built this side of Christmas, i'd like to cook Christmas dinner on the smoker.

Does the 225-250F still apply?

What about foiling?

Stuffing the bird?

I did a small turkey in a weber kettle about 20 years ago - but to be honest, I have forgotten what I did, and it was a small bird (think very large chicken size).

Thanks!

Smoked Turkey ............. yum!!!

I have done a couple on the kettle, I gleaned most of my info from the VWBB, they run a few threads on "how to do it" and lets face it those guys should be able to get it about right.

Information that I work on is as follows (careful I am only a backyard burner!!)

For food safety reasons about 14 lbs is about the maximum size beast you should be looking at (takes to long for the temperature to get past the danger zone)

Can cook in the 285/300F area, Turkey absorbs the smoke more readily than say pork or beef and is not as tough a meat anyway. Brine or inject to aid the moisture.

From my memory it is not advised by the experts to stuff the bird again for food safety.

My experience is that the flavour is better the next day when it has all had a chance to meld, so, I would cook the day before and reheat as needed. Not so impressive to look at on the day though.

Hope this helps a little.

Temps help alot - thanks.

So how long would a 14lb turkey take?

And how important is the brining.
I don't brine my chickens and have never had a dry one. I tend to leave a foil tray with liquid in, in the coals.

I never brine chickens either, but I've had very good results with brining my turkeys.

My instinct says to use a foil tray for the turkey and then cover with foil a few hours into the cook.

Am I right?

Deffo brine did turkeys last year on Kamado Joe awesome

aris wrote:Temps help alot - thanks.

So how long would a 14lb turkey take?

Somewhere in the eight to ten hour range is what I would be aiming for as a guide. The skin will be uneatable, some people ramp up the temperature towards the end of the cook to crisp it up - I have not tried so don't know how successful the method is.

I expect we will be having a Turkey for Thanksgiving towards the end of November (strange American custom when millions of Turkeys are murdered, cooked by several different methods and devoured by people who can't use a knife and fork) I will make a few notes if you like?

A short review of "Thanksgiving Turkey 2011" is in this section somewhere

aris wrote:I never brine chickens either, but I've had very good results with brining my turkeys.

My instinct says to use a foil tray for the turkey and then cover with foil a few hours into the cook.

Am I right?

I would put a pan below the turkey to catch the drippings (on the charcoal grate of my kettle) but have never put any foil over the bird, I would expect if you are brining or injecting you should not have any problems with it drying out.

Search on here for turkey there are lots of hints and tips and have a butchers at this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbtZZpyj4A0

I have used the below method for the last 3 years for both Thanksgiving and Xmas turkey and its never let me down, if nothing else the use of bags of ice on the breast for a while to make the breast a lower temp at the start is fantastic.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/madmaxturkey.htm