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Bird
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Smoking Turkeys
11/09/07 06:39 PM
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I've smoked both beef and pork ribs, beef brisket, pork loin, turkey roast, and beef tenderloin in my Great Outdoors Grill Co. 34" Wide Body Smoky Mountain Gas Smoker as seen at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3342508 but I hadn't smoked a whole turkey, so I decided to do a practice run today before deciding whether I wanted to smoke a turkey or just roast it in the oven for Thanksgiving. I didn't take time to "brine" it as recommended. I just washed it, patted it dry with paper towels, spinkled a lttle salt in and on it, and rubbed it with olive oil before putting it in the smoker. A 12.61 pound turkey for 9 hours at the lowest temperature setting, using a mixture of mesquite and hickory chips and now I wish I'd made a picture of it when it came out of the smoker. It was as pretty as any I've seen and tastes pretty good, too. 
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egon
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/10/07 06:13 AM
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That sound delicious Bird. 
Some day I'm gonna make another smoker out at the lake. 
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Pat
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/10/07 08:25 AM
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Bird, Say again the driving time from me to you!
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Pat]
11/10/07 06:47 PM
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I don't know your address, Pat, but I'll bet we could find the driving time on Google Maps. Whew, we've been gone all day about 125 miles south of here at the Texas Air Festival at Texas State Technical College (TSTC), formerly an Air Force Base, at Waco, TX. Last year was the first time we had gone, so we went again this year with my brothers. It's a good air show with a lot of WW II planes, a Pearl Harbor reenactment, lots of pyrotechnics, stunt pilots, etc. They were supposed to have an F-15 demo, which they had last year, but since the F-15s have been grounded, a couple of F-16s came and put on a good show.
So we've just been home long enough for me to have a great big turkey sandwich on sourdough bread.
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Pat
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/11/07 09:50 AM
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Waco, Used to be famous amongst us aeronautical types for its old Air Corps memories but then it got overshadowed by the Whacko of Waco.
Sounds like you saw about the same sort of reenactment show I saw at Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station where there were authentic WW II Jap(anese) Zeros bombing the runway. The old barracks were converted to office spaces and the "break room" had a large mural depicting torpedo bombers landing at Ft. Lauderdale. The most prominently featured plane was piloted by George Bush Sr. We used his barracks room for an office for 3 weeks.
Sounds like you had a nice outing. I will finally get to do a night away from home in the camper. Going to Arkansas for Turkey Day. Ah, I can just about imagine the tryptophan coma now...
Google... I used to think Mapquest was the cat's meow but Google earth can catch and hold me for longer than I care to admit. I need a timer/alarm to break the trance and let me move on to other things!
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Pat]
11/11/07 06:37 PM
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Yep, Pat, I suspect it was a very similar air show. And I used to use Mapquest, too, but now I just use http://maps.google.com/ I've printed out their directions from my house to a motel where we stopped for the night in Tennessee and then on to West Virginia, and in an 1100 mile trip, their distances were less than 2 miles different from my odometer.
And speaking of using a camper, and asking about driving distance to our house, the Dallas Destiny RV Resort shown at http://www.destinyrv.com/dallasrvresort.htm is less than a half mile south of me.
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Chuck52
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/12/07 11:07 AM
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Bird,
What temperature were you running? I've got the electric version of your smopker and plan to try a turkey for Thanksgiving and was wondering about the necessary time. So far, for ribs and a pork roast I smoked, I've kept the temp in the 220-240 range, and that all came out fine. The turkey I bought is about the same weight as yours and I didn't think it would take as much time as that, but maybe you were running at a lower temp?
I've been saving some sweet potatoes from the garden to smoke along with the turkey. If you haven't done them, they take more time than ribs to get good and done at 220-240. I guess they'd be pretty health eating if I didn't add half a pound of butter to mine when I eat it.
Chuck
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Pat
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/12/07 01:58 PM
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Bird, as tempting as your turkey cooking sounds, I have committed to taking my wife to see her cousin the park ranger in Arkansas for Thanksgiving and on the way back a rendezvous with a friend I met on TBN.
I had a friend who tried to smoke a turkey back in the 60's...
but he couldn't keep it lit!
I checked out the campground web site. LIke WOW!!! Pretty fancy place. I got an automated response to my query. LOts of discounts at places like OUtback, Six Falgs and on and on but unfortunately (I think the response was automated) they didn't respond to a single question I asked. Maybe later.
I have been using Mapquest out of habit but will be trying Google map service you referenced. I have to avoid Google Earth as it puts me in a trance and I spend tooooo much time playing there. What a neat program!
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (11/12/07 02:27 PM)
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Chuck52]
11/12/07 03:59 PM
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Chuck, I had the LPG burner turned down as low as it would go, but I had the damper closed as far as it would go. And it was a fairly warm day with no breeze at all, so the temperature stayed up around 250, a little more than I wanted. And I didn't take the turkey out until the second time I checked the breast with the meat thermometer and it was between 175 and 180. It wasn't dried out, but it was definitely cooked well done all the way through. I think an hour less would have probably been fine. And while it's pretty tasty, and looked great, it didn't get quite as much smoke penetration as I would prefer. I think I need to use more wood chips next time, and I've heard that soaking overnight in the brine then tends to draw the smoke in more. From what I've read, you want to smoke a turkey 30-40 minutes per pound, so that would have been about 6.3 to 8.4 hours. I'll bet 7.5 to 8 would be good enough.
And Pat, the Dallas Destiny RV Park has been there as long as I can remember, but many years ago it was a KOA and it gradually deteriorated until it wasn't going well at all, but the new owners really put some effort and money into fixing it up. So it's not cheap, but it's a nice facility. I go around there to get my 20 pound LPG bottles refilled for the grill and smoker, and my brother and his wife have stayed there in their 5th wheel occasionally for a few days at a time. Of course I don't know why they call it the "Dallas" Destiny RV Park since it's about 20 miles north of the Dallas city limits or 35 miles north of downtown Dallas.
Incidentally, we're at exit 461 on I-35E, so if you subtract that 461 from the nearest I-35 exit to you, you'll see how many miles south of you we are.
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/12/07 05:29 PM
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Well, I may change my mind about needing more smoke penetration. I happen to be very fond of turkey ala king (or chicken ala king), so that's what I had for supper just now, and it just doesn't get any better than what I just ate.
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Chuck52
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/13/07 10:02 AM
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Bird,
I'm not sure when I'll do my turkey because it looks like the Thanksgiving schedule will be "interesting" this year. However, I may try the brining thing overnight, simply because that sounds like a good way to thaw the bird! Then I'll be smoking with apple, crab apple and Bradford pear wood. Those are pretty mild, so I'll use a pretty good amount. The electric version of the smoker has only a small pan for wood chips, and it doesn't get hot enough to really generate any smoke, so I put the chunks right on the heating element. The only problem I have with the smoker is clean up afterwards. The water pan doesn't catch even a reasonable part of the drippings, and when they hit the wood ashes on the bottom of the smoker it makes a real mess that's hard to clean up. If the bird will fit on the second rack I may try putting a larger drip pan under it on the bottom rack. If that works for the bird, OK, but I really like to fill the smoker racks when I smoke ribs. Even if I line the bottom with aluminum foil I'll still have the ashes on the heating element. Ah well, at least what comes out has all tasted good so far.
Chuck
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Chuck52]
11/13/07 10:38 AM
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Chuck, I think they're all a mess to clean up. The water pan in my smoker doesn't catch nearly all the drippings either. We have a gas (LPG) grill and the gas (LPG) smoker and both of them are on the wooden deck in the breezeway. Walmart has some oil drip pans actually made to put under the engine of your car to catch any oil to keep your garage floor clean. They're about 2' x 4' by a half inch deep and cost about $10 each. I have one under the grill, just barely fits, and one under the smoker with plenty of room for the propane bottle, too.
I just got back from Walmart where I bought another bag of mesquite chips and they were out of hickory. But I also bought a bag of Jack Daniels "grilling pellets for smoke flavor" that will supposedly smoke for 30 minutes and are made from the oak barrels they age the whiskey in. I've not tried them before, so we'll see how they do.
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Pat
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/13/07 05:59 PM
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Bird, The current nightly charge for a standard spot at the RV park is $32 summer or winter.
Their web site certainly lists lots of plush features. It would be with the $ if you use/need many of the features.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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BobInMN
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
11/17/07 07:47 PM
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Bird, if you wouldn't mind I'd like to have the recipe for the brine and how long to leave the bird in it. Thanks in advnace!
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egon
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: BobInMN]
11/17/07 08:54 PM
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In reply to:
Bird, if you wouldn't mind I'd like to have the recipe for the brine and how long to leave the bird in it.
Oh dear: Bird in Brine!!
Egon
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: BobInMN]
11/18/07 07:48 AM
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Interesting timing for this post.  I did not brine the turkey I recently smoked. However, I thought I'd try it on the one I'm going to do Thanksgiving. And this morning the Dallas Morning News has this story about preparing the turkey. She says to mix 1/2 cup of salt and 1/4 cup of sugar per gallon and soak the bird overnight. But then says if you bought something like a butterball or honeysuckle turkey; i.e., the more expensive instead the cheaper ones, you don't need to do that. 
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
12/11/07 03:40 PM
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I guess I forgot to come back and tell about smoking the turkey that I DID brine. It was an interesting experiment. The turkey was very good and very tasty, but that was after I pulled the skin off and then carved the turkey. I tried slicing off a small piece of the breast and sampled it; skin and all. I'm not sure the dog could have chewed that skin, although it might have make good shoe leather. But I guess that's OK, since the meat under the skin was good.
HOWEVER, this past Saturday, I got a gift package from the New Braunfels Smokehouse that included a smoked turkey breast. I'm sorry to say those folks do a much better job than I do  ; more evenly smoked all the way through and delicious.
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Chuck52
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
12/19/07 09:54 AM
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Bird,
I did brine the turkey I smoked for Thanksgiving. Fortunately it was cold enough that my laundry room, which is unheated, was cool enough that I didn't have to fit the big pan with the brine and bird in the refrigerator....which was full of the other Thanksgiving stuff. I let it set overnight. I smoked it for six hours and 220-230 degrees, but I bet it was done well before that time, because it was well done then. It came out very good. There wasn't much more than one leg left, and that as with enough other food to feed Coxie's Army, as my mother used to say.
BTW, I found a really good recipe for left-over turkey in Southern Living mag. It uses the smoked turkey to flavor greens. You cook the greeens with some sauteed onions and garlic and chopped turkey, and then flavor them with vinegar and, of ll things, a little maple syrup. The maple syrup may sound weird, but you end up with a nice smoky flavored sweet-and-sour greens. Very good.
Chuck
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Bird
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Chuck52]
12/19/07 02:34 PM
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Yep, Chuck, the maple syrup does sound odd, although the rest of that recipe sure sounds good.
And when you say, flavor them with vingar . . . well, I've used plain vinegar, but I nearly always flavor my greens on the plate with a teaspoon or so of "pickle juice"; i.e., the vingar from the pickle jar, and I don't care whether it's dill pickles or sweet pickles, either one's good.
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Chuck52
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Re: Smoking Turkeys
[re: Bird]
12/20/07 09:07 AM
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Bird,
I usually just hit mine with a dose of vinegar, but I have tried balsamic vinegar before, and that gives them a kind of sweet and sour tang, too. The maple syrup in that recipe seems to just accentuate the smoky taste of the smoked turkey, without really tasting of maple much. I'm planning on doing it again with smoked sausage. That would be basically a one pot meal for me and the wife. Our youngest moved out a couple of months ago, so now we don't have to please any tastes but our own!
Chuck
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