Got the Next Size Larger Grill/Smoker

[MaryB]

I prefer turkey on the weber grill cooked indirect. Load the top with bacon and lots of butter on the breasts under the skin. Takes maybe 2 1/2 hours for an 11 pounder. Great eating and something we did at the lake a lot for easy meals.

[Shiloh]

Haven't done one yet on my new unit. I do up to 15 pounders on the Weber. Coals to the outside, bird in a pan in the middle. About 1/2" of water in the pan. I usually have to cover the wings and drumsticks with foil.

Shiloh

[Changeling]

Haven't done one yet on my new unit. I do up to 15 pounders on the Weber. Coals to the outside, bird in a pan in the middle. About 1/2" of water in the pan. I usually have to cover the wings and drumsticks with foil.

Shiloh

Hi Shiloh, I use a method now for cooking turkeys that is impossible to beat in my opinion and I have cooked a lot of them. I usually try to get one about 11 to 15 lbs like you. Sometimes I stuff it sometimes I don't .

I'll skip the preliminary thawing/washing/pin feathers.

Sometimes I use butter to baste/ sometimes olive oil, both are really great. I season with pepper/salt/garlic/papreka, truss it as usual, helps cooking it correctly.
In preheated oven at 365 deg, lower rack, "Breast side DOWN, totally basted and seasoned for 30 minutes, then just turn down the temp to 325 deg and cook for another 1.5 hours. Open oven, flip bird onto it's back, add same seasoning, baste again (you will have to take the bird out of the oven to do this),(I know you know that), through it back in the oven breast side UP. Cook for about 40 minutes more depending on bird size (do the thigh test thing with a GOOD thermometer), if not browning on breast increase temp to 425 till browning suits you, Might take another 15 to 30 min. That's it, it always comes out with moist breast meat and cooked legs and thighs.

I read about this method in the famous cook book "The Joy of Cooking" about 10 or so years ago, I changed the recipe slightly through experience.
This is the # 1 cook book in the USA, about the only thing I was left after the divorce, witch means I was lucky, I won something, LOL.

Take care.

[Shiloh]

I have a 1942 or 43 addition of that cookbook. Erma Rombauer was the author IIRC. Tells how to stretch meat, sugar, butter and other rationed items. I'll look it up.

Shiloh

[MaryB]

Instead of basting drape bacon over the top for part of the cook, adds another layer of flavor plus the cook gets to munch bacon as it gets cooked out...

[DougGuy]

I made a pheasant for Thanksgiving last year and loved it, but you could do this with a turkey too. Take about half a cup of butter, melted, put some Herbs de Provence in it and let it set for a while and absorb the flavors from the herbs, then refrigerate it to turn it back into butter. Now, use THIS butter for the pats you stick under the skin on the breast! Oh man, now we talking some awesome stuff!

Oh and +1 on bacon wrapping over the top of the bird, everywhere you can lay it!

[Changeling]

Pork butt is good stuff.

Fortunately, I didn't have to pay for the briskets for the event. We did 200lbs of briskets, 250lbs of baby back ribs, 50 lbs of sausage, a whole hog, and 200 hot dogs for our March of Dimes walk. Fed 500+ people.



I like to buy turkeys when they're cheap around thanksgiving and Christmas. Doesn't get any cheaper than that.

Question for you and Shiloh:

When you buy the turkeys/briskets,butts, whatever and they are in a "sealed heavy plastic wrap" that has an experation date to use or freeze by then. How long can that item be frozen before going bad?

[crawfobj]

I've had no problem keeping them frozen for better part of a year. They're not going to spoil on you. Check for freezer burn signs. That's the worst of your worries, and even most of that can be solved by cutting it out. I have vacuum sealed game that's good far longer than that, but the turkeys generally get eaten long before their freezer life.

[Beagle333]

I got a Big Green Egg..... but then I'm only cooking for 2.
I've never had a big one. When I was cooking for the construction crew on Fridays, they just gave me 5 regular size smokers to use instead of one huge one.

[Shiloh]

If your freezer is up to snuff, they last a long time. Had some for better than a year and it was fine.
It was a small roast that got lost behind some bargain chicken quarters.

Shiloh

[Baja_Traveler]

I built mine out of a 4' x 4' NEMA 4x stainless electrical cabinet I got for free. Insulated it and plumbed it into the natural gas line to the BBQ - Great for doing 13-14 hour smokes, just get it to temp and forget it. I've been using an A-maz-n pellet smoker tray that I cant recommend highly enough - allows me to do cold smokes on cheese, butter and Lox...



Here's my last cheese smoke, pepperjack and chedder - 4 hours in apple, then a 4 week age to perfection. Only a little bit left, so I better get busy...

[Shiloh]

NICE Unit Baja!!!

Shiloh

[smokeywolf]

I use an offset smoker. I'm on my second one. Hopefully the next one will be made out of a big water or air tank. I've found that diameter of the cooking chamber is just as important as square inches of cooking surface. Hard to fit a 12 lb. turkey into a barrel shaped smoker with an upper rack.

smokeywolf

[Shiloh]

I take the upper rack off when doing beer chickens. I loosen two nuts and slip it off the pivot bolt.

Shiloh

[smokeywolf]

I take the upper rack off when doing beer chickens. I loosen two nuts and slip it off the pivot bolt.

Shiloh

I do too. But, that then precludes you from being able to put vegies on the top rack or as I sometimes do, put bacon or when I can find it, jowl on the top rack above meat on the bottom and let the fat drip down and baste the meat on the bottom.

Besides, don't want to have to modify the smoker every time I have something taller than 8" on the bottom rack.

smokeywolf