John Henderson
TVWBB Fan
We had no extended family with us for Thanksgiving, so thought we'd experiment and true the Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Breast from Weber's Way to Grill.
I know that everyone who posts here has great success. Not so for me. This didn't go so well.
With the recipe calling for indirect heat, I set up my 22" One Touch Silver with my improvised smoker arrangement (second grate on legs with a large cake pan as water pan in between). We know that pushing the charcoal to the side is not {i]really{/i] indirect, and I figured the water would keep the drippings from burning onto the pan and keep the temps under control.
It didn't look too bad when I pulled it off.
With water in the pan, temps only run 275-295F with the vent wide open. This would be desirable if it weren't for the bacon wrapping, with a somewhat low roasting temperature resulting in more consistent cooking throughout the meat, but as the center approached a finished temperature, the bacon wasn't crispy all the way through. I don't really care for uncrispy bacon. What to do? At first, I emptied the water pan to get the temps up, but the pan quickly heated up, and the fat from the bacon turned to smoke upon heating the pan. Now, I know a lot of people like the flavor of fat smoke, and associated with "grilled flavor," and, after all, Burger King does all their business based on this, but I don't like it at all. I thought maybe I'd pull the top grate and pan, and try to crisp up the bacon on direct heat, but keep it from dripping on charcoal. Well, the whole grill is so darn hot, the fat still smoked up whatever it touched.
So, Thanksgiving dinner tasted like fat smoke, and the bacon wasn't crispy all the way through, so I just peeled it off. Not only that, but the lemon and rosemary stuffing, although according to recipe, was way too strong to both me and my wife, and the flavor penetrated the meat.
On the plus side, the meat was cooked appropriately, and was I was impressed with my skills of pounding flat a turkey breast, rolling the roulade, and tying it.
Oh yeah...something else someone might learn from. Neither my wife nor I had ever cooked turkey in any form other than a whole turkey (or ground). The recipe called for "boneless, skinless turkey breast." My wife found some turkey breast, but the price per pound was higher than another she found, she she bought the cheaper "just" turkey breast. I thought it looked a little odd for just breast meat. Turns out that "just" turkey breast is the whole turkey minus the wings and legs. (Yeah - I know some of you are laughing.) The skeleton is there, and even the giblet package is in there. So I had to skin the turkey and remove the breast from the skeleton, too. On the plus side, for future holiday meals, this might be what I buy, since nobody eats the legs or wings in our families.
The stuffing can be fixed (and in the future, I'd be tempted just to throw some Stove Top in there), but I was pondering how to change the cooking to maintain indirect heat, leave out water to get the temps higher, yet keep the fat from burning. I thought, "Hmmm...I need like two stacked pans with an insulating air space between them." Then something from back in my memory from years ago when I first started reading the VWB forum popped into my consciousness - the Piedmont Pan.
When I read of the Piedmont Pan many years ago, I just kind of thought, "What's the point?" even though the description says, "If using the top pan empty, the fat that drips into the pan won't burn." That didn't really click at the time. Now I know exactly what it's for, and need to make up something like that.
I know that everyone who posts here has great success. Not so for me. This didn't go so well.
With the recipe calling for indirect heat, I set up my 22" One Touch Silver with my improvised smoker arrangement (second grate on legs with a large cake pan as water pan in between). We know that pushing the charcoal to the side is not {i]really{/i] indirect, and I figured the water would keep the drippings from burning onto the pan and keep the temps under control.
It didn't look too bad when I pulled it off.
With water in the pan, temps only run 275-295F with the vent wide open. This would be desirable if it weren't for the bacon wrapping, with a somewhat low roasting temperature resulting in more consistent cooking throughout the meat, but as the center approached a finished temperature, the bacon wasn't crispy all the way through. I don't really care for uncrispy bacon. What to do? At first, I emptied the water pan to get the temps up, but the pan quickly heated up, and the fat from the bacon turned to smoke upon heating the pan. Now, I know a lot of people like the flavor of fat smoke, and associated with "grilled flavor," and, after all, Burger King does all their business based on this, but I don't like it at all. I thought maybe I'd pull the top grate and pan, and try to crisp up the bacon on direct heat, but keep it from dripping on charcoal. Well, the whole grill is so darn hot, the fat still smoked up whatever it touched.
So, Thanksgiving dinner tasted like fat smoke, and the bacon wasn't crispy all the way through, so I just peeled it off. Not only that, but the lemon and rosemary stuffing, although according to recipe, was way too strong to both me and my wife, and the flavor penetrated the meat.
On the plus side, the meat was cooked appropriately, and was I was impressed with my skills of pounding flat a turkey breast, rolling the roulade, and tying it.
Oh yeah...something else someone might learn from. Neither my wife nor I had ever cooked turkey in any form other than a whole turkey (or ground). The recipe called for "boneless, skinless turkey breast." My wife found some turkey breast, but the price per pound was higher than another she found, she she bought the cheaper "just" turkey breast. I thought it looked a little odd for just breast meat. Turns out that "just" turkey breast is the whole turkey minus the wings and legs. (Yeah - I know some of you are laughing.) The skeleton is there, and even the giblet package is in there. So I had to skin the turkey and remove the breast from the skeleton, too. On the plus side, for future holiday meals, this might be what I buy, since nobody eats the legs or wings in our families.
The stuffing can be fixed (and in the future, I'd be tempted just to throw some Stove Top in there), but I was pondering how to change the cooking to maintain indirect heat, leave out water to get the temps higher, yet keep the fat from burning. I thought, "Hmmm...I need like two stacked pans with an insulating air space between them." Then something from back in my memory from years ago when I first started reading the VWB forum popped into my consciousness - the Piedmont Pan.
When I read of the Piedmont Pan many years ago, I just kind of thought, "What's the point?" even though the description says, "If using the top pan empty, the fat that drips into the pan won't burn." That didn't really click at the time. Now I know exactly what it's for, and need to make up something like that.
