MikeWestmoreland
New member
Hey guys. I'm still pretty new to my 18.5" WSM. I've been smoking everything I can get my hands on for the last 4 months from a turkey for my virgin voyage to a leg of lamb a couple weeks ago. This site has been an amazing source information and I believe I'm about ready to try something a little more complicated.
This year for Thanksgiving I'm considering smoking a turkey on the bottom rack with a Ham on the top rack. I've been searching through the Virtual Bullet site and reading up on turkeys and hams. As I mentioned, my very first smoke was a turkey. I made some mistakes. I wanted to try smoking it low and slow, but I didn't put any water in my pan. I closed the vents as much as I could to get the temp down but the lowest I could get it was 275 according to the lid gauge. Which, btw, I discovered is about 25 degrees cool. So my temp was really around 300. I had soaked the turkey overnight (an injected one) in a very basic brine recipe I found. In spite of all that it was mine fine and juice bird. That was test run.
So I know I want so soak this turkey (already purchased a "Fresh" 13.25 lb bird) in an apple brine and smoke it at about 325 or so. Which I think means that I will need to get a "ready to cook" city ham. If I understand it right that ham will need to cook at about the same temp as the turkey as opposed to a ready to "eat" ham. Anybody out there have any experience with this. I realize I'm trying something new on one of the biggest feast days of the year in front of 40 or so of my family and friends. While I've never really been afraid of looking like an idiot I would like to minimize the embarrassment. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And thanks for an awesome site.
This year for Thanksgiving I'm considering smoking a turkey on the bottom rack with a Ham on the top rack. I've been searching through the Virtual Bullet site and reading up on turkeys and hams. As I mentioned, my very first smoke was a turkey. I made some mistakes. I wanted to try smoking it low and slow, but I didn't put any water in my pan. I closed the vents as much as I could to get the temp down but the lowest I could get it was 275 according to the lid gauge. Which, btw, I discovered is about 25 degrees cool. So my temp was really around 300. I had soaked the turkey overnight (an injected one) in a very basic brine recipe I found. In spite of all that it was mine fine and juice bird. That was test run.
So I know I want so soak this turkey (already purchased a "Fresh" 13.25 lb bird) in an apple brine and smoke it at about 325 or so. Which I think means that I will need to get a "ready to cook" city ham. If I understand it right that ham will need to cook at about the same temp as the turkey as opposed to a ready to "eat" ham. Anybody out there have any experience with this. I realize I'm trying something new on one of the biggest feast days of the year in front of 40 or so of my family and friends. While I've never really been afraid of looking like an idiot I would like to minimize the embarrassment. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And thanks for an awesome site.