First turkey on a 14.5"


 
A

AntMelo_

New member
Hi everyone!
First off, just wanna say how excited I am to have found this place!

Second, I'm doing a turkey for a friendsgiving, which will be my first smoked turkey and 3rd cook on my WSM. It's gonna be a 10-12 pound turkey (I'm leaning towrds 10, but I'm picking it up from whole foods so it depends on what they have), and I've been reading a lot of folks smoke their turkey at 250-275.

When I smoked a whole chicken, I had trouble getting it past 315 (I learned that I didn't use enough fuel), and it spent a lot of time at 285-300, and when I was done it was delicious but the skin was rubbery and inedible. Wouldn't a turkey have the same issue? Also, how long would I cook a turkey at 325-350?

Thanks!
 
Ant, first off, welcome to the site! I found this link at the cooking topics from the home page. http://virtualweberbullet.com/turkey3.html . Im not sure if you're planning on using a brine for your turkey, but this link seemed to follow the temps you had mentioned. Also, Chris has an entire section devoted to turkey and all things Thanksgiving, https://tvwbb.com/forumdisplay.php?81-Turkey-Talk, it may have some more information for you there. Good luck, and please let us know how it turns out.
Tim
 
Welcome to smokers heaven :D

Gotta have 325o (min) to get crispy skin.

Time? Same as in your oven when the temps are the same. The ONLY difference is you're adding smoke in the smoker.

SO, about 17 min/lb (some say 13, some say 20 min; I go with 17min) when you've got 325o. More time if less temps/less time if you've got higher temps. Don't worry if the temps fluctuate over short periods. 375o for a bit, 300 for a bit won't affect overall times or quality.

If temps are consistent with 10-15o, go with 15-20 min/lb.

Having said that, YOUR experience may (and probably will) be different. For example, they say a 10 lb frozen turkey takes about 3 days in the fridge to defrost. Yet, every one of my birds (at that weight) take a week. And even then, there are frozen spots inside (goodie bag).

All you can do is document what you did, what temps you had and the time it took so if it doesn't turn out like you want , you'll know the next time what you need to change.

If you brine (and most but not all do), the meat will come out tasting like ham (and the firmness will be more ham-like than turkey-like when brined as well).

WORSE COMES TO WORST?? Run out of fuel, starts to rain, whatever as long as you've got about two hours of "smoke-time", you can finish it in your oven at what tever temps you want. You don't have to do the whole cook in the smoker. After that two hours, you won't get any more smoke flavour.

AND don't add more wood after the initial 2-3 chunks. It'll taste not so nice :(
 
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Hi Ant! Looking forward to the results of your turkey smoke. I'm brand new to the WSM 14.5 too and am doing my first chicken probably tomorrow. I'm also wondering how to get a really nice crispy skin. My wife doesn't like too much smoke, so I'm thinking of bumping up the temps a bit.
 
Hi there! If you haven't done the chicken yet, the key to crispy skin is high temp cooking. Depending on the weather near you, make sure you're using enough fuel to keep the 14 hot. If you've done it, let me know how it was!
 
Yupp! I put it on a stainless steel stand so it's vertical and then put it on the bottom grate with no top grate.
Breast is at 158 right now after almost 2.5 hours, cooked between 275-315 for the first hour and a half, mostly 285 before it I was able to get it over 325 consistently (I opened the door and it worked like magic, despite not going up as much when I previously opened the door)
I'll keep y'all updated with pics, I'm curious as to how the skin is gonna turn out since it wasn't at it's hottest the entire time
 
Yes, I want to see pictures too.

What smoke wood did you use? How many? I guess I'll see in the pictures too.
 
http://imgur.com/gallery/jQyAkR9

Here's my first turkey!
I used a whole chimney of Kingsford, and then I added unlit coals to fill the smoke ring (the 14 doesn't fit two full chimneys)
Once those ashed over I added 3 blocks of apple wood
I had trouble getting it to over 300, but it was at about 285-300 for the first hour and a half, then I kept the access door open and it reached over 335 for the reat of the cook, about another 1.5.

I cooked it vertically on a stand, and the legs and thighs reached 175 by the time the breast reached 165. As a result, the leg and thighs was drier than the breast, but still good. The flavor was great, the skin was edible but not crisp.

Any tips on making the legs not dry out this way? I'm also going to spray apple cider vinegar for my turkey tomorrow, not sure how often I should do that. Any tips are greatly appreciated!
 
Thanks for sharing.

How long was the total cook? About 3 hours?

Did you brine it?

I don't have any specific tips. I did mine in 2016, and I didn't think it was dry.

Maybe these pics might somehow help.

Using that wood split is not something I would do again. I didn't know better, and made a mistake.

https://imgur.com/a/kkr4C
 
Yeah, brined it for about 24 hours, one gallon of apple juice, one gallon of water, 2 cups of salt and then rosemary sage and thyme.

Thanks!
 
AntMelo_ said:
http://imgur.com/gallery/jQyAkR9

Here's my first turkey!
I used a whole chimney of Kingsford, and then I added unlit coals to fill the smoke ring (the 14 doesn't fit two full chimneys)
Once those ashed over I added 3 blocks of apple wood
I had trouble getting it to over 300, but it was at about 285-300 for the first hour and a half, then I kept the access door open and it reached over 335 for the reat of the cook, about another 1.5.

I cooked it vertically on a stand, and the legs and thighs reached 175 by the time the breast reached 165. As a result, the leg and thighs was drier than the breast, but still good. The flavor was great, the skin was edible but not crisp.

Any tips on making the legs not dry out this way? I'm also going to spray apple cider vinegar for my turkey tomorrow, not sure how often I should do that. Any tips are greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

How would you describe the overall flavor?
 
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