How's everybody doing with their turkeys

[Steve K]

I still have a couple of hours left before my bird is done and I can't wait to try it. I am getting jealous thinking of all you guys out there who have already put down a couple plate fulls. Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving hope everyone had good luck with their turkys.

 

[Keith Kenney]

Steve, I am in the same boat as you. Still waitng for my turkey to get done. I do know one thing for sure it smells wonderful. I have had mine on the grill now for 2 hours the maverick says it is 165% but the jucies are still not running clear so i will give it another hour and go from there. a 16 pound bird should not be done in two hours at 325% in my oppion. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck on your cook.

 

[Hank B]

Mine was done yesterday.

It's not too lat to calibrate your thermometer. I highly recommend taking a moment to do that. I thought my ET-73 was reading high so I grabbed another and found it read lower so I used that to determine when to take the bird off.

Well... guess what?

I checked them today using boiling water and found the ET-73 was pretty much spot on and the other one read 187° in boiling water.

 

[Steve K]

I'm at 158% right now with a 14 pounder. I'm going to have people waiting on me so mine is going off the WSM and into to the oven. Hopefully we will be stuffing our faces very soon Keith.

 

[Russ Harris]

Mine came out good - a 12.25 #er on my 18.5" WSM. Brined in John Kass' brine recipe and I used the "Big Time Gravy" recipe from Grill With Weber's YouTube channel (with my own extra twist). Turkey is moist and tender and full of flavor. Gravy is the best I've ever tasted. Not bad for my first attempt at a turkey. Just me and the Mrs this year (I told her to tell her crazy family to stay home with all that nonsense).

 

[Jeff R]

Mine came out well. I think though next time I will start with more lit on the OTS. Added another 1/2 chimney of lit, then realized my thermometer probe at the lid must be off.

 

[Paul H]

My wife has decreed this year no meteorites for Thanksgiving

.BUT, I did get to brine the 22# beast.Used the apple honey recipe. Doing it in the oven tomorrow. Yeah, we do our Thanksgiving on a different day. Saves the kids from having to run all over the place and not eating anything because they are too full from other meals.

 

[J Boldt]

I did mine on the Genesis C today with Roto.

First pic smoker chips used

Second on the grill

All dressed up

First time on the roto this year, I loved it.

 

[JeffB]

I did a 21 pound bird brined with the apple juice recipe on this forum. I had to bake it because my smoker is at home in Maryland and we are in Texas, but it was amazing! The moistest turkey I have ever had. Rave reviews.

I baked it at 325 and was expecting it to take 5 or 6 hours to cook, but it finished in about 3 1/2 hours. Breast was at 170 and inner thigh was at 183.

Isn't that a fast cook?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

 

[R_Sanchez]

This was my second time in a week cooking a turkey first one was great. Todays was not so great. I took it off way too late. Had a decent flavor but too dry for my taste. Oh well, had fun doing it.

 

[Paul H]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Bryson:
I did a 21 pound bird brined with the apple juice recipe on this forum. I had to bake it because my smoker is at home in Maryland and we are in Texas, but it was amazing! The moistest turkey I have ever had. Rave reviews.

I baked it at 325 and was expecting it to take 5 or 6 hours to cook, but it finished in about 3 1/2 hours. Breast was at 170 and inner thigh was at 183.

Isn't that a fast cook?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[Mary E.]

First time smoking. I used the Apple Cider brine: http://virtualweberbullet.com/turkey6.html

Very happy!

Mary

 

[Jeff (Soonerheff)]

My first smoked turkey was a great success - everyone loved the taste and how moist it was! I used the apple brine, but could only reach 300 degress max with my 22.5 WSM. Despite that, the 14# turkey reached temp after 2 1/2 hours which surprised me. Any thoughts on the high temp issue? I used the standard method with Kingsford charcoal.

 

[Hank B]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff (Soonerheff):
My first smoked turkey was a great success - everyone loved the taste and how moist it was! I used the apple brine, but could only reach 300 degress max with my 22.5 WSM. Despite that, the 14# turkey reached temp after 2 1/2 hours which surprised me. Any thoughts on the high temp issue? I used the standard method with Kingsford charcoal. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Hi Jeff,
Welcome to TVWBB. The WSM holds plenty of charcoal and the next side of the equation is air for combustion. The unit is designed for slow cooking so the vents are sized accordingly. Were I in your shoes, I would try to do something to provide more air like leave the hatch propped slightly open or put something between the edge of the lid and middle section to provide more ventilation. You could also do this with the lower joint on the middle section but it would be hard to adjust while cooking if you found the need.

The third part of this equation is anything that would remove heat from the WSM. Water in the bowl extracts heat by boiling so I presume you leave the water out and foil the bowl when you're shooting for higher temps. Rain on the smoker will bring temperature down pretty fast as well. Wind can also do the same if it cools the smoker. At the same time wind can cause extra air infiltration and result in higher temps.

best,
hank

 

[Scotty W.]

Not a big turkey fan but apple brined a 12 1/2 pounder this year. Smoked with apple wood for about 4 hours and rested for 45 minutes. Quite literally the best turkey I've ever eaten. And my wife agrees. We're now enjoying cold turkey sandwiches!

Scotty W.

 

[Dave Gagnon]

Did my first turkey in the WSM this year with the featured apple brine recipe. Turned out splendid. Several comments were this is the best turkey I've eaten in my life. 14 lb bird cooked in approx 2.5 hrs at 325 - 350. The hardest part was getting the temp up on a windy day.

 

[Hank B]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Gagnon:
Did my first turkey in the WSM this year ...

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>Looks great!

The skin is darker than mine:

(This was about half way through but it didn;t get much darker.) What did you use for smoking wood?

Welcome to TVWBB.

 

[Dave Gagnon]

I followed the apple brine recipe including the suggested cooking temp of 325 - 350. This one ran at 350. I used 3 chunks of smoke wood. Apple and Cherry wood. I did rub the skin of the bird with a little vegetable oil to try to get a crispy skin. Not sure if that is what made it so dark. By the look I was worried it was burned but it was moist and juicy when I cut into it.