Smoking a California Condor...

[Guest]

sized turkey this weekend.

This bird is 25 lbs.

I can do it on the kettle rotisserie, but would MUCH rather do it in the new WSM.

Have any of you cooked a bird this big ?

I read thru a couple of old posts regarding a 22lb bird. I agree the higher heat method might work best.

This being said, I really want to impart quite a bit of smoke on this bird. Of course I don't want to get it to the point of being bitter, but a lot of smoke will definitely be better.

I am going to use the meat for turkey salad and for a turkey noodle and cheese soup. I figure the family will initially consume, maybe 3-4 lbs and the rest will be put in the salad for a get together Sunday night, or bagged and vacuumed for soup later in the year.

Brine or no brine ?

Any suggestions for serving other than the above ?

We will have a lot of turkey left, so I'm looking for some recipes and possibly unique ways to cook the bird.

Thanks in advance for the help

RS

 

[Ron C.]

Rusty,

I've never fired up a bird that big. I would be careful of going too high on the heat since it is such a large bird. You might really get some uneven cooking since a bird is not the most uniform piece of meat around. In addition, you might have to shield the wings and legs if they are located near the edges of the WSM. The edges have higher heat since this is where most of the heat eminates from due to the pan.

As for brining, no question, brine away! I wouldn't even try to smoke a bird that size without brining.

 

[Guest]

Any advantage to using a booty roaster to cook it on the vertical ?

 

[Jerry N.]

Not sure how much you like smoke, but realize that poultry absorbs smoke very well. Further, it gets more intense after the left overs sit in the fridge. Point - go light on the wood (smoke). You might be a little disappointed with too little smoke, but you could end up throwing away 25lbs of bird if you have too much smoke.

 

[Paul H]

I did a 22 lb bird for Christmas. Brined it in Keri's apple brine solution for 24 hours. Can't remember how long it took to cook but I didn't do it on high heat. Did low and slow. The skin comes out like leather but the bird got raves. It was one of the moistest turkeys I've had. Make sure you check your temps in the thigh and breast for doneness. As Jerry said ,easy on the smoke wood. I used apple and cherry.

 

[adam clyde]

Rusty -

a few thoughts. Regardless of whether you do this at high or low heat, you'll have plenty of time to impart lots of smoke flavor by the time that beast is done. At 25 pounds, I'd start it at 350 and try and keep it above 300, which may be difficult at times, depending on the fuel, the weather conditions, etc. It's going to take a long time at 250-ish.

I always brine my turkey... kind of an insurance policy for me against drying out or overcooking.

 

[ariel b]

Rusty, I must read alot of forums because I saw this post in the Barbecue News forums and The Smoke Ring one