Tom Murtiashaw
TVWBB Member
Cooked a 16-plus pound turkey on Thanksgiving using the Minion method for the charcoal and starting with the botton vents full open. All went well considering the outside temp that day never made it above zero. I did not wrap the WSM with any heat shield or insulating material, just let the WSM do its thing au naturel. After about a half hour it hit 380 degrees (measured through the dome vent) so I closed the bottom vents to 50 percent and brought the temp down to 350. The cooker maintained that 350 for almost three hours, then finally started losing heat so I opened the vents all the way again and it held at about 275-300 degrees for the rest of the cook. I took the bird off after four and a half hours when the probe thermometer in the breast hit 163 degrees. Great turkey, very moist with a nice smoke flavor. The bird prep was lemon juice and olive oil on the outside with a generous seasoning of dried Italian herbs, salt and pepper, and an injection of melted butter, chicken broth and herbs into the meat. The wood used was pecan and apple, five chunks in all. The worst part of the process were the trips outside to get it started, tend to the cooker, take off the meat and clean up. D*** cold!! Took pics of the finished product and will post later. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.
