Turkey warmup

[MikeS in Alaska]

I've only been using the WSM for a couple of years now. I know that sooner or later someone will open their fat mouth and offer to do a turkey for one of the winter holidays. So I thought I would practice before winter sets in next week. Winter is never more than a few thousand feet or a couple of weeks away in Alaska.

Also I wanted to use the WSM Smoker Jacket from BBQ Guru to check how it works.

A Butterball 12 pounder brined overnight then rubbed with vegetable oil and spices.

I used a combination of Royal Oak briquettes and Western lump with a foiled water pan.

An hour in, I gave her a tinfoil hat.

3.5 hours later

The skin was crispy right up to the point where I tented the bird to rest it. However the meat was moist and the gravy to die for. The "smoking" jacket should prove useful.

Such are the fortunes of turkeys.

Thanks for looking

 

[~Mark~]

That came out great. I think I'm going to look into a smoking jacket for mine.
Thanks for the post.

 

[Tim K]

Id say that was a total success!! I have to ask, what’s the purpose of the foil hat? I have never seen that before and am 100 percent intrigued! For your sake, I hope no one else saw that bird, or your going to be smoking an awful lot of them in the near future!!
Tim

 

[Lynn Dollar]

I did not brine the turkey I smoked Labor Day weekend, it was enhanced. Did you have trouble finding a bird that was not enhanced or does that really matter ?

Nice lookin turkey, btw.

 

[Rich Dahl]

Great looking bird. Looking forward to some cooler weather after 27 days in a row of 100+ days.

 

[MikeS in Alaska]

Id say that was a total success!! I have to ask, what’s the purpose of the foil hat? I have never seen that before and am 100 percent intrigued! For your sake, I hope no one else saw that bird, or your going to be smoking an awful lot of them in the near future!!
Tim

I did not brine the turkey I smoked Labor Day weekend, it was enhanced. Did you have trouble finding a bird that was not enhanced or does that really matter ?

Nice lookin turkey, btw.

The tinfoil hat helps prevent overdone breast (165°F) vs thigh (175°F). I generally put it on about 30 minutes to an hour into the roasting.

I can get "natural" un-enhanced birds and have done a few and even a "fresh" one once. Similar brine and rub but roasted in the oven. But I was unable to taste any real difference once I brined it. The brine is a simple apple juice, salt, sugar with some additions.

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

P.S. I used a combination of Alder / Apple for the smoke wood

 

[Cliff Bartlett]

Terrific job on that turkey Mike! I'm ready for turkey season.

 

[MikeS in Alaska]

Thank you all.

I've done a few turkeys on the kettle in years past. This was a first for me in the WSM. Temperature control was simpler and there was more headroom under the dome for the bird.

 

[Barb D]

Mike, that turkey is over the top. Awesome job and I'm looking forward to turkey time again.

 

[Tom L]

Really nice turkey, going to be checking back in this post in about 1 month!