Why no water in the smokers


 
J

J.Kavanagh

New member
Hi,new hear,i noticed in the recipes for smoking turkeys no one is putting water in the pan..........?just catching the drippings.am i correct?what is the reasoning.thanks jack.
 
To get a longer cook times too since you are not wasting a lot of fuel heating up water during the cook.

There is no right or wrong way Jack IMO. Try and not think too much, get you some meat or chicken put in on and experiment with different techniques and find the ones you like. But first I would learn how to control temps. Have fun and post up your results when your done.
 
Jack, the biggest complaint people have about smoking chicken and turkey is the skin. "It looked great, and the meat was delicious, but I want crispy skin." The only way to get somewhat close to crispy skin is to skip the water in the pan and crank the heat to 350*F. I gave up on water when cooking poultry years ago. I would suggest that you start without water and use high heat and see how it goes. On some other occasion, you can try using water and compare results.
 
Thanks for replies everyone.i do not really care about the quality of the skin....i will be cooking two turkeys at once .will the bottom one cook faster then the top?thanks j.k.
 
JUST WATCHED THE VIDEO "KEVINS BACK YARD" AND HE IS USING WATER AND SMOKING FOR ROUGHLY 4 TO 6 HOURS AT AROUND 225 DEGREES:confused:
 
Kevin is a Weber guy and the WSM is designed to cook with water at lower temps.
That is one way of doing it, the suggestions above are just other ways to acheive the same end.
The more you hang around here the more you will see the saying "there's no right or wrong way, just different ways to acheive the goal". Or something along those lines :)
I will be doing mine at 325° with no water, injected with Butcher's Bird Booster
 
jack.. i was wathing DDD couple months ago and a guy was smoking a turkey for 14hrs, bout 22lb, so i decided too get a butterball and do mine low and slow with water just too see how it would work.. i usally do no water, it was 11lb and i did it for close too 7hrs, iw was darn good, and had a lotta smoke flavor.. but as they say the skinn was rubbery... either way works, u just gotta give it a shot..

glenn in SC
 
J.Kavanagh said:
JUST WATCHED THE VIDEO "KEVINS BACK YARD" AND HE IS USING WATER AND SMOKING FOR ROUGHLY 4 TO 6 HOURS AT AROUND 225 DEGREES:confused:
Click to expand...
You can certainly do it the way Kevin demonstrates, and I've done it that way, too. But in our Twitter Turkey Chat last Tuesday night, Kevin revealed that he discards the skin after smoking and just serves the meat. So he cares not about crispy skin.

IMHO, the only benefit of cooking a turkey low & slow at 225*F is that it's in contact with smoke for a longer amount of time, so more smoky flavor. Turkey does not contain the tough connective tissue found in brisket and pork shoulder, so you don't have to cook it for 6 hours to achieve tenderness. I find that I can cook a 12-14 pound turkey at 325-350*F for just 3 to 3.5 hours with 2-4 chunks of apple or cherry and get a nice smoky flavor that does not overpower the meat. Cook to 160*F in the breast, 170*F in the thigh, then let rest for 30 minutes, during which time the temp will rise 5*F due to carryover cooking, and you'll arrive at the perfect 165*F breast, 175*F thigh...moist, juicy turkey time!

Turkey Selection & Preparation: Cooking Times/Temps

Good luck!
 
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