Smoking Turkeys

[Bird]

I've smoked both beef and pork ribs, beef brisket, pork loin, turkey roast, and beef tenderloin in my Great Outdoors Grill Co. 34" Wide Body Smoky Mountain Gas Smoker as seen at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3342508 but I hadn't smoked a whole turkey, so I decided to do a practice run today before deciding whether I wanted to smoke a turkey or just roast it in the oven for Thanksgiving. I didn't take time to "brine" it as recommended. I just washed it, patted it dry with paper towels, spinkled a lttle salt in and on it, and rubbed it with olive oil before putting it in the smoker. A 12.61 pound turkey for 9 hours at the lowest temperature setting, using a mixture of mesquite and hickory chips and now I wish I'd made a picture of it when it came out of the smoker. It was as pretty as any I've seen and tastes pretty good, too. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[egon]

That sound delicious Bird. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Some day I'm gonna make another smoker out at the lake. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, Say again the driving time from me to you!

Pat

[Bird]

I don't know your address, Pat, but I'll bet we could find the driving time on Google Maps. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Whew, we've been gone all day about 125 miles south of here at the Texas Air Festival at Texas State Technical College (TSTC), formerly an Air Force Base, at Waco, TX. Last year was the first time we had gone, so we went again this year with my brothers. It's a good air show with a lot of WW II planes, a Pearl Harbor reenactment, lots of pyrotechnics, stunt pilots, etc. They were supposed to have an F-15 demo, which they had last year, but since the F-15s have been grounded, a couple of F-16s came and put on a good show.

So we've just been home long enough for me to have a great big turkey sandwich on sourdough bread. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Waco, Used to be famous amongst us aeronautical types for its old Air Corps memories but then it got overshadowed by the Whacko of Waco.

Sounds like you saw about the same sort of reenactment show I saw at Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station where there were authentic WW II Jap(anese) Zeros bombing the runway. The old barracks were converted to office spaces and the "break room" had a large mural depicting torpedo bombers landing at Ft. Lauderdale. The most prominently featured plane was piloted by George Bush Sr. We used his barracks room for an office for 3 weeks.

Sounds like you had a nice outing. I will finally get to do a night away from home in the camper. Going to Arkansas for Turkey Day. Ah, I can just about imagine the tryptophan coma now...

Google... I used to think Mapquest was the cat's meow but Google earth can catch and hold me for longer than I care to admit. I need a timer/alarm to break the trance and let me move on to other things!

Pat

[Bird]

Yep, Pat, I suspect it was a very similar air show. And I used to use Mapquest, too, but now I just use http://maps.google.com/ I've printed out their directions from my house to a motel where we stopped for the night in Tennessee and then on to West Virginia, and in an 1100 mile trip, their distances were less than 2 miles different from my odometer.

And speaking of using a camper, and asking about driving distance to our house, the Dallas Destiny RV Resort shown at http://www.destinyrv.com/dallasrvresort.htm is less than a half mile south of me.

[Chuck52]

Bird,

What temperature were you running? I've got the electric version of your smopker and plan to try a turkey for Thanksgiving and was wondering about the necessary time. So far, for ribs and a pork roast I smoked, I've kept the temp in the 220-240 range, and that all came out fine. The turkey I bought is about the same weight as yours and I didn't think it would take as much time as that, but maybe you were running at a lower temp?

I've been saving some sweet potatoes from the garden to smoke along with the turkey. If you haven't done them, they take more time than ribs to get good and done at 220-240. I guess they'd be pretty health eating if I didn't add half a pound of butter to mine when I eat it.

Chuck

[Pat]

Bird, as tempting as your turkey cooking sounds, I have committed to taking my wife to see her cousin the park ranger in Arkansas for Thanksgiving and on the way back a rendezvous with a friend I met on TBN.

I had a friend who tried to smoke a turkey back in the 60's...

but he couldn't keep it lit!

I checked out the campground web site. LIke WOW!!! Pretty fancy place. I got an automated response to my query. LOts of discounts at places like OUtback, Six Falgs and on and on but unfortunately (I think the response was automated) they didn't respond to a single question I asked. Maybe later.

I have been using Mapquest out of habit but will be trying Google map service you referenced. I have to avoid Google Earth as it puts me in a trance and I spend tooooo much time playing there. What a neat program!

Pat

[Bird]

Chuck, I had the LPG burner turned down as low as it would go, but I had the damper closed as far as it would go. And it was a fairly warm day with no breeze at all, so the temperature stayed up around 250, a little more than I wanted. And I didn't take the turkey out until the second time I checked the breast with the meat thermometer and it was between 175 and 180. It wasn't dried out, but it was definitely cooked well done all the way through. I think an hour less would have probably been fine. And while it's pretty tasty, and looked great, it didn't get quite as much smoke penetration as I would prefer. I think I need to use more wood chips next time, and I've heard that soaking overnight in the brine then tends to draw the smoke in more. From what I've read, you want to smoke a turkey 30-40 minutes per pound, so that would have been about 6.3 to 8.4 hours. I'll bet 7.5 to 8 would be good enough.

And Pat, the Dallas Destiny RV Park has been there as long as I can remember, but many years ago it was a KOA and it gradually deteriorated until it wasn't going well at all, but the new owners really put some effort and money into fixing it up. So it's not cheap, but it's a nice facility. I go around there to get my 20 pound LPG bottles refilled for the grill and smoker, and my brother and his wife have stayed there in their 5th wheel occasionally for a few days at a time. Of course I don't know why they call it the "Dallas" Destiny RV Park since it's about 20 miles north of the Dallas city limits or 35 miles north of downtown Dallas.

Incidentally, we're at exit 461 on I-35E, so if you subtract that 461 from the nearest I-35 exit to you, you'll see how many miles south of you we are.

[Bird]

Well, I may change my mind about needing more smoke penetration. I happen to be very fond of turkey ala king (or chicken ala king), so that's what I had for supper just now, and it just doesn't get any better than what I just ate. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]