Butterball Turkey Tips Anyone ??

ok here is what i have done in a brinkmans and will be following the same guidelines this saturday with my fec100 which i am still getting used to.
1st i would let the skin get tacky. up where you are i don't think that would be too much problem but here in florida it sometimes requires a fan due to our humidity.
then rub it like you say and cook to temps you discribed.
if you want to speed up the process you can remove the back bone and butterfly out the turkey plus you can make a great stock from the backbone
hope it helps
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

Like Jack says,you can butterfly.

Another approach is to separate the white from the dark and you can remove them at different times.

I would probably cook my first Cookshack turkey simply,and then make adjustments.

I'd cook it as you suggest and keep the salt low in my rub.

One easy way to do your rub on a turkey is add a couple TBSP of rub to a cup of mayo and rub under and over the skin.

I would keep wood to a minimum.

One reason a lot of us brine is the cushion for a slightly higher temp in the breast, to get the deep thigh done.

I'd think Jack will maybe cook his at the same temp in the Fast Eddy Cookshack as he would in a kitchen oven.

Hope this helps a little.

You could look for a non-prebasted turkey if you haven't bought the butterball yet. Then brine it yourself - Smokin's got some good recipes in the 101 section. JennieO Natural is one non-solution-added brand.

Also, 160F may not be done enough to get the dark meat really tender, depending on your preference. Maybe once it reaches 160, grab a leg and see if it feels tender enough for your purposes. (on the turkey, that is )

Thanks for the replies, everyone...

Jack;

I read your other postings where you mention the deboning process. I'm a little hesitant because I would hate to mess up an otherwise perefect bird. Perhaps if you wouldn't mind describing the process in a bit more detail I may give it a try.

Tom;

I read another posting where someone tried the mayo/rub and found it made a big mess with little or no result.
I've put mustard on my butts with little or no result, (apart from maybe helping the rub stick...)
Do you suppose the mayo is the same case or it really a necessity ??

tjr;

We went to the States yesterday, (Upstate NY), and I bought a couple of Butterballs for .89/# frozen and .99/# fresh at the local Price Chopper.
These prices are exactly half what we pay up here in Canada.
I couldn't resist getting two Butterballs because we never buy them up here - way too expensive !
Customs limits us to 1 turkey each - I guess to protect the Canadian turkey farmers.
Our Thanksgiving is this weekend so I stocked up.
In the future I will likely buy a plain bird and brine it myself.

Thanks again
I'll post the results

John

Wow, never thought of a butterball as a luxury item...

So if Canadian Thanksgiving is on the weekend, you don't get a day off from work?

I suggested you cook it whole,maybe some salt and pepper,and keep good notes.

Adjust the next cooks from there.

I don't use mustard as a base on any of my meats.

The mayo is not necessary,but it works conveniently without any extra mess.

Some folks rub soft butter under and over the skin.

Some spray with butter flavored Pam

There is something about the acid in mayo that works well.

That is a personal thing.

If I'm doing a bunch,I don't use it.

If I'm doing a couple ,I always do.

You will probably not eat the skin of the turkey,so some of the techniques aren't necessary.

Hope this helps a little.

Butterflying it helps it lie flatter on the rack and cook more evenly. It also exposes more meat to the smoke. I liked it when Jack did it. He's pretty fast at it, but it didn't look too hard. It's one of those things that I have to see. The written explanation probably sounds harder than it really is.
Peggy

Monday is our holiday up here.

Butterballs are a luxury item up here at the equivalent of US$2.06/#.
Adds up in a big hurry with a 25# bird !

Turkeys, milk, and cheese, and beer are all far less expensive in the States.

Beef, pork, and chicken are about the same except when they go on sale in the States, like the 2-for-1 deals at Price Chopper.

Snack foods and breafast cereal are usually about half the price up here, (go figure).

Gas is a lot less in the States - we're paying the equivalent of US$2.60/gal right now.

There's no duty or taxes on anything we bring across except for some weird stuff like the turkey limit.

dreaded,
don't let peggy scare you.
it's ez to do
i'm left handed so these directions might be backwards for those of you not in your right minds .
put the bishops nose (the fatty thing at the base of the tail directly towards you. and don't ask why that's the name cause i don't know)
ok the meaty breast side is down.
now feel along the spine and you can tell where the little ribs are.
at this point you have two choices and these are poultry shears or a sharp knife (myself i use a knife but i am too cheap to buy the shears)
all you have to do is go up one side of the spine and cut the ribs from the spine and then go back down the other side.
what i do is let gravity work in my favor and slightly left the spine as i go.
whole procedure takes maybe 5 mins the 1st time after that takes about 60 secs per bird.
when you hit the wishbone dont worry just break it. the bird is dead and wont feel a thing.
if you want to get fancy hit the center of the breast bone (remeber the meaty part is down so no damage there) with a knife.
now this is the part i love since in the past i was required to do 40 birds at a time
just open the thing up!!!
to do that i laid it meaty breast side up and just pushed and you get to hear really neat sounds and voila it lays flat!!!!!
by the way in the time it took to type this i could have done all 40 birds lol
hope this helps
jack
2 Greyhounds....SMOKIN!!!!

oops forgot one last thing
Bells Seasoning!!!!
comes in a tiny box that looks like a turkey.
do Tom's butter flavored pam thing and hit the heck out of that bird with bells!!!!!!!
man i cant wait for thanksgiving here!!!! but i am doing my breast this weekend just that way
jack

The last Butterball turkey we smoked was so salty it wasn't fit to eat. No more! We try to find a non-watered plain turkey (straight up). We sop the turkey with lemon juice, salt and pepper and cook to the leg/thigh joint is 165 degrees. I know 160 degrees is recommended, but I don't like red in the joint. I may, at times, place foil on the breast about half way through the cooking to keep the white meat moist. I use more smoke than most, but never had it turned down by guest.

So Jack, if I understand you correctly, the thing lies flat after you take out the back ? You don't wrap/tie it back up again ??
I don't think we have "Bell's" up here - at least I've never seen it....Is it a basic "poultry seasoning" sort of stuff ??

Sounds like Jack's butterflying method is about the same as you'd use to cut a turkey into halves, just instead of completely cutting through the middle of the breast, leave the meat and skin uncut.

Bell's Poultry Seasoning may be in the spice aisle at grocery stores, it's supposedly a New England tradition.

dreaded,
nope let the thing lay flat. but be careful not to get too much smoke. the beauty of this method is it cuts cooking time way down and the breast doesn't dry out.
and just so you know i don't know my fast eddy smoker that well but as a base line i will be running it about the same temp as i always did on my brinkman bullet. about 180 to 200f. from there i will use my note book which gives me a base line reading. heck i got to do this as our 1st competition is minnieola florida which is the state championships and i have almost no prractice as generators are very dear here in florida right now.
i don't know how your smoker is but if i got a reading of near 120f in the breast and a much lower reading in the thigh i would do what tom said and take the thigh leg portion off at that point. but since the backbone is gone this is only one knife cut. hold the breast out of heat wrapped in foil or film and let the leg thigh combo catch up to heat and then finish together.
in closing i will tell you what the old german chef i apprenticed under told me. "never show fear to food. it is like a dog and will bite you!!"
if you can't find bells no problem a mix of sage, thyme,marjoram, rosemary, black pepper and nutmeg works great with a final sprinkle of kosher salt.
had a bad day at work and posting this to you sure has made me feel better. happy thanksgiving to you
jack

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Jack.

I'll give it a try and let you know how it turned out....

John

john
here's how my turkey went saturday.
fired up the fec by the book. 10 mins on till pellets drop, turn off turn on and set temp to smoke. temp rose to around 300 and took a long time to fall back.
i temped the breast and thigh temps were way out of line so i seperated thigh leg combo and held breast.
gave it my best guess after 2 hours and put the breast back in. bird came out good but still have a ways to go learning my fast eddies but everything went down in the log book. ambient temp humidity temp of turkey going in ect.
by the way next time i will keep my fat fingeres in the fire pot and when i feel the 1st pellet drop i will do the turn off turn on thing. think this might prevent the temp spike.
but i had a grand old time ran my new generators in, listened to a little jimmy buffet, my old german chef stopped by with some beer so all in all it was a great time
jack
ps hope your thanksgiving goes well

John,
Jack put lemon pepper on our turkey. It was delicious.
Peggy