Turkey Reports - 2013

1) Smoker SM066
2) 12.00lb Butterball from local grocery store, up to 8% enhanced
3) Brined in Smokin's Holiday brine for about 46 hrs. Dried in the fridge for about 14 hrs. Butter under the skin, 2 TBL of my personal rub recipe and 2 sticks of butter. I purchased aromatics for the cavity, but forgot to use them....OOPS!
4) Started temp at 250 for the first hour. Upped the heat to 275 for the remainder of the cook. Butter soaked cheese cloth after first 90 minutes for the remainder of the cook. 2oz of Apple and 1oz of Bourbon Oak.
5) Time was about 3:30 to 3:45 minutes

This is my first time posting to the forum, and first turkey in the Amerique (I have cooked just about everything else in the cooker though). I wanted to smoke this bird as a "tester" for me so I fried my standard bird. Well, the smoked bird was preferred over the fried....as was the smoked gravy from the drippings.

Steve

Good looking turkey, nice job!

Excellent job good looking turkey

1: SM025

2. 12.6 pound Harris Teeter brand

3. Brined in Smokin Okie's Holiday brine 36 hours. Put bird in a kitchen trash bag with brine and placed in cooler loaded with ice. I decided not to rinse the turkey post-brining this year but rather dried w/ paper towels. Nothing in cavity. Loosened skin and rubbed entire turkey (under skin) with a compound butter consisting of 1 stick unsalted butter, Cookshack Poultry Rub and some brown sugar. Lightly coated skin with same butter and then Sprinkled bird with more Poultry rub.

4. Preheated smoker to 225, then put 2 oz Pecan + 1 oz cherry in box, smoked at 275 degrees

5. About 4 hours

6. Our family does 2 turkeys - 1 smoked and one traditional in oven. No one ate the traditional bird. No one. Everyone raved about the smoked bird.

I'm eating a smoked Turkey sandwich as I type this and it is very, very tasty.

My fourth smoke in the new 045 was a success! Cooked a 14 pounder Thursday morning, the leftovers were gone Friday night. I mixed up a batch of Smokin'O's brine mixture, the holiday mixture I believe, let it soak for 36 hours, put the whole bird on Thursday morning. The bird temp was 33*, the 045's temp was 30*. I wanted to cook it at 225*, figured that I needed it done by noon, so I bumped it up to 275*. I used 4 oz. of hickory with a few hickory chip included. By 11 to 11:30, the probe told me the breast was 170. We took it off, covered with alum foil, took it to Dad's. Started carving about an hour later and there was a little juice in the bottom of the pan that we had it in. Everyone said they'd never eaten a better turkey before. My wife's given me instructions to pick up 3 or 4 turkey's before they're all gone to smoke later. She said that there just weren't enough leftover's leftover!

All of the past comments that I've read on the forum helped alot. I'm pretty sure we'll be having a smoked bird for Christmas too!

Well did three this year. One the sunday before, 22lb, and then two the morning of. 16lb and a 20lb. The two larger birds wre for my sister in laws, brother in law.

Washed off the birds, dried them let them sit a little while, till dry, then olive oil, then Lwrys poultry rub with some yard bird rub mixed in. Then to the fridge for a few hours.
Placed in smoker at 270 degrees. Sprayed butter on them once every hour. When meat starts to get a littl dark, cover with some foil, not wrapped. Pulled when the dark meat hit 165.

Had great comments from everyone. The two have now truned into 5 for next year.

RandyE

1.FEC100

2. two 14lbers(8% enhanced)

3. Smokin's Holiday brine for 50hrs. Butter rub compound under skin. Butter soaked cheese cloth from the start. Sprayed the bird with butter flavored Pam, when I removed the CC, the last 45 minutes

4. 275* for 2hrs and then 325* until done.

5. 3 1/2 hrs

6. Everyone enjoyed.

1. Cookshack Elite

2. Two 8 lb turkey breasts. Less than 2% enhanced.

3. This brine and cooking method.

4. 3 hrs cooking time

5. Took one of the turkey breast over to my son's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a big hit. Very moist, very tasty, nice smoke flavoring.

6. Big thanks to Smokin for teaching me to brine and to smoke great tasty foods.

Brined 2 12lb birds 24 hrs.

Seasoned with J&R meat Co.and butter.

Did one whole bird on the rotisserie 2 1/2 hours.

Cut the other up and smoked the legs and wings on the bottom rack and wrapped the whole breast in parchment paper tight then into a plastic cook bag and stuck the prob in and zip tied shut in a pan on the top rack...Hit 160 at about three hours.

They where all awesome.

My fav was the breast in a bag (grandma's way) yields about 2 cups of the best au jus ever to spoon over meat.


Cheers!

1: Which smoker: Amerique - SM066
2. Turkey Size: 24 pounds - natural turkey
3. Brined for 24 hours using salt, maple syrup, brown sugar, pepper corns, 2 bay leafs, onion and garlic powder. Took out of brine 4 hours prior to smoking and rinsed well with cold water.
4. Smoker temp: 225
5. Total Time: 6.5 hours. Took out turkey at 160 degrees breast temp - put under foil and towel for 30 minutes prior to carving
6. I know that on this forum there is some discussion of large birds in the smoker. However, I have always done birds in the 22+ pound range and have always smoked at 210 degrees in my Bradley, which broke and is now used as my cold smoker. With my new Amerique, I decided to go a bit higher, which meant a quicker cook time, which I enjoyed.

I also put a glass drip pan under the turkey to catch all of the drippings - made a GREAT gravy out of it - perfect amount of salt and smoke in the gravy. +

Great looking bird! Looks very juicy. Great looking plate as well!

1. SM066
2. 12 lb. Shurfine, with less than 8% enhanced
3. Brined in Smokin' Okie's Holiday Turkey Brine for about 36 hours. Light coating of mayo and Cookshack Spicy Chicken Rub. 3 oz of Cherry wood.
4. 275 degrees, after about 2 hours and the color I thought I wanted covered in butter soaked cheesecloth.
5. Total Time: 3 1/2 to 4 hours
6. First time brining a turkey and it was moist and tasty.

Love seeing the reports, while we don't get a lot of comments, they do get a lot of page views.

Great job. I just think back almost 15 years and how little was known about brining and smoking turkey,

Sacrifice and Dakota. Great looking birds. Thanks for sharing.

1: FEC100 - Hickory blend pellets.
2: 12-1/2# Butterball (smoked 11/21)
14-1/2# Northwest (smoked 11/27)
20-1/2# Foster Farms (smoked 11/29)
10-1/2# Butterball (smoked 11/29)
3: Brined the 14-1/2# Northwest Turkey in Smokin's Holiday Brine for 24 hours followed by 2-hours drain in refr. Did not brine either of the Butterball's as they were "enhanced". The 20-1/2# turkey was for a neighbor and delivered to me just before going into smoker, so no brine for that one. Spatchcocked each turkey (first time trying that). Made paste of Butter + Mayo + Amazing Taste Malibu Rub, and put under skin on breast meat, and also rubbed all over skin. Another sprinkle of the Malibu rub on skin and then into smoker. I find coating skin with mix of butter + mayo yields golden brown skin (also works good on chickens).
4: Smoker temp was 275*.
5: 3-1/2 hours for the 12-1/2# & 14-1/2# birds.
4-1/2 hours for the 20-1/2# bird.
2-3/4 hours for the 10-1/2# bird.
6: Smoked on 3 different days.
Loved the way the spatchcocked birds cooked - will keep doing that again. When breast meat came up to 160* temp, leg/thigh temps were 175*-180* each time, so all was good there! In addition to shorter cook times than I've had with whole turkeys previously, spatchcocking the birds also allowed easier separation of skin from breast meat to allow for placing the rub mix there. I am now converted to that method rather than splitting in half or cooking whole - and same for chickens now also. I tend to go for results rather than presentation.