The product has been removed from the brining buckets and put into the smoker. Two 12 or so pound turkeys. A couple of turkey breasts rolled and tied. A chicken ('cause it fit in the bucket) and a dinosaur leg my friend told me to toss in! Unlike most everyone here, I built my own smoker and use chunk wood to generate the smoke. But, I do have an adapter for the Bradley generator and plan to implement it one of these days.
My smoker cabinet is in an addition to my wood shop. This makes the "hobby" a bit more tolerable living in the Dakota's. The PID I built, to control the heat element, has been holding steady at 130F for about an hour and 15 minutes after loading the birds, etc...
So, now that the product has dried off enough, it's time to start adding the smoke. Here is the smoke box. The steel plate lid is removed and off to the side. You will note it sits outside my shop and the smoke is piped directly into the smoker cabinet. From the cabinet it is piped directly up and out of the shop through a special chimney.
Here's what I plan to use for smoke. Fifty percent cherry chunks and fifty percent apricot chunks. Will smoke for about 4+ hours at 130-140F
You can see a series of vent holes in the bottom of this picture where the smoke is beginning to roll. That's a slide draft and I light the wood from below using a propsane torch then close the draft to keep it smoking rather than on fire. Smoke is rolling and will keep checking it (that's where a Bradley is nice) every 15 minutes or so to make sure things are going well. Time to put a lid on and clean up my kitchen mess!
The neighbor has already been over to see what's for supper! Loves the smoke! Will post more when the birds are closer to done.
