smoking first turkey

[smokingthemidwest]

Hello Everybody, Had a couple of questions on smoking my first turkey. Should i cold smoke it the day before we eat it or smoke the day we eat? Also should i brine it before smoking or not? If i should brine it what should i use? What temp should i smoke it at if i don't do a cold smoke? Thanks in advance. STM

[squirtthecat]

I'd either hot smoke (250°) it start to finish in the Bradley, or smoke it (not 'cold' - keep it at least 225°) for 3-4 hours and then transfer in your house oven to finish.

[zueth]

Yep, don't cold smoke, unless you want to get sick :)

Only Brine if it is a non-enhanced bird.

I do 250 for about 3 hours then finish in SRG

[Ka Honu]

Because it's poultry, once you've started, finish the job and be careful about having the bird at low temp for too long.  There's no reason to cold-smoke unless you have a lot of unwanted family and guests you'd like to get rid of.

Best way is, as STC says, hot smoke and continue roasting until done on the Bradley or smoke and finish immediately in oven or TBE/SRG. In either case, I only use 2-3 hours of smoke since SWMBO doesn't like more.

Yes, brine.  Basic brine is 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of sugar, 1 gallon of water.  People change the ratios and add all manner of other things - there's a good brine recipe here.

[TedEbear]

Hello Everybody, Had a couple of questions on smoking my first turkey. Should i cold smoke it the day before we eat it or smoke the day we eat? Also should i brine it before smoking or not? If i should brine it what should i use? What temp should i smoke it at if i don't do a cold smoke? Thanks in advance. STM

You could probably find the answer to a lot of this over in the Poultry area of the forum.  There's a good discussion going on right now about smoking a turkey, including brine recipes, what flavor smoke works best, what size turkey will fit in the Bradley, etc.

Smoking a Turkey with the Bradley