Popped my turky cherry

[manfromplaid]

10lb turky started and finished in my dbs. Used the recipe from bradley except i was a little short on bourbon so topped up with scotch. In the smoker 230 deg. 2:20 with pecan total time 7 hrs IT to 165.  I found the skin to crisp right up. Nice and crunchy


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[manfromplaid]

well I stand corrected  after slicing and trying  the skin is rubbery. it seems to be crisp to the touch but not to the lips. into the oven it goes, the meat stills has a pink tinge even after 165 so for safety I will cook it some more.  the breast is done  the dark meat needs more.

[manfromplaid]

not overly pleased with the way the brine and smoked butter over powered the natural goodness of turkey.it was good but not turkey like mommy used to make. am going to smoke another turkey (another day) but will try a different process. can't see myself repeating this process. will make good soups and casserole to be enjoyed later
jeff

[Ka Honu]

I usually smoke whole turkey for a couple of hours at about 250^oF and then finish in the oven or SRG at a higher temp to crisp the skin. A little experimentation will give you the best version for your taste.

[Habanero Smoker]

Turkey cooked low and slow will often have a reddish tint, especially near the bone area. Food scientist are not sure what causes this, but it is believe to be related to how poultry is now processed. Poultry is being process at a much younger age, and it is believe that the bones are not fully mature and the bone marrow leaches out and tints the meat. If you are not sure if the poultry is done, take a piece of white paper towel and touch it to the area you suspect is not done. If the area of the towel you touched the poultry has a reddish color, it is not done. If it is clear the poultry is fully cooked.

[ragweed]

In the "For what it's worth" section, I follow a recipe I found in Bradley Recipes called, Smoked Thanksgiving Turkey.  No brine, since most have stuff added now days, make a thin paste with brown sugar, salt and cream sherry.  Brush paste in between skin and meat and on top of skin.  Season with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, thyme, sage, rosemary and lemon pepper.
Pecan smoke at 220* F for 2 - 4 hrs, then continue at 220* F until IT = 165* F.  Takes about 8 hrs depending on ambient and wind.

Has always turned out very moist and flavorful.  Just my 2 cents.  :)

[manfromplaid]

thanks for the feedback. it was not a reject just not what I want to serve my family or guests. thanks habs for that tip it will be used in the future. next time smoke then finish in the oven. and like all  we smoke and learn till its right for ourselves.

[Quarlow]

All good advice for sure. I like to do mine in the smoker as Ka hona does and finish in the big easy. Best damn budgie I ever ate. My whole family is fighting for me to come to there house with my turkeys.

[Tenpoint5]

Still looks like it was a fun cook Jeff! Like you said now you get to do another one!

[tskeeter]

Jeff, some thoughts on why the smoke overwhelmed the flavor of your turkey.  My wood of choice for smoking turkey is apple.  I tend to like a lighter smoke flavor on most of what I eat, so use apple for everything except fish (alder) and pork shoulder (hickory).  Maybe a lighter flavored wood than pecan would be more to your liking.  Your smoke application time is in line with what I do. 

I'm wondering if your smoked butter carried a lot of smoke flavor into the turkey.  I typically smoke store bought turkey breast.  Seems that most of the bigger brands are injected with a brine, so I don't do anything to prepare the turkey for smoking, other than to let it form a pellicle and warm up a bit before putting it in the smoker.

How far open did you have the vent on your smoker?  Did your turkey taste a bit sooty flavored?  Your turkey seems darker than the ones that I have done, which causes me to ask the questions.   Poultry contains a lot of water.  So, for the first few hours the bird is in your smoker, you should have the vent wide open, to allow the moisture the bird is releasing to exhaust from the smoker cabinet.  After two or three hours, you can close you vent to 75% open, if you like.  (I have removed the vent damper from my smoker, so I'm 100% open all the time.)

Another thing I have noticed.  I have my smoker in a plastic storage shed.  For more space in the garage, to keep everything set up and ready to smoke, and to shelter the smoker from wind and rain while I use it.  I noticed that some of the cheese that I had smoked looked a little sooty and tasted a bit off flavor.  So I did an experiment to see if closing the doors on the smoker shed prevented the smoker from getting enough make up air to vent properly.  Yes, closing the doors caused a problem.  With the door open, smoke billowed out of the cap on the vent stack.  When I closed the doors, the smoke coming out of the vent cap immediately dropped to about 20% of what been coming out with the doors open.  Obviously the shed was too tight to allow enough air to get into the shed to replace the air that should have been coming out the vent.  So smoke was backing up in the smoker cabinet instead of flowing over the the product in the smoker and then exhausting, as it should have.  Over the past week or so, I've cut vents into the shed to allow more air to enter.  Next smoke, I'll do another smoke cloud test to see if the smoker is getting enough air now (my math says it should be getting great plenty air, but once in a while, math and reality don't seem to converge).  A side note:  Smoke backing up in the smoker might be why my puck feeder has been failing to feed pucks every now and then.  Brian indicated in another post that smoke backing up into the smoke generator can gum up the microswitch and cause intermittent feed failures.       

[manfromplaid]

all in all it was good  like I said earlier. vent is always wide open and I have good air intake on my plastic garden shed.  the butter did carry a lot of smoke flavor but there was no ash taste. nothing wrong with the bird just not what I was expecting. but after saying that, I was gone for a couple days and made a turkey sandwich when I got home  it was lip smacking good. giving the bird time to rest smoothed out the flavors.  and ya chris it was very enjoyable getting the first one done. I must say  the Bradley smoker makes cooking a new adventure and myself and swmbo are getting great pleasure from it. the help and hints from forum members makes it a no fear process    can you tell I likr it ;D ;D ;D