Smoked Christmas Turkey, a digital diary...
 

7:30am. Fired up the chimney of charcoal. I use an all wood fire, but start off with charcoal

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p.../01Firedup.jpg

8:00am. Starting with a big fire since it's below freezing.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...artingwith.jpg

100% Georgia cherry wood.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...100Georgia.jpg

8:00. Pulling from the brine. I used 1 1/2 cup kosher salt and 1 1/2 cup brown sugar in 2 gallons of water.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ullingfrom.jpg

Going to inject with 1/4 cup sweet wine, 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup honey.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p.../05Goingto.jpg

8:30 am. Injecting the bird.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...jectingthe.jpg

8:45 am. Prepped and ready to roll.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...Preppedand.jpg

9:00 am. Locked and loaded. I have the bird backwards since I'm going to flip the bird" after 3 hours. Couple of fatties thrown in.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...dandloaded.jpg

Preheating wood, "rock mod" in action.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...eatingwood.jpg

12:00 noon. Halfway home and I "flipped the bird". Basting every hour now with a pump spray full of peanut oil.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...alfwayhome.jpg

1:00 pm. Once the charcoal bed is gone, I just crush up burned wood with a pair of tongs to form a new bed of embers. I throw 1-2 pieces of preheated wood on top of the embers.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...hecharcoal.jpg

1:00 pm. New wood bursts right into flames.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p.../12Newwood.jpg

3:30 pm. All done! Looks good!

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p.../13Alldone.jpg

4:00pm. Time to eat! My neighbor put it best: "this turkey is to die for!" Very moist and sweet, and only a couple of people used gravy, most people just ate it plain. Best turkey I've done so far.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...4Timetoeat.jpg
http://www.markredman.net/bandera/t14.jpg

Nice job!

thanks for the pics, looks great.

Nice job Saiko. Great looking cherry wood too.

Anybody else notice that stovetop is waaaaaaaay too clean?

damn, thats the first thing i noticed too!! Wayyyyy to clean.. gotta add a few gobs of grease and a spoonfull or 2 of rub.

Great looking bird!

racer 81 & Phil are correct.

Nice job Saiko, looking real good there.

Relatives for Christmas = Cleaning Lady = Clean Stovetop.

I'm cooking fried chicken and black-eyed peas for dinner tomorrow, so it will be back to normal :D

OMG - that bird looks great! Not to mention the look of that Cherry wood almost gave me wood (mental note I need more cherry wood)!

Very nice documentation! Excellent post!! TY for sharing!

Awesome,

but how were the fatties?

PS, put fatties higher in smoke chamber, IMO

Thanks Saiko

You're way more patient than I am, those babies go right next to the baffle for me, git 'r done mod!!

Saiko, awesome looking bird Brother! The sliced breast looks waaayy juicy, great job great pics.

There's more where that came from :D

http://www.markredman.net/bandera/wood.jpg

I loved the fatties, but I think the 3-2-1 method may have been a little too long for that size. When I pulled them at 3 hours, they were plump and juicy. After 2 more hours in foil, they shrunk a bit and dried out just a tad. I was also running my temps a little higher since I was doing a bird (250 or so), so that overcooked them a bit.

I would have put them higher, but I didn't want them dripping over the bird. I'm real anal about presentation, so I didn't want drops of sausage grease spotting my turkey rub, lol.