Smoked Turkey.......CANNON STYLE!!!!

So a good while back, Norcoredneck turned me on to this little beauty.....the TURKEY CANNON:
http://www.campchef.com/infusion-roaster-turkey-cannon.html
You can get one all over the net. Shop around....there's decent deals.

Since yesterday, it was my Mom's Birthday and Saturday was my daughter's 4th birthday, a feast was in order. Smoked turkey was on the menu. Of course......given the proper time and forethought, I'll ALWAYS brine my birds. I brined this one for 24 hours in a simple brine (1 gallon water, 1 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar a good 2 TBS of whole peppercorns and about 1/2 cup honey). After pulling out of the brine and letting rest in the fridge on a roast rack to let the skin tighten up (an essential part of brining, IMHO) while we went to church, the bird got to warm up on the counter with the usual iced down breasts:


I'm usually a more "traditional" turkey recipe guy for Thanksgiving (citrus and herbs, etc.) and don't go BBQ, but since this cook was not a holiday cook, I was able to do something else......RUB THAT BIRD!

The rub of choice (I've been waiting to use this one from BBS)...


Put a good amount of rub into the cavity of the bird.....


.....and put a couple of TBS in the turkey cannon....


.....and topped the cannon off with apple juice.


Rubbed down the rest of the bird and mounted it:


Set on the lower rack of the 325 degree UDS (the bird mounted on the cannon won't go on the top rack.....lid won't go down):


Now here's where ol' Wampus blew it.....

I set the vents to where I knew they should be. Every other time I'd cooked on the drum (errrr.....more than a farkin few!) I'd run it at 325-350 and needed 2 of the 3 intakes open. So, opened 2, closed 1 and went back inside to do....well, you know....OTHER cooking things. The in-laws got there, my brother and his family got there, Mom and Dad came....BS'ing and whatnot.....after about 1.5 hours (this was supposed to be about a 3-4 hour cook) I realized I'd never eyeballed the cooker. So, went out to check.....

.....450 farkin degrees!!!!
:jaw:

FARK!!
So at this point, I also realized I'd never put the probes in the turkey.
Opened the lid, put in the probes (breast was at 138 and thigh was at 141) and knocked down the intakes to almost nothing.....:tsk:

About a 1/2 hour later.....(2 hour total cook time).....turkey's done!
breast was at 165 and thigh was at 175.
Here it was when it came off:


Pulled bird, foiled and scrambled to get all the other sides done.

Here it was when it was ready to carve after resting.....


In the end.....it was by far the best farkin turkey I'd ever done.
Family agreed.

Now.....I don't think I've ever ACTUALLY used the turkey cannon before. I've tried at least twice, but couldn't get the turkey to fit on whatever cooker I was using with all the other stuff going on and thus had to abandon the cannon.

Not sure if it was the turkey cannon, the rub, the EXREME high pit temp or what exactly.....but it was INCREDIBLY moist, tender, flavorful, PERFECT in every way.

The makers of the turkey cannon claim that it decreases cooking time, so perhaps that was it. After all, the turkey gets steamed from the inside as it's cooking from the outside. It makes sense that it would cook faster on a cannon versus stuffed and trussed, but I'm not sure.....


ANYWAY....

Thanks for lookin. Got a lot of thinking to do before Thanksgiving.....:becky:

FamilyManBBQ said:

Did you like the pecan rub? I've also had some of that for a while. Still waiting for the perfect time to use it.

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Yes. I liked it a lot. There was that distinct "Simply Marvelous" flavor, but it also had a sweet something to it. I've used a different pecan rub brand before and I was actually suprised that it was sweet. Not that it was OVERLY sweet, but it's pretty farkin good on poultry!!!

That stuff is.......well........SIMPLY MARVELOUS!!!!:thumb:

Saiko said:

Awesome!!!!! I've been wanting to try the turkey cannon for a while. I am getting one for sure. Great post! :clap2::clap2:

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Thanks man. Yeah, I dig it. Well worth the investment for me. If you're REALLY LUCKY....they'll screw up the shipping.

Let me elaborate....

When I ordered mine a year or two ago, I ordered it a few weeks before Thanksgiving. After a couple of weeks when I hadn't recieved it yet, I call them and asked if something happened to it and they told me that it was actually sent to the wrong address and after apologizing, they said that they sent another one out and would rush delivery (after I explained that I needed it for Turkey Day).

Two days later, it shows up on my front stoop.
The NEXT day.....another one shows up. Apparently, they crossed each other in the mail....FedEx ended up REdelivering the first one.


So.....I got 2 for the price of 1!!!:becky::thumb:


Anyway...great tool. As I said, the only thing I don't like (and it's not a fault at all of the Turkey Cannon, really) is that I have a hard time fitting anything else on the UDS when I use it. When I use my OK Joe's (like last year) I have to take out a shelf to fit it. SEE.....I always cook 2 turkeys at a time for Thanksgiving.

Like I said....shop around. I think I picked mine up for about $15-$17 (plus shipping).

expatpig said:

It sure looks great, was it more like a roasted turkey with smoke flavor, or a really moist smoked turkey? The reason I'm asking, is because when I smoke a turkey, I almost never eat it right away. I usually refrigerate it and slice it up for sandwiches later with assorted cheeses and bacon ala smoked turkey club sandwiches. So, I like a lot of the smoke flavor.

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Interesting question. I guess I'd have to classify this one as option #1. It was like a perfectly roasted turkey with just a HINT of smoke. Usually, my turkeys are on the smoke (325-350) for 3 to 4 hours. This one was only 2 hours.

I agree with you on the "next day smokey factor" too. I literally JUST got done eating a turkey sandwich for lunch (literally licking my lips as I type this) and it was still so farkin moist that it has the texture of raw. Almost "rubbery", but in a good way. So moist, even the next day. Just a hint of smoke, which is usually not the case. Next day smoked turkey is usually VERY smoky in flavor.

I'm literally going to have to get another turkey before T-Day and try and duplicate this cook (on purpose) and see if it's the cook temp or not.


DANG that was a good sammie.:thumb:
Wish I'd have made 2!